Review: Stephanie J. Block in Concert at Theatre Raleigh

We’ve come to the end of the second year of Theatre Raleigh’s concert series. Several prolific performers have graced their stages here in the Triangle area throughout 2024. From local talent to Broadway stars such as Telly Leung, Seth Rudetsky, and Julie Benko. As for their closing act this season, it’s none other than Tony Award-winning powerhouse Stephanie J. Block.

From the moment she came out onstage, she gave the audience a warm welcome with a song very fitting for this time of year, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’ Throughout the concert, she told compelling stories behind several of her selections for the show. For instance, she was just in New York attending a memorial service for her recently deceased friend, actor Gavin Creel. She honored him by performing a song that celebrates the importance of life and friendship, ‘Being Alive’ from Company. Stephanie knew Gavin from different benefit concerts and such, but never got to be in a rehearsal room with him until she joined the cast of the most recent Broadway revival of Into the Woods. She took over for Sara Bareilles as The Baker’s Wife while her real-life husband, Sebastian Arcelus, took over for Brian d’Arcy James as The Baker. For those unfamiliar with the musical, there’s this scene in Act II where The Baker’s Wife runs into Cinderella’s Prince, Creel’s character, and they have a little fling together. This then led to Stephanie singing her character’s big solo number, ‘Moments in the Woods.’

She also sang stuff general audiences have likely never heard before. One of them was this trunk tune written by the legendary musical theatre songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty titled ‘Something Beautiful.’ After that, Stephanie told a true story of how she was up for the role of Fanny Brice in a revival of Funny Girl that was supposed to come in during the 2011-12 Broadway season, but was cancelled. It was down to her and Lauren Ambrose, but director Bartlett Sher chose the latter feeling it would make the show feel more like a rebirth than a revival. This then led to Stephanie singing ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade,’ which earned her a well deserved standing ovation. The audience quickly got back into the holiday spirit with her performing a mashup of ‘Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep’ from White Christmas and ‘My Favorite Things’ from The Sound of Music. Then along came her rendition of one of the most famous movie songs of all time (if not, the most famous), ‘Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz. Naturally, that transitioned into a long story Stephanie told. Back in February of 2000, she was working as a performer at Universal Studios Hollywood when she received a phone message from Stephen Schwartz one day that a few of his friends recommended her for this new musical he was working on. That musical wound up becoming a little known show called Wicked.

Stephanie was a part of several readings and workshops as Elphaba. She mentioned how for a while, Act I was nearing three hours long and the creative team needed to trim it down considerably. Which is ironic because the movie was recently released, it’s about as long as the stage musical, and it only covers the first act. Stephanie did say that she was happy to see some of the cut material restored in the film. When Wicked premiered in San Francisco, she was reduced to understudying Elphaba. The reason for that was because director Joe Mantello, who was helming his first Broadway musical, didn’t feel comfortable giving the starring role to a then-inexperienced performer. So Idina Menzel, who already had Rent and Aida under her belt at that point, got it instead. Stephanie didn’t end up staying with Wicked when it came to Broadway because she got cast as Liza Minnelli in The Boy From Oz with Hugh Jackman, so that show ended up being her main stem debut. Although she did go on to play Elphaba in the first national tour (where she met Sebastian Arcelus, who played Fiyero) and in New York. As a treat for the audience, she sang a song that was cut from the musical titled ‘Making Good,’ which actually featured a verse that remained in the number that replaced it, ‘The Wizard and I.’

Stephanie then got emotional talking about her and Sebastian’s almost 10-year-old daughter, Vivienne. In dedication to her, she sang her own rewritten version of Brandi Carlile’s ‘Sugartooth.’ In 2017, Stephanie received a Tony nomination for her featured performance as Trina in the most recent revival of William Finn & James Lapine’s Falsettos. She treated the audience with a performance of her character’s big solo number, ‘I’m Breaking Down.’ In 2019, she won the Tony for her portrayal of the title character in The Cher Show. She previously turned down the opportunity three times, feeling that her experience playing another showbiz legend, Liza in The Boy From Oz, was enough. But when director Jason Moore told her that it was going to be different by not only telling the story in nonlinear fashion, but also by having three separate actresses playing Cher in three separate stages of her life, that convinced her to say yes. In fact, Stephanie recently recorded the audio version of Cher’s new memoir. The audience got to hear her channel the music legend again with her rendition of ‘Believe.’

The performance ended with Stephanie singing another holiday classic, Karen Carptenter’s ‘Merry Christmas, Darling.’ Although for an encore, she sang Nancy LaMott’s ‘We Can Be Kind’ as a way to spread kindness to everyone in the audience. This may be recency bias, but I can confidently say that of all the concerts I’ve attended at Theatre Raleigh so far, this one might be my favorite. Stephanie not only delivered such powerhouse vocals, but was also funny throughout while at the same time bringing in such great words of wisdom. There was never a dull moment, only memorable ones from beginning to end. If you ever have the opportunity to see the great Stephanie J. Block on stage, go for it. Theatre Raleigh has already announced the first slate of performers for their 2025 concert series, and there should be more to come.

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