EDGE Miami

After gaining a hardcore fan base of "RENT-heads" and Wicked buffs, Idina Menzel has hung up her broom and is touring the country in support of her contemporary pop album, I Stand, a solid collection of gentle rock songs and power ballads produced by longtime Alanis collaborator Glen Ballard.

The songs themselves sound like they would’ve fit perfectly on Celine Dion’s last few releases but Menzel hit the stage at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale last week to perform them without the Cirque de Celine-style acrobatics.

Instead, Menzel and her band effortlessly showcased nearly all of the tracks from I Stand, delivering the anthem-like choruses and soaring high notes of songs like "Brave", "Where Do I Begin", and "Perfume and Promises".

Interspersed with some humorous interludes, Menzel spoke about her rode to Broadway stardom, including years of singing Jackson 5 songs at weddings and bar mitzvahs.

When the diva was not holding her audience in a state of awe, she shamelessly interacted with them, keeping everyone laughing with an impromptu Q&A.

The only misstep, a nasally-sounding cover of The Police’s Roxanne, should have probably stayed in her Wedding Singer days.

Closing the show with her clap-along inducing single "Gorgeous" and a pop-rock version of Wicked’s "Defying Gravity", Menzel showed that she can definitely soar in the pop world.

For now, Menzel may only be known by some as Taye Diggs’ wife (who she noted was off in L.A. shooting a television show, much to the dismay of fans of eye candy) but her powerhouse vocal performance this night showed just who wears the pipes in this relationship.