And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?

I went to the Mann Music Center tonight to see Idina Menzel with the Philadelphia Orchestra. I'm not sure why I was there, aside from my wife having bought me a ticket. I don't remember ever going on about how much I liked her (though I still remember her on the Tonys a few years back) and if she were ever in town that I had to see her. I'm sure I commented positively on her performance in Glee.

It was this weird mix between an orchestra concert and a pop recital of some sort. You get there and the orchestra's sitting on the stage. They look kind of cute in their short-sleeved shirts and open collars. Then this guy comes out. It's Steve, the conductor. I've seen lots of orchestra concerts and none have them have ever been directed by anyone who calls themselves Steve. They're always Wolfgang or Ricardo or Charles.

So Steve the conductor comes on stage and leads the orchestra first through a nice little fanfare that Steve had written. They then played, and I'm not making this up, the Overture from Gypsy, "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic and a medley of Diana Ross hits, starting with "I Hear a Symphony." Not tonight, Diana. Tonight it's Steve at the helm and there are no symphonies happening. They tell us to turn our cell phones off, but why, when they're playing Celine Dion songs? On my cell phone is exactly where I want to be.

The only other straight males there are the husbands and boyfriends. There are many groups of girls. Not a single group of guys did I see.

After they finish this they take a break. Then Idina comes out and she's much larger than I expected. Turns out she recently had a baby. She mentions that she's lactating. Nice touch. Meanwhile, this girl can really sing. She does some stuff from Wicked and Rent and a couple of songs she sang on Glee. She's kind of charmingly awkward, as you might expect a nice Jewish girl from Long Island who's way more successful than she ever dreamed of being.

It was fun but I still have no idea why I was there.