Kristin Chenoweth at Symphony Hall. 4/30/2017

The tumult that greeted Kristin Chenoweth when she arrived on the Symphony Hall stage was deafening, which visibly moved the Tony and Emmy-winning star who explained how she felt Boston is her second home. With other performers such sentiments seem like show-business shtick, but Chenoweth's heartfelt delivery seemed authentic and set the tone for the emotional 90-minutes to follow. (The sold-out concert was sponsored by the Celebrity Series of Boston.)

Dressed in a sequined dark blue-and-silver mini-dress, sequined heels and holding a Big Gulp-sized Dunkin' Donuts cup, Chenoweth mixed more than dozen-or-so songs with effusive banter about growing up in Oklahoma, her parents, her religious devotion and her joy in mentoring younger performers. The latter was evidenced in a closing sequence in which she brought two local student choirs to join her in a rousing rendition of the spiritual "Upon This Rock."

Prior to that she offered songs from her latest album, "The Art of Elegance," which features songs from the "Great American Songbook." Chief amongst them was sadly pensive Hoagy Carmichael ballad "I'll Get Along Without You Very Well" and "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart," a signature song of Judy Garland whom she honored with her rousing rendition.

There were also some lovely surprises. When recalling how she sung "Moon River" at a Henry Mancini gala last fall, she launched into the little-known, but equally lovely "The Sweetheart Tree," which she sang with the delicacy of a lullaby. Another high point was the unusual pairing of Willie Nelson and Stephen Sondheim with "You Were Always on my Mind" sung in tandem with "Losing my Mind." The songs fit so effortlessly together that it was surprising that they were never paired this way before. She also honored her parents with "50 Years Long," a little-known Jason Robert Brown song about a couple's long marriage that hit just the right emotional chord.

Chenoweth emphasized her Boston connection with a monologue about having watched the Mark Wahlberg film "Patriots Day" in the hotel room in the middle of the night earlier that day and connected the terrorist attack depicted in that film with the one that happened 22 years before in Oklahoma City. She climaxed the moment with a stirring version of "Bring Him Home" from "Les Mis�rables."

She also pointed out that she wouldn't be able to get out of town alive if she didn't sing a few of her own standards, which included the clever "Taylor the Latte Boy," a funny ditty about having a crush on a Starbucks barista; and "Popular," the song she first sang in "Wicked" fourteen years ago. She ably showed off her coloratura skills with a breezy "I Could Have Danced All Night," then brought the evening to a quiet close with the Charlie Chaplin classic "Smile" sung without a microphone. You could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium.

For more on Kristin Chenoweth, visit the Celebrity Series of Boston website.