Gay men wish they could be Idina Menzel fo\u00adr two reasons: First, she\u2019s got a killer voice, and acting chops to match \u2014 notable on Glee, in Rent and her Tony Award-winning role in Wicked, where she got to defy gravity. Second, she\u2019s married to breathtaking heartthrob Taye Diggs \u2014 we so want to be able to come home to him.
\nAnd Menzel knows it. Though sometimes there\u2019s a twist that surprises even her.<\/p>\n
\u201cLately, when we\u2019ve been stopped on the street together, people will come up to him and say, \u2018I love you but I love your wife even more.\u2019 Often that\u2019s even the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the mark of a diva: Even a gay guy would put Taye Diggs second to praise you.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not something that happens overnight. Menzel was in her early 20s when she first came to prominence on the surprise Broadway hit Rent, which won the
\nPulitzer and the Tony and became a phenomenon. But after that, she met with hardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy career has ebbed and flowed,\u201d she admits. \u201cAfter I left Rent, I did an album that did not sell well. I got dropped from my record label; I was the third replacement on Aida when I entered it.\u201d She wondered if lightning would strike twice.<\/p>\n
It did, with Wicked. Menzel won a Tony as the misunderstood green-skinned witch of Oz who gets to belt out some of the best recent Broadway songs, including \u201cThe Wizard and I\u201d and \u201cDefying Gravity.\u201d And Menzel knew she was lucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience of Rent was like no other, because we were young and lost our leader,\u201d she says, referring to the unexpected death of composer Jonathan Larson just days before the show opened. \u201cThat grounded us in a way other 20-somethings would not be. It was a reminder every day what was most important to us, in our personal lives and onstage. We were passionate; being in the moment and appreciating what we had, that stayed with me. So once Wicked came I was so grateful, because I know how fleeting this all is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightning struck yet again when Menzel was cast in a recurring role on the TV show Glee \u2014 a weird meta-experience, considering that the characters on the show talk lovingly about the B\u2019way diva Idina Menzel \u2026 while her character is something of a villain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Ryan Murphy for you \u2014 there are no limits. Thank God,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Being on Glee is refreshing in another way: It\u2019s a bit of Broadway in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s terrific. It\u2019s a very unusual setting for a TV show in L.A., because there are so many theater people. The community and the discipline are great.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Broadway on a roll, with gigantic hits like Wicked, Jersey Boys, Porgy & Bess and others still packin\u2019 \u2018em in, and the movie musical even making a comeback, from Enchanted to the upcoming Rock of Ages and Les Miserables, it seems like the oft-lamented musical is still alive and well. But there\u2019s one aspect of the renaissance that she finds especially gratifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that\u2019s different is the acceptance of the television [musical,]\u201d like Glee and Smash. \u201cFor years and years, if you tried to develop [a TV musical format] people would laugh at you,\u201d she says. Call it The Cop Rock Effect. \u201cBut it was something I always wanted to do, so I could combine all my skills in one medium.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel doesn\u2019t have a favorite medium \u2014 she\u2019s just as happy nowadays touring the country in concert promoting her recently released CD Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony. She brings that show to Dallas on June 13. The show includes showtunes, but also Lady Gaga. That\u2019s because Menzel doesn\u2019t have a favorite style of song, or even favorite composer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up singing so many different kinds of music. I was a wedding\/bar mitzvah singer from 15; that was my education. I was studying classical and choir music during the week, but on the weekend I\u2019d be singing Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan and Billie Holliday and Madonna,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
As for composers, \u201cI love Stephen Schwartz, who has a contemporary feel, but I like to challenge myself with Sondheim. Different composers can expose different sides of who you are. It\u2019s nice when you work with Michael John LaChiusa, who puts me in these keys that make me sing like a soprano, which no one ever asks me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Menzel respects the love she feels from audiences who so identify her with a trio of pop culture phenomena: Rent, Wicked and Glee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel fortunate every day to be involved in three of these Zeitgeist shows,\u201d she says. \u201cI am well aware of that, and do not take it for granted, especially the relationship with young audiences. When I am on tour, the way people feel they can confide in me and share their lives is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gay men wish they could be Idina Menzel fo\u00adr two reasons: First, she\u2019s got a killer voice, and acting chops to match \u2014 notable on Glee, in Rent and her Tony Award-winning role in Wicked, where she got to defy gravity. Second, she\u2019s married to breathtaking heartthrob Taye […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[28,6,7],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-summer-tour-2012","tag-career"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012_06_08_dallas.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","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=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}