Idina Menzel singing “No Day But Today” from Rent with the Boston Pops, a setting similar to those on her current tour. At the performance I saw yesterday in at Powell Hall in St Louis, she spoke of the gratitude she still feels for her time in Jonathan Larson’s brilliant play, her first as a professional actor, before singing this song. This video offers a little taste of the gracious, silly, beautiful, spirit she brings to the stage. Performing in a beautiful gown and bare feet, she presents herself as living a dream she never thought possible. It is inspiring (and a little daunting) to watch a person consciously live out her dream with such magnificence. Especially when you feel like you have witnessed it happening from far away.

I know almost every word to Rent and Wicked. Their songs, a few of which she sang yesterday, connect me with past versions of myself who relied on their stories and their sound to understand the world - its tragedies and miracles. Each story’s happy ending is achieved because of the heartbreak and loss its characters experience along the way.

Noted.