Idina Menzel is going from voicing the Snow Queen to playing an icy step-mom, and she couldn’t be more thrilled. The actress and singer walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new film, Disney’s Frozen 2, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Thursday, and she […]
Welcome to a special edition of “The Big Ticket,” Variety and iHeart’s movie podcast. I’m calling it “Frozen 2” Day because the new episode features interviews with the stars of the Disney sequel, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff and Evan Rachel Wood as well […]
At Seth Speaks, my SiriusXM radio show, I sat down with married couple and writing team Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez whose new film Frozen 2 is doing fabulously! They met at BMI, the writing workshop, and Bobby immediately asked her out. Kristen had a teaching fellowship in […]
There’s been a lot of buzz around the Safdie brothers’ latest film, Uncut Gems. Most of it surrounds the star, Adam Sandler, and rightfully so — the actor best known for playing lazy, schlubby manchildren excels in his dramatic role as Howard Ratner, a sleazy, gambling-addicted Jewish diamond district […]
“Uncut Gems” doesn’t just offer up the anomaly of Adam Sandler, an actor best known for broad comedies, venturing into dramatic territory. Even more unusual, it’s the rare modern movie to include a Passover seder. Directed by brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, “Uncut Gems” follows Howard Ratner (Sandler), […]
“It’s still a revolutionary thing, to this day, to say, ‘That perfect girl is gone.’” Billboard is celebrating the 2010s with essays on the 100 songs that we feel most define the decade that was — the songs that both shaped and reflected the music and culture of the period — with […]
Let It Go is an iconic power anthem. What’s the song you turn to when feeling down? That’s a good question. I have a few. Sometimes, I honestly go to silence because if I’m in a depressed place then great, beautiful music can paralyse me. Because I’m so […]
Despite the majestic arc of Elsa’s “Into the Unknown,” the conditions in which Idina Menzel first rehearsed her “Frozen 2″ power ballad were remarkably unglamorous. Songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez first heard the “Wicked” alum belt the movie’s flagship track in her dressing room backstage at […]
The wait is over: six years after Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen took the world by (ice) storm in a way that no one, not even the studio, saw coming, the adventures of royal sisters Elsa and Anna continue in Frozen II. Loosely inspired by a story from fairy […]
Idina Menzel is basically the Queen of the Holidays this year, with her brand-new album Christmas: A Season of Love out now, not to mention another bombastic turn as Elsa in the blockbuster Disney sequel Frozen II in theaters. So she’s the perfect guest for a special holiday episode of […]
AVALANCHE is, well, a strong word. Snowball is, too. Yet both powerful weather wonders — one instantly explosive, one steadily expansive — describe the storm that blanketed the world when, six years ago, Disney’s animated musical Frozen made landfall. Two Oscars, two Grammys, two short films, a Broadway […]
With Frozen 2 now playing in theaters, I recently sat down with Idina Menzel to talk about making the highly anticipated sequel. During the wide-ranging conversation, Menzel talked about why making the sequel was a team effort, how the film doesn’t have the typical villain to contend with, […]
Tony Award winner Idina Menzel’s professional career is busier than ever. She reprises her role as the voice of Elsa in Disney’s “Frozen 2,” and stars in “Uncut Gems,” a drama/comedy, which opens Christmas Day. “Adam Sandler plays a jeweler who gets rappers and athletes all this crazy bling,” […]
For the first time in her career, Idina Menzel has a clear path of projects laid out ahead, starting with ‘Frozen 2’ — and she plans to keep it that way. In October, Idina Menzel released her latest holiday album, featuring a duet with one of pop’s biggest stars; in […]
Age is just a number, right? And beauty, as we all know, is only skin-deep. The truth of these consoling clichés is severely tested in “Skintight,” Joshua Harmon’s comedy of acute chronological consciousness, which opened on Thursday in a sharply directed production by Daniel Aukin at the Geffen […]