One of the nice surprises about Glee this spring is the addition of Idina Menzel. The Tony-winning actress joined the show to play Shelby Corcoran, the coach of the champion glee club, Vocal Adrenaline, that New Directions, the Glee\u2019s team, face in the finals. On her debut episode it didn\u2019t take long for her to be lip-locking with Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), her rival coach, suggesting another layer of complexity in the evolving rivalry between the teams. (She may be off the series for the next few weeks, but returns on May 18 for the final four of the hit show\u2019s first season.)<\/p>\n
While Menzel may not be joining the upcoming Glee cast concert tour; she will be appearing in major concert halls throughout the country over the next few months. She started last week in Jacksonville, and continues this week with the Boston Pops, where she appears in the opening night concert on Tuesday, May 4 with conductor Keith Lockhart. (The concert is repeated on Wednesday, May 5 and Thursday, May 6.)<\/p>\n
Her appearance on Glee and this concert tour marks the first professional work by Menzel since the birth of her son Walker Nathaniel Diggs (with husband actor Taye Diggs) last September. Now some eight months later, she\u2019s back in New York preparing for her concert appearances, talking to reporters and attending to her day-to-day routine as a new mother.
\n\u201cIf you hear a loud beep,\u201d she told me over the phone, \u201cit\u2019s because I need to let the food delivery guy in the apartment. So I\u2019m warning you now.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came, the beep wasn\u2019t loud, nor was the Menzel distracted by her mom duties as she talked about her experience with motherhood, her role on Glee and how she needs to tone down her image when she appears in such venues as Boston\u2019s Symphony Hall.<\/p>\n
EDGE: Your son Walker is eight-months old now. He\u2019s your first. What has the experience been like?<\/strong> EDGE: Has it been difficult balancing being a new mother and your career?<\/strong> EDGE: What will you be doing with the Boston Pops and your other concert appearances?<\/strong> EDGE: Do you get nervous before these big concerts?<\/strong> EDGE: Your Wikipedia page says that you wanted to do Glee because you wanted to play Lea Michele\u2019s mother on the show. (Michele plays Rachel Berry, one of the glee club\u2019s members.) E! Entertainment has also made the same speculation. Is there any truth to that?<\/strong> EDGE: Your character \u2013 Shelby Corcoran \u2013 is a bit abrasive. Do you like her?<\/strong> EDGE: Are you singing on any upcoming episodes?<\/strong> EDGE: What has been the most surprising thing you\u2019ve learned from being a mom?<\/strong> EDGE: With both Glee and your husband\u2019s series (Private Practice) filming in LA, are you acclimated to the West Coast or are you a New Yorker at heart?<\/strong> EDGE: You\u2019re first solo CD \u2013 I Stand \u2013 sold very well. Do you have a new one in the works?<\/strong> EDGE: Do you feel more vulnerable since you\u2019ve become a mother?<\/strong> EDGE: Wicked continues to be one of Broadway\u2019s biggest grossers. Will it ever be made into a movie?<\/strong> EDGE: Have you been surprised by the show\u2019s success?<\/strong> EDGE: And will you be back on Broadway with a new musical anytime soon?<\/strong> Idina Menzel returns to Glee on May 15 for the final four episodes of the season.<\/p>\n She appears with the Boston Pops on May 4-6 at 8pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. For more information, visit the Boston Pops website.<\/p>\n Upcoming summer concert dates for Idina Menzel are in Dallas, Philadelphia, Tanglewood, San Francisco, Washington DC, Bethel, NY, Hyannis, MA, Brookville, NY, Denver, Costa Mesa, CA and Minneapolis. For further information about these concerts and about her new EP CD, visit her website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the nice surprises about Glee this spring is the addition of Idina Menzel. The Tony-winning actress joined the show to play Shelby Corcoran, the coach of the champion glee club, Vocal Adrenaline, that New Directions, the Glee\u2019s team, face in the finals. On her debut episode […]<\/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-219","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-3x","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","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=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIdina Menzel: It\u2019s so hard to explain. Everyone tries to tell you what it is going be like to have a baby, but it\u2019s so surreal when it happens. We look at him and think: one day he wasn\u2019t here, and the next day he was. It such an amazing feeling to think he was inside my belly just a few months ago. He\u2019s doing great; not the greatest sleeper, so we\u2019re a little tired over here. He\u2019s always laughing and smiling, and he\u2019s becoming quite the traveler, coming to all these concerts with me. Hopefully I\u2019m not going to screw him up for life with my schedule.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: Not yet, really, because I\u2019m just starting to go back to everything. And I really want to spend as much time with him as possible. My job on Glee is amazing because I\u2019m only there once or twice a week, so I\u2019m able to part of this incredible hit show and still be home with my baby most of the time. I\u2019m figuring out the concerts now. Last week was my first one in Jacksonville, but I didn\u2019t take him because I had to fly to Los Angeles for Glee and then back to New York. But he\u2019s coming to Boston with me \u2013 we\u2019re taking the train for the first time. And my rider \u2013 the things we ask for in your dressing room \u2013 it\u2019s all about baby food and stuff like that, not cool stuff like alcohol and beer.
