IDINA MENZEL, who plays ELPHABA, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the musical ”Wicked,” on whether she is drawn to the good or the bad: ”Nothing is black or white. Even if I said I was drawn to the goodness, her pure goodness is not always done […]
The stereotype about theatrical couples is that their lives are as dramatic offstage as on: nightly debauches, unconventional menages, bitter rivalries sheathed in endearments. When the spotlight dimmed, the Lunts apparently fought like the Kramdens. But Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel live like athletes in training, or seminarians. […]
Idina Menzel is a Tony-winning actress and singer celebrated for her iconic roles in Wicked, Rent, and Frozen. Known for her powerhouse vocals, she’s a Broadway legend and advocate for self-expression and inclusion. The Shift: Who are three women that inspire you? Idina:Ruth Bader Ginsburg Sarah Vaughan My […]
Idina Menzel , who performs Saturday at the Citi Wang Theatre, knows she was lucky to have worked with Grammy-, Emmy-, Oscar-, and Tony-winning songwriter/composer Marvin Hamlisch on her recent CD/DVD “Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony.” In the wake of his passing earlier this year, the […]
From Rick: I love your performance in Wicked, and I have been following this fantastic show since its tryout in San Francisco. I was wondering what the green makeup is made of, and how long it takes to get it on and off? Is it harsh on your […]
Take the Tonys, for example: Four newcomers from the musical’s ensemble cast have been nominated; two had never acted professionally before A FEW MONTHS AGO, Daphne Rubin-Vega was on her knees vigorously scrubbing the floor of the tenement where she worked as a sculptor’s assistant when her employer’s […]
When Idina Menzel stepped foot into Tina Landau’s office and saw it filled with photos of trees, she knew she’d found the right director to make her vision come to life. She’d recently fallen in love with redwoods — that mythical species of tree that stretches taller than […]
Musicals are often all about escapism, and in Idina Menzel’s grand return to Broadway, she takes that idea to a whole new level. “How would it feel to stop my life and be able to get completely away?” she says. She explores this question is Redwood, which she […]
Idina Menzel and her 15-year-old son Walker Diggs were all smiles at the Los Angeles premiere of “Wicked” on Nov. 9. But Menzel says she thought long and hard before allowing her son to join her on the red carpet. “I never let him ever go on the red […]
Co-conceivers Tina Landau and Idina Menzel, producer Eva Price and other team members walk us through their unprecedented process. In the midst of the pandemic, director-writer Tina Landau reached out to producer Eva Price with an idea for a show. As Price recalled, “[Tina] was like, ‘I’m pretty […]
Shortly before a run-through of her new Broadway musical, “Redwood,” Idina Menzel reflected on her performing roots that stretch back to Long Island. “Baylis Elementary, third grade,” she said during a Zoom chat from the Nederlander Theatre, where the show opens Thursday. “That was my very first solo […]
The Tony winner is back on Broadway in Redwood, and she’s once again flying. There is something poetically fortuitous about Idina Menzel returning to Broadway in a musical called Redwood. While she may only stand at 5’6”, her presence is colossal. Perhaps it’s her iconic career (Rent, Wicked, […]
As the actress prepares to open Broadway’s ‘Redwood,’ she exclusively tells Parade she sometimes thinks about ‘leaving the business and just sort of going off the grid.’ Two weeks before Idina Menzel returned to Broadway in the new musical Redwood, wildfire began to quickly envelope Southern California. Like […]
Menzel, a fan favorite since “Rent,” is back on Broadway in “Redwood,” and this time she’s climbing conifers. Idina Menzel was sitting on a bench in a California redwood grove, yearning for silence. It was late one autumn afternoon, and I had been trying for months to get […]
With Redwood, Menzel and an all-female creative team bring a new musical to the Great White Way. Idina Menzel is sitting in the same dressing room she did almost 30 years ago, when she made her Broadway debut as Maureen Johnson in Rent. This time around, though, her […]