Broadway superstar and Tony Award winner, Idina Menzel, has had a busy year: a recurring role on the hit TV series, Glee; moving to a new house; and learning the ropes of motherhood. This month, another first: her Cincinnati Pops debut. I caught up with Menzel at home in Los Angeles where she\u2019d spent the morning watching 1-year-old son, Walker, defy gravity by running laps around the house.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re a songwriter as well as a singer. Will we be hearing any of your own works on these concerts?<\/strong> Was songwriting something you tried your hand at early on?<\/strong> You started singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs when you were a teen. What is the most outrageous thing that ever happened during one of those gigs? <\/strong> Singing in front of a symphony orchestra is so different than being accompanied by a pit orchestra in a show. What is it like to have all that sound coming at you from behind?<\/strong> The mediums of TV, film, and stage certainly have a lot of common ground, but as a performer you have to make adjustments when you go from one to another? Is there one medium that requires the most from you as a performer?<\/strong> How do you keep yourself in shape and energized?<\/strong> Let\u2019s talk about you and your husband Taye Diggs\u2019 son, Walker.<\/strong> Is your house in New York or Los Angeles?<\/strong> Do you and Taye sing to Walker?<\/strong> Does he have a favorite song?<\/strong> I was lucky enough to see you and Taye in the original Off-Broadway production of Rent in early 1996. Did you realize then what a groundbreaking show you were a part of?<\/strong> I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t ask about your role as rival choir director, Shelby Corcoran, on Glee, another groundbreaking show you are a part of. In a world where you already have a pretty high profile, has it changed your life?<\/strong> One final question: Do you think you and Glee\u2019s Lea Michele look alike?<\/strong> Broadway superstar and Tony Award winner, Idina Menzel, has had a busy year: a recurring role on the hit TV series, Glee; moving to a new house; and learning the ropes of motherhood. This month, another first: her Cincinnati Pops debut. I caught up with Menzel at home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,12,7,8,18],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-29","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony","tag-career","tag-family-life","tag-glee"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-2E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nYes, I\u2019ve had two of my songs orchestrated, which is so fun for me. They\u2019re songs that I\u2019ve lived with a long time, and it\u2019s nice to hear them blossom into this glorious sound with all the musicians.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ve written songs since I was a teenager. It\u2019s part of who I am.<\/p>\n
\nI was singing on the bandstand at a wedding when someone on the dance floor had a heart attack. My bandleader insisted that I keep singing but then the bride came up and began screaming at me for being insensitive. I thought, I\u2019m going to band hell for this.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s hard to put into words. It\u2019s thrilling. It\u2019s glorious and very emotional for me. I\u2019m used to having the conductor in front of me, so it\u2019s different in that way. Because my back is to him, it\u2019s almost like a telepathic experience.<\/p>\n
\nI think it\u2019s always going to be doing an eight-shows-a-week musical. Whether it\u2019s Wicked or some of the other shows I\u2019ve done that audiences might not be as familiar with, it\u2019s always such an emotionally charged and taxing experience as well as vocally challenging.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s really about learning how to pace myself. I\u2019ve always been pretty ritualistic about my vocal warm-up, which I finish half an hour or 40 minutes before a show. Then I steam and warm up some more in the shower. No alcohol when I\u2019m performing. Getting enough sleep is important, although now that I have a child, that\u2019s gone out the window. But I have to be honest, it\u2019s kind of liberating, because my priorities have changed. I think my singing and attitude are actually better. I\u2019ve been enjoying everything more.<\/p>\n
\nHe just started walking without holding on to something. He and my mom will be with me in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
\nBecause of my husband\u2019s TV show [Diggs plays Dr. Sam Bennett on ABC\u2019s Private Practice], we finally caved and bought a house on the West Coast. It\u2019s an adjustment because I\u2019m a lifelong New Yorker, but I\u2019m trying to embrace it because with the baby, we now have some grass, and good weather, and a nearby park to take him to.<\/p>\n
\nWe sing to him ad nauseam. When he starts talking, he\u2019s probably going to tell us to shut up.<\/p>\n
\nWell, it changes all the time. We have a bunch of original tunes we compose on the spot, but one of his favorites used to be \u201cYou Are My Sunshine.\u201d Right now, it\u2019s \u201cThe Wheels on the Bus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nNo. In rehearsal, we knew there was a great bond happening with the cast and that we were communicating something special, but we had no idea what the magnitude of the show would be. It wasn\u2019t until [playwright\/composer] Jonathan [Larson] passed away [the day before opening night] that everything got surreal. I learned a lot of amazing life lessons because of that experience. When you\u2019re young and have that kind of success, you can loose sight of what\u2019s important. If anything good came out of it, it taught us all what\u2019s important.<\/p>\n
\nTo be honest, it might sell a few more tickets, but I\u2019m not a regular on the show. I love the show because it celebrates musical theater people, but as for changing my life, not really. My son has changed my life.<\/p>\n
\nWhen you see us together, I think it\u2019s more the essence than looking that much alike. We\u2019ve both got that Jewish-Italian-singing thing going on. Besides, she\u2019s got smaller boobs and weighs a lot less than I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"