Sierra Boggess has spent a large chunk of her career playing Christine Daaé in The Phantom of The Opera and the West End premiere of Love Never Dies, but she’s also starred in a host of Broadway shows including Les Misérables, and originated the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. This week she took her turn to be Seth Rudetsky’s guest in the now long running online concert series.
The Seth Concert Series has been broadcasting live on a Sunday night (with a Monday repeat for international viewers) for the last few months of lockdown, and while we are starting to see a few green shoots of live performance returning, this concert series in particular, continues to give us unparalleled access to the stars of Broadway.
The concerts use technology to ensure that Seth in New York, is perfectly in sync with his guest, no matter where they may be, in this case Sierra Boggess joined from Colorado. With her long association with Les Misérables, there were two songs featured in the concert; a gorgeous rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, which Sierra would have sung nightly when she played Fantine in London’s West End, but we also got a glimpse of what a female Javert could sound like with a stunning performance of ‘Stars’.
Of course, having originated the role, ‘Part of Your World’ from The Little Mermaid was sure to feature, and as one of my favourite songs, it was a real treat to hear Sierra Boggess perform it from her living room. Aside from these more prominent roles, Sierra also performed songs from her other Broadway credits, including ‘A Little Bit Less’ from It Shoulda Been You, which Sierra starred in alongside Tyne Daly.
Seth and Sierra both confess a love for the legendary Barbra Steisand, and the complicated ‘Minute Waltz’ came early in the concert, while towards the end we heard ‘How Could I Ever Know’ from The Secret Garden, which Sierra hopes to be involved with soon.
There were some fascinating backstage stories from The Phantom of The Opera, including a mishap that resulted in a lost tooth, but it was the concert finale which saw Sierra perform ‘Think of Me’ in the style of the Las Vegas, Japanese, French and Broadway productions, that really made this concert worth watching, quite a wonderfully unique thing to hear.
Upcoming concerts in The Seth Concert Series include Karen Olivo and Jeremy Jordan.