\nElegant, sophisticated evening<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: I have this wonderful music director who arranged and orchestrated my program for me. We\u2019ve taken a bunch of Broadway songs that I\u2019ve done and a couple of songs from my pop album; and then we\u2019re doing some new things, some standards, an interesting Cole Porter medley\u2026 kind-of a plethora of things.
\nFor me it\u2019s so exciting to be standing in front of a big orchestra. Usually I\u2019m out with my band \u2013 five pieces \u2013 and we\u2019ve taken everything and are rediscovering it in a new context. There are some beautiful arrangements. But I was afraid I\u2019d lose the intimacy of the shows I like to do. I\u2019d lose my repartee with the audience. And with the magnitude of the arrangements. I was afraid it would be overblown to the point where I would lose that organic thing I like about my passion. But I think we have reached a nice balance \u2013 a nice back-and-forth. It\u2019s an elegant, sophisticated evening, but one where I will feel comfortable with the audience.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: It\u2019s funny that you say that. Normally I would, but that hasn\u2019t been the case since I\u2019ve had a baby. It\u2019s not that I want be nervous or anxious or thinking about how to improve things with the show and my singing; but I usually am. Now I guess I don\u2019t have time anymore to be nervous. Which is very liberating for me because I\u2019m one of those people who is often in her head and can work myself over and over. Now it takes everything for me to get there with my hair washed and my nails manicured and remember my lines if I\u2019m working on a set or warming up if I\u2019m performing a concert. But it just feels right for me. It\u2019s a relief not to worry so much and to realize that there are more important things out there in the world, It puts everything in perspective so I can have more fun.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: No. I don\u2019t want to play a 23-year old\u2019s mother. I could play her older sister. I have no idea where that all got started. That said, I\u2019m so happy to be on the show. My husband and I were recording the show every week and were extremely jealous that we didn\u2019t have a show like this when we came out of Rent. And so it\u2019s perfect for me. Ryan Murphy (Glee\u2019s creator) has been so great about my schedule and respecting the baby factor. I\u2019m really excited about the show. I\u2019m not in the next three of them, but then I come back for the end of the season.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: Yes. I do like her. And I like her even more as the season goes on. She\u2019s got a lot more to her than people realize. You always have to like your character. But I agree that she comes off as abrasive. Ryan always describes her as like Faye Dunaway in Network, but they\u2019ve softened her up a lot in the coming weeks. And I like that.
\nSinging \u2019Poker Face\u2019<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: I can\u2019t really talk about it\u2026 I know that sounds so important that I can\u2019t discuss it, but they\u2019ll give me a hard time. But I think it\u2019s been released that I\u2019m singing \u2019Poker Face,\u2019 an acoustic version that Lady Gaga sings it\u2019s modeled after (in a duet with Lea Michele). And a Barbra Streisand song \u2013 I can\u2019t really say what it is \u2013 and I sing \u2019I Dreamed a Dream.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: I guess it\u2019s that children make you stay in the moment. It\u2019s fascinating. Like today, I overslept. I thought I had another interview at 10, but they cancelled; but I didn\u2019t know it. We\u2019ve been up and down and up and down all night. Walker\u2019s on LA time and we\u2019re in New York, so his schedule is all screwed up. I fell back asleep at 8:30 and woke at 10 and thought I had missed the interview and had screwed up. But they had rescheduled. That\u2019s what it\u2019s been like \u2013 I was able to get a coffee and here I am. So it\u2019s been minute-to-minute here.
