After ascending to bankability in Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth isn't reinventing Broadway musicals so much as reinventing the Broadway musical star. The triptych of short tuneful comedies by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick will interrupt its limited run this week (Jan. 19-20) as Chenoweth makes a concert appearance, "Live at the Met," this Friday. A little further down the road -- would you believe 2010? -- Chenoweth is slated to make her Metropolitan Opera stage debut in John Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles.
Meanwhile, Chenoweth isn't the only reason to snap up a ticket for Apple Tree. She is ably supported in the opening story, "The Diary of Adam and Eve," by Brian D'Arcy James as Adam and Marc Kudisch as the leather-clad Snake. But after the curtain descends on this adaptation of Mark Twain's drolleries, the 4-foot-11-inch spitfire is the chief reason for sticking around for "The Lady or the Tiger?" and "Passionella."
