{"id":182,"date":"2015-08-10T14:27:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T14:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/?p=182"},"modified":"2015-10-22T21:51:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T21:51:45","slug":"idina-menzel-when-i-listen-to-joni-mitchell-i-want-to-quit-singing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-when-i-listen-to-joni-mitchell-i-want-to-quit-singing\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel: \u2018When I listen to Joni Mitchell, I want to quit singing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first job on broadway, in \u2018rent\u2019, was life-changing<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d been a wedding singer through college, but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking glasses and the sound of forks on salad, I thought, \u201cOh God, if this is all I do, I\u2019ll never be able to live with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most wedding singers have seen a heart attack on the dance floor<\/strong>
\nOnce I saw a guest collapse when I was on stage. I wasn\u2019t sure how to handle it, so I looked to the band leader and said to him, \u201cLet\u2019s stop!\u201d But he said, \u201cNo, the band always plays on.\u201d The bride came over and screamed at us. I felt weirded out by that.<\/p>\n

\u2018Glee\u2019 is ground-breaking in how it deals with sexuality<\/strong>
\n[Menzel plays the lead character Rachel\u2019s biological mother.] For many young people, sexuality is a taboo, so I love how the show portrays characters such as Kurt Hummel. Viewers look up to him and it doesn\u2019t matter that he\u2019s gay.<\/p>\n

The more successful I get, the more terrified I become as I have more to lose<\/strong>
\nPeople have these incredible expectations. So instead of being inspired by, say, Joni Mitchell\u2019s music, I look at it and say to myself, \u201cI\u2019m going to quit \u2013 why would I think of writing or performing after listening to that?\u201d It\u2019s why you go to therapy.<\/p>\n

My two-year old son is a great dancer<\/strong>
\nHe\u2019s so jubilant about it and has his own little choreography: he does back-steps, side-steps, reach-ups\u2026 He loves Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cSingle Ladies\u201d and Bruno Mars. We loop them over and over.<\/p>\n

Being a mother has made me a better artist<\/strong>
\nI used to take 40 minutes to warm up before going on stage. If you want to spend time with your child as well as having a career, you have to get up there even if your head\u2019s a mess. It\u2019s made me more relaxed, and I\u2019m having some of my best shows.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a dream of mine to run my own summer camp<\/strong>
\nI went to one as a kid, and I put on productions, and got lots of confidence. Camp Broader Way [set up by Menzel with her husband] is for disadvantaged people who wouldn\u2019t necessarily have the opportunity to express themselves through the arts.<\/p>\n

Idina Menzel, 40, is an actress and singer. For more information on her arts charity, visit abroaderway.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first job on broadway, in \u2018rent\u2019, was life-changing I\u2019d been a wedding singer through college, but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking glasses and the sound of forks on salad, I thought, \u201cOh God, if this is all I […]<\/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_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":[33,8,18],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-33","tag-family-life","tag-glee"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-2W","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","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=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}