A Concert Review: Lea Michele & Darren Criss

Posted June 26, 2018 by shooting in Cincinnati, Music / 30 Comments

Lea Michel and Darren Criss Concert Review
Lea Michele and Darren Criss in Concert
LM/DC Tour
Thursday, May 31 at the Taft Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio

The show started with both Lea and Darren coming on stage to sing some Broadway tunes together. I really enjoyed their version of “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors. These two are really fun together – it was enjoyable listening to them reminisce about Glee and it was obvious that they really are friends. A funny moment is when someone in the audience yelled “Darren!” and Lea goes, “I’m here too!”

Eventually, Darren left and it was just Lea for awhile. She sang a couple songs off her first album like “Cannonball” which I really love! Like she did with Darren, Lea spoke in between the songs, sharing stories or little tidbits. While she was singing “Battlefield”, she sang the line “We seemed like a good idea” and then said, not singing, “We weren’t a good idea.” She had mentioned before the song that it was about an ex-boyfriend. I just thought it was kind of a cute little aside in the middle of the song.

Darren came back on the stage and Lea and him sang her song “Getaway Car” from her second album. It was fun hearing them sing one of Lea’s songs together and I thought they sounded wonderful! After this song, Lea left the stage and it was Darren’s turn to go solo. He started with a cover of “Cough Syrup” by Young the Giant, which he had sung on Glee, and I love this song/Darren’s version.

While I’d seen Lea perform during one of the Glee tours, I’ve actually seen Darren in concert on his own, so it was great kind of getting that opportunity again. Like Lea, Darren talked in between singing various songs, both his own and cover songs. He mentioned that his set changes a bit for every show and that he wanted to sing a song for every city that was performed by someone from that city. For Cincinnati, he mentioned a few possibilities like The National and Walk the Moon, but he ultimately decided on “Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)” by Blessid Union of Souls. This was a really fun cover!

I definitely recorded more of Darren’s performances than Lea. I didn’t mean to, because I didn’t plan on recording more than one or so songs per person, but Darren kept singing songs that I love and/or really wanted to share with a friend of mine who is also a big Darren fan. Granted, I never recorded an entire song, as I like to actually watch the performance and not just behind the screen of a phone.

One of the songs that I recorded some of was “Not Alone” which is a song that Darren wrote and even used in A Very Potter Musical (if you don’t know, Darren has a group of friends who met in college and created A Very Potter Musical – Darren was Harry Potter- and other musicals under the name Starkid). I’ve actually seen Starkid live twice – minus Darren – so it’s always fun hearing these songs. He also sang his version of “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry, which he did on Glee and is a popular cover song for the show. He mentioned before he started playing that he knows people like to sing along to this, but he would like to sing most of it (maybe 80% of it) by himself…and then started playing the song on the piano, revealing the song he meant. It’s a mostly slowed down version so it was nice to hear just him sing it!

When Lea came back on stage, the two of them once again “sang” together, and by that, I mean Darren played piano (he played piano and guitar a lot throughout the show) and Lea sang “The Coolest Girl in the World” which Darren also wrote for A Very Potter Musical. It’s a song that Hermione sings, and Darren thought it fit the character of Rachel Berry from Glee too, so he’s always wanted Lea to sing it. She did a great job – of course – and I loved hearing her sing a song from A Very Potter Musical.

A Concert Review: Lea Michele and Darren Criss #leamichele #darrencriss #lmdctour Share on X

Once the show ended, Lea and Darren came back for a one-song encore. It was an acoustic version, with Darren on guitar and both of them singing. It was a really nice, relaxed way to end the show. Both Lea and Darren are amazing singers – and they do a great job live – so I highly recommend seeing them in concert if you get the chance.

Want to see videos from the show? I shared them all in one post on Instagram, so go here to view them!

30 responses to “A Concert Review: Lea Michele & Darren Criss

  1. Wow, you’re so lucky! This sounds like such a lot of fun., they both have such great voices and chemistry with each other. I bet I would have liked their rendition of Suddenly Seymour.

  2. RO

    I love that you get to go to so many neat events and share them with us. I’m a Glee fan and really enjoy Lea Michele. Glad you had fun! Hugs…RO

  3. candy

    Glad you enjoyed the show and what a nice review you have written. Hope many people take the opportunity to go and see.

  4. Wow, this sounds like such a fun concert! I loved Glee. I think it’s so fun that Darren sang “Hey Leonardo” – I haven’t heard that song in years!! I bet it would be fun to just see the two of them interact on stage together. So cool!

  5. Grace @ Rebel Mommy Book Blog

    Sounds like a fun concert!! I love when artists talk in between and give little tidbits of info.

  6. Sounds awesome! I love it when performers give little asides or talk to the audience in between songs or whatever. And changing his set list to include songs tailored for each city is cool!

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