A Star Is Born

Going viral this weekend with almost 300K views is a clip from Kristen Chenoweth's Friday night concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

When musicians call audience members up on stage to perform with them, the results are usually fun but a little cringe-worthy. During the show, she [Chenoweth] called Southern California resident Sarah Horn to the stage and invited her to sing "For Good," a duet from the musical "Wicked." (Chenoweth, of course, played the original "Glinda"). Once on stage, Horn revealed that she is a voice teacher and loves musical theater. Still, it seemed that Chenoweth didn't truly understand who she had called to the stage. In the video, Chenoweth playfully instructs Horn to wait her turn. But as soon as Horn belts out her part, Chenoweth throws her hands up in the air. "Oh sing it, sing it!" said Chenoweth, laughing. Toward the end of the duet, Chenoweth exclaims again: "Holy crap, harmony!"

The usual naysayers on YouTube are claiming that Horn was a plant, but her friends and Horn herself say she was merely one of the volunteers in the audience.  The clip getting all the attention is here, but the one below is a bit better.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

UPDATE: Broadway World has published an account of the evening written by Horn.

Toward the end of the second half of the performance, Kristin wanders on to the pasarel. She held a mic up to a lady in front of me and asked if she knew the song "For Good." Nope. I took the chance, as I was directly behind Kristin, to stand up and wave and say, "I know the song!" This is not like me - to jump up and wave my arms like a crazy person and raise my voice at a celebrity. One of Kristin's backup singers held a mic up to my face so I could answer some questions: "What's you're name?" - "Sarah." "Who's your favorite Broadway star?" I sarcastically hummm as if it's a difficult question to answer. "Do you know the song 'For Good'?" - "Yes. It's one of my favorites." This seemed to peak her interest. After this, she moved down the line and asked a guy if he knew the song and bantered with him for a few seconds. Afterwards, she said something about going back to pick me because I was a girl. Then, she invited me up on stage.