Kristin Chenoweth at the Drama Desks

I didn't get a chance to watch the live webcast of the Drama Desk Awards last week, but some videos are floating around of parts of it, including this one of some guy at intermission talking too close to a live mic, and going off about the war in Iraq and intellectualism or something for about ten minutes.

But the one that had me rolling was this segment of host Kristin Chenoweth going around the audience and asking some stars silly questions. Some people out on the internets are saying the bit fell flat, but I was laughing out loud at several points. I guess I'm easy to please.

I've always liked Kristin's work, but not with the enthusiasm of some. This bit gives me a new respect for a performer I was always a little "meh" about, sort of like when Sutton Foster performed a poem about her dressing room toilet at the Gypsy of the Year competition a number of years ago. That made me a fan for life. Unfortunately that one doesn't seem to be on YouTube, but I did find this video of her performing her eleven-o'clock number "Gimmie Gimmie" with Mad-Libbed lyrics suggested by the audience (including a few you won't find in a family musical). Personally I think it should be a requirement to be a Broadway star that you must do this with your most famous songs, and pull it off as well as she does. Bernadette, I await your "Rose's Turn."