‘Wicked Divas’ sing wonderfully for pops

Wicked alumnae Emily Rozek, who played Glinda in the Los Angeles production, and Eden Espinosa, who played Elphaba on Broadway and in the Los Angeles and San Francisco companies, joined the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson for some “wicked” and wonderful singing Saturday night at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall.

Of course, the very best part of the show (the first of a pair of “Wicked Divas” pops concerts) was the three numbers from Wicked, with each “witch” singing her signature tune — Rozek doing “Popular” and Espinosa the hit tune “Defying Gravity” — and the finale duet, “For Good,” pure evidence that it was a good idea to pair two performers who had been on stage many times together. Personal stories and a little between-song banter enhanced the performances.

More good pairings: the 1979 Barbra Streisand-donna Summer pop duet “No More Tears,” “All That Jazz” from Chicago and the encore, “I Will Never Leave You” from the musical Sideshow.

Espinosa had a couple of true showstoppers in Kander & Ebb’s “Ring Them Bells” (made famous by that other diva, Liza Minnelli) and the “Diva’s Lament” from Spamalot.

Rozek’s gorgeous and versatile voice is just a bit too bright to pay true justice to most of her solos, including “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady, “Think of Me” from Phantom of the Opera (it’s just not an ASO pops concert anymore without something from Phantom of the Opera) and “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie Titanic.

Co-concertmaster Drew Irvin gave a truly cantabile solo in “Over the Rainbow” from the movie The Wizard of Oz; I Hear a Symphony: Symphonic Sounds of Diana Ross should have stopped with “Stop! In the Name of Love.”

Divas, Robson and the orchestra reassemble at 3 p.m. today at Robinson, West Markham Street and Broadway, Little Rock. Ticket information is available at (501) 666-1761 or online at arkansassymphony.org.