\u201cI’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve, to be honest, and I’m going to continue to do so on this tour.’ \u2014 Idina Menzel<\/p>\n
There are a few reasons why Tony Award-winning actress Idina Menzel chose to call her new tour \u201cTake Me or Leave Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, it\u2019s a tribute to her character Maureen\u2019s signature song in the Broadway musical \u201cRent,\u201d Menzel\u2019s first professional job, which helped propel the Jewish performer to fame.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s more than that, she told the Chronicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tour is really about me allowing my vulnerability and my willingness to take risks and allow people to really see inside my soul,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s more about, you know, I\u2019m going to put myself out there and I hope that you accept me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel, a singer\/actress\/philanthropist also known for her star turn in Broadway\u2019s \u201cWicked,\u201d and for voicing the role of Elsa in Disney\u2019s \u201cFrozen\u201d franchise, will bring her show to Pittsburgh\u2019s Benedum Center on Aug. 10 at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
She recalled performing here just a couple weeks after the Oct. 27, 2018, antisemitic shooting at the Tree of Life building, which left 11 worshippers from three congregations dead and several other people seriously wounded. She tailored her show then to address the trauma, as she \u201cknew it was on everyone\u2019s mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Menzel wrote a song about the attack, \u201cA Tree of Life,\u201d which is featured in the HBO documentary \u201cA Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting.\u201d The song is about resilience and coexistence.<\/p>\n
Menzel, who said she feels \u201ca real connection to Pittsburgh,\u201d is nothing if not authentic. In a 2015 performance at the Benedum, she enthusiastically engaged with her audience, coming off the stage to join in duets with four different fans for a rendition of \u201cTake Me or Leave Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was so comfortable with her audience that she not only removed her gold high-heel shoes about halfway through the show, but even peeled off her false eyelashes because they were irritating her eyes. She passed them off to an eager fan who ran up to the stage with her hand out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always worn my heart on my sleeve, to be honest, and I\u2019m going to continue to do so on this tour,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cI sing music that chronicles the timeline of my life and my career and my experiences, and I talk about how those songs have informed who I am and what those experiences were like at the time, and what I learned from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also very in the moment,\u201d she added. \u201cSo I think, for better or worse, I have a willingness for staying open and allowing for whatever\u2019s on my mind to come out \u2014 in front of thousands of people \u2014 but I\u2019ve always believed that the performances that have moved me in my life, by the artists that inspire me, are the ones that the people were willing to be open and authentic. That\u2019s really the only way that you really can touch someone in your audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel\u2019s recording career includes multiple cast albums and solo albums. This past fall, she released her dance project Drama Queen via BMG, showcasing her vocals through disco-infused beats and soaring anthems. She\u2019s released two children\u2019s picture books with her sister, Cara Mentzel, called \u201cLoud Mouse\u201d and \u201cProud Mouse,\u201d via Disney Publishing Worldwide. Both books center around self-acceptance and being true to yourself.<\/p>\n
The \u201cTake Me or Leave Me\u201d tour will include \u201ca wide spectrum of music calling on many genres,\u201d Menzel said, \u201cbecause that\u2019s my life, that\u2019s my career. You know, I was a wedding singer when I was a teenager, into my college years, and I had to sing all kinds of music, everything from pop, rock, Motown, jazz. So it\u2019s just sort of in me that I like to explore all styles. And then, because I\u2019ve been in so many mediums, whether it be in theater or TV, film or just doing my concerts as myself, I have all different kinds of music that are associated with me. That\u2019s kind of what I\u2019ve learned to really embrace and have fun with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of her original songs will be included as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the most devoted, supportive fans,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cThey\u2019re very sophisticated, and they\u2019ve welcomed my creative choices for all these years. They\u2019ve allowed me to explore different avenues and always go along with me. There have been some of my albums that sometimes I don\u2019t do anything from, and then they complain to me that I haven\u2019t revisited that music, so I\u2019m actually making a point of going back into some of my old albums and making sure that I include them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also included in the concert will be two songs from her new musical \u201cRedwood\u201d that\u2019s coming to Broadway early next year, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to introduce people to that story and that music and that character,\u201d Menzel said.<\/p>\n
The show, which she created with her friend, director Tina Landau \u2014 who is writing the book and the lyrics \u2014 has been her \u201cpassion project for over a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about a woman who is going through a turning point in her life, and she gets in her car in New York City and decides to just escape, and starts driving across the country, and doesn\u2019t stop until she gets to the foot of the mystical, majestic redwoods,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s seen before, and I really think people will relate to it.\u201d
\nShe clearly wants her fans to be happy \u2014 and to feel at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how big the venue,\u201d Menzel said, \u201cI like everyone to feel like they\u2019re in my living room. That\u2019s really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve, to be honest, and I’m going to continue to do so on this tour.’ \u2014 Idina Menzel There are a few reasons why Tony Award-winning actress Idina Menzel chose to call her new tour \u201cTake Me or Leave Me.\u201d Of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1252,"comment_status":"closed","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":[80,82],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-80","tag-take-me-or-leave-me-tour"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/7479043_web1_PTR-IdinaMenzel.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-ke","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","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=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}