I had the ultimate privilege of talking with Tony Award winner Idina Menzel on the telephone Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 2:45pm. Born in Long Island, New York, Menzel made her Broadway debut as Maureen in the Original Cast of Jonathan Larson\u2019s musical Rent. Following the success of the show, she released her first album Still I Can\u2019t Be Still with HollyWood Records. She returned to Broadway as Amneris in Aida and performed with her husband Taye Diggs in the off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippa\u2019s The Wild Party in 2000. In 2003 Menzel created the role of Elphaba in Stephen Schwartz\u2019s musical Wicked, co-starring Kristin Chenoweth, for which she won her Tony Award. In 2004 she released her second album Here on Zel Records, and following the success of Wicked, she appeared in Michael John LaChiusa\u2019s musical See What I Wanna See at the Public Theatre in New York. She reprised her role as Elphaba in Wicked in London on September 7, 2006 and then played Florence in the 21st Anniversary concert of Chess at the Royal Albert Hall in London until May 13th, 2008. She also recreated the role of Maureen for Chris Columbus\u2019 film version of Rent (2006). Her third solo album, I Stand, was released on January 29, 2008. The album debuted at #58 in the Billboard 200, making it the first solo album by Menzel to make the charts. For more information visit www.idinamenzel.com. Idina has been quoted as saying, \u201cI love being an actress, but the hardest thing to do is totally be yourself, singing your own songs with nothing to hide behind. It\u2019s exhilerating, exciting and terrifying- but ultimately rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her one-night only solo concert is at the Danforth Music Hall Theatre in Toronto on November 7th, 2008 at 8:00pm. For tickets visit www.ticketmaster.ca.<\/p>\n
Amanda Campbell (AC): Hi! Thank you so much for making some time to talk to me.<\/strong> AC: Um, well, my first question, is, I know you\u2019ve done a series of touring concerts, especially recently to promote \u201cI Stand\u201d. What made you decide to include Toronto in your tour?<\/strong> AC: I got your first album Still I Can\u2019t Be Still when I was thirteen and I immediately connected to it-<\/strong> AC: You\u2019re welcome. It was really a staple of my growing up and I wondered, did you have any artists that you felt were inspiring to you who wrote their own songs, or were you writing because you didn\u2019t have anyone to connect to in that way?<\/strong> AC: Hang on one sec; I\u2019m trying to write down every word you say.<\/strong> AC: I\u2019ll try. Actually, what am I saying? You\u2019re saying everything perfectly. Um, so I know Still I Can\u2019t Be Still was a pretty small record, and Here was a little bit bigger, and now I Stand is doing really well. It must be a dream come true for you. What\u2019s that like?<\/strong> AC: That actually ties in really well to my next question. I\u2019ve heard from my sources- actually I\u2019ve been listening to bootlegs\u2026<\/strong> AC: I\u2019ve heard that you sometimes do improvised freestyle rap at your concerts. Can we expect any of that in Toronto?<\/strong> AC: I also know that you\u2019ve sung \u201cI Have a Love\u201d from West Side Story in your concerts-<\/strong> AC: I was wondering if you\u2019d ever consider doing a revival of a Sondheim show?<\/strong> AC: Yeah, I\u2019ve heard people say maybe the Witch?<\/strong> AC: I think you\u2019d be great- well\u2026 and I think it would be really interesting to see you in Sunday in the Park With George\u2026<\/strong> AC: I think you do. Yeah.<\/strong> AC: You have performed with some of the coolest people in American musical theatre. Kristin Chenoweth, the whole cast of Rent, Taye-<\/strong> AC: Norbert\u2026 is there anyone left who you are dying to work with?<\/strong> AC: Yeah, well, no, anyone really\u2026<\/strong> AC: That would be Amazing.<\/strong> AC: I remember that from your song\u2026<\/strong> AC: Not yet. You still have lots of time! There\u2019s a theatre company here in Toronto, led by this incredible twenty-six year old producer, whose mandate is to bring contemporary musical theatre to new, young, audiences. How important do you think it is for theatre to be accessible to young people?<\/strong> AC: I think that audiences really want to connect- especially to musical theatre- especially younger audiences-, which we saw with the Renthead phenomenon. How do you handle the challenge of connecting to your fans when your fan base explodes?<\/strong> AC: My last question is, Rent just closed on Broadway, and I was wondering what you think the biggest legacy it has left behind is\u2026 I\u2019m sorry, that seems like a gigantic last question\u2026<\/strong> AC: Thank you so, so much for answering all those questions.<\/strong> AC: I\u2019m looking so forward to the concert!<\/strong> AC: That would be a dream. Have a great day!<\/strong> I had the ultimate privilege of talking with Tony Award winner Idina Menzel on the telephone Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 2:45pm. