{"id":1046,"date":"2022-01-11T00:12:29","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T00:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2022-01-11T00:12:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T00:12:29","slug":"glees-idina-menzel-on-parenthood-being-pigeonholed-and-her-pbs-tv-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/glees-idina-menzel-on-parenthood-being-pigeonholed-and-her-pbs-tv-special\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Glee\u2019s\u2019 Idina Menzel on Parenthood, Being Pigeonholed and Her PBS TV Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Stage and screen star Idina Menzel<\/strong> has originated the role of the green-skinned Elphaba in Wicked <\/em>and Maureen in Rent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And the Broadway belter has a recurring guest star role as Rachel\u2019s biological mother on Fox\u2019s Glee<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But nothing compares to when Menzel and husband and Private Practice<\/em> star Taye Diggs <\/strong>had a baby son, Walker Diggs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it was a gift to have this intense love for someone that I\u2019d never felt before, for a child, that makes you feel better than anything else you\u2019ve done,\u201d Menzel said backstage after performing over two nights for an upcoming PBS TV special recorded in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory of Music\u2019s Koerner Hall.<\/p>\n

She explained parenthood has changed her from a talented, yet self-absorbed artist bedeviled by doubts to enjoying first-time fulfillment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I had my son, I have more of a cup half-full perspective on life that he (Walker) has given me,\u201d Menzel said with a broad smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I screwed up a high note, I go easier on myself,\u201d she added, knowing as a mother she has a baby boy back home who loves her.<\/p>\n

Menzel marked another milestone in Toronto, taking the Kitchener-Waterloo Orchestra and legendary maestro Marvin Hamlisch<\/strong> through a medley of hit songs from Glee, Wicked<\/em> and Rent<\/em>, and stories from a career that took her from a wedding singer in Long Island, New York to arousing bravos on Broadway and screen appearances.<\/p>\n

For Menzel, a first-time TV special is about showing fans that connect her success with role-playing that she\u2019s far more than just a Belle of Broadway with an acting bug.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to pigeon-hole you, in my case as a green witch for Wicked or a rock singer for Rent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (PBS special) gives you an opportunity to be myself and be genuine and to show a wide spectrum of talents,\u201d Menzel added.<\/p>\n

That proposition will be tested soon enough as Menzel\u2019s PBS TV special to air in March 2012 will be followed by a live album and a DVD release.<\/p>\n

The chance to be herself also follows Menzel and Hamlisch polishing her one-woman concert show performed with a host of orchestras in the U.S. and at Royal Albert Hall in London, England.<\/p>\n

Her solo numbers are intertwined with set-up stories that recall being told by a bandleader to carry on singing during a wedding gig as a man had a heart attack on the dance floor \u201cbecause the band always plays on, like it\u2019s the Titanic,\u201d or embarrassing herself in university by singing Cole Porter<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cLove For Sale\u201d to impress a teacher she had a crush on who turned out to be gay.<\/p>\n

She also tells, and colorfully embellishes, a story about being ignored at a dinner table by Barbara Streisand <\/strong>after she performed for her at a Kennedy Center Honors concert, only to learn at the end of the meal that the Broadway legend forgot her glasses and didn\u2019t make out Menzel performing on stage.<\/p>\n

Menzel also told of meeting Taye Diggs in 1996 on the Broadway set of Rent <\/em>\u2013 \u201cDid a little too much flirting back-stage, you know what I mean ladies?\u201d \u2013 and of landing a recurring role on Glee <\/em>after doubting she\u2019d ever get work again after her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was having a baby, I was really fat and I get a script for Glee<\/em>,\u201d she recalled before the Gleeks in the Toronto audience erupted with cheers for her rendition of Lady Gaga\u2019<\/strong>s \u201cPoker Face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to be vulnerable and intimate with an audience,\u201d Menzel says backstage as around her the PBS production crew packed up for the morning flight back home across the border.<\/p>\n

As if to underline that point, Menzel towards the end of her PBS special walked to the front of the acoustically perfect Koerner Hall stage, dropped her microphone, and filled the silent hall with an a cappella version of \u201cFor Good\u201d from Wicked.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019For Good,\u2019 that\u2019s my favorite part of the show. It\u2019s stripped down, there\u2019s no orchestra you can hide behind,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Stage and screen star Idina Menzel has originated the role of the green-skinned Elphaba in Wicked and Maureen in Rent. And the Broadway belter has a recurring guest star role as Rachel\u2019s biological mother on Fox\u2019s Glee. But nothing compares to when Menzel and husband and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[33,12,18],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-33","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony","tag-glee"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-gS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1047,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}