\nI think I have Mommy-brain. Sometimes I leave the house and go to the store with no wallet, no keys, no phone. For instance before the baby I could have rattled off what orchestras I\u2019d be singing with and the venues. But now all I can about is whether I\u2019m going to be able to take the baby with me on these dates. That\u2019s where I am now.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: My husband and I grew up in New York. I grew up in Long Island and went to school at NYU. And are having a real tough time digging our feet in LA even though I know we need to. His show is doing really well there. We are trying to find a place that feels like home out there now that we have a baby. I want it to feel right for the baby. So we have the place in New York that we own, and are now are looking for a place in LA. I don\u2019t want to do rentals anymore and live in other people\u2019s places. But when we come back to New York, it feels the hardest because it\u2019s like we\u2019re missing things. It\u2019s hard to put my finger on it, but it\u2019s who we are. We feel right here. We\u2019re happier. We like to move and walk and go. The whole car situation makes it more difficult than you realize. It\u2019s about your soul. It\u2019s about the energy here and what you need. We get to go to theater \u2013 we\u2019re going to see Fences on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: Right now I am focusing on the \u2019live\u2019 thing. I recently put out an EP with live recordings from a PBS show I had done just for the new people I am doing with these symphony dates. Hopefully I am expanding my audience and I want them to have something fresh out there. I think it\u2019s a six song EP. I\u2019m focusing on making this show really great and we\u2019re talking to PBS about perhaps filming that and releasing that as I live CD. And hopefully after that I will be going back to the studio do some original music again.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: I\u2019m feeling little vulnerable, I guess, but not about being a mother. No, it\u2019s doing these classy shows. I just want to make sure that I understood the protocol. My manager said for me to watch my cursing and clean up my act a little bit. I tend to tell stories and go off on tangents and be pretty open about my life; so I was concerned about standing in front of an orchestra and feel free about things \u2013 like tell a risqu\u00e9 story Bette Midler-style \u2013 is that okay? So my manager said, be careful. Just watch it. You know yourself, Idina. And in Jacksonville I was up there and it started to creep in and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. So I turned to the conductor \u2013 Matt Kraemer \u2013 and said, am I all right here? And he said it was all good. Later he said that some of his musicians missed entrances because they were fixated on listening to my stories. So that\u2019s what happens. It\u2019s like I feel like the girl from the other side of the tracks. I wear a long dress and cross my legs. But it\u2019s the story of my life \u2013 is mixing styles and genres. I studied classically in school, but my very first job was in Rent \u2013 in this rock show, so people thought I was this raw, rock singer. Then I did this pop album and people thought I was too Broadway. So that\u2019s my life \u2013 finding my place with all these styles and hoping people will accept me as who I am. That\u2019s really my struggle.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: I\u2019m sure it will, but it is having such a success all over the world the producers want to wait a bit. The more they wait, though, the older Kristen and I get. I did mention to on of the producer after Avatar came out that Wicked could be this amazing world just like Avatar with me in the green make-up. And they could digitize us to get rid of the wrinkles.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: Surprised at the beginning. I worked on it for about four years before Broadway and I wouldn\u2019t have stayed on that path if I didn\u2019t think it would be that special. But I didn\u2019t think that it would be such a phenomenon with young people. I thought it was this witty and sophisticated show for adults, but didn\u2019t see it would appeal on two levels. I never thought it would resonate with young girls and boys so strongly.<\/p>\n
\nIdina Menzel: I hope so. I am trying so hard to find the right project. I miss it so much. But I think it\u2019s important to originate roles and it\u2019s important that Broadway get original musicals. I love that process so much. But it takes such a long time. I am certainly working on things, but I can\u2019t be in New York right now because I can\u2019t take Walker too far from LA until he\u2019s a little older. But I am looking.<\/p>\n