The largely youthful audience at the Pantages cheered wildly for Idina Menzel as the stage lights went up for If/Then, the split-personality Broadway musical now making a pit stop in L.A. No doubt the kids had loved Menzel’s work in such earlier shows as Rent and Wicked--or had swooned when she sang “Let It Go” in Disney’s “Frozen.”
In the face of such adulation, it was hard to resist her star turn in If/Then, in which she plays an urban planner named Elizabeth who has come to New York from a failed marriage and career in Phoenix. The team of Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt (who won a Pulitzer Prize for next to normal) came up with an original idea for Elizabeth: give her two different options in life. In one she could be serious and hard-working; in the other a promiscuous party-girl. By allowing her to pinball between the two roles, maybe she could put together a solid, lasting personality for herself . . . and find true love as well. The other characters in the musical also lead fractured lives. They include Kate (the scene-stealing LaChanze), a devil-may-care lesbian kindergarten teacher; a bi-sexual named Lucas (Anthony Rapp); a just-discharged combat vet, Josh (James Snyder) who is trying to reintegrate into society and live up to the challenge of being Elizabeth’s dream man. If/Then’s story is complicated and fast moving, making it hard to track at times, but the music and lyrics help you to forge an emotional connection with the action, as do the singers, of course. Led by Menzel, a powerhouse from the Ethel Merman Vocal School, and greatly aided by LaChanze (who won a Tony in The Color Purple) and by Rapp (Menzel’s co-star in Rent), the snappy songs made the show for me. I also admired Greif’s direction, the way he kept everything moving so fluidly and lucidly, and Mark Wendland’s clever urban set (Madison Square Park and environs). If/Then is very much a new-generation kind of show: its cast and creators are youthful, as is its daring, go-for-broke spirit. As with Rent, it may help attract a whole new, unbiased, free-thinking audience to the American theater.
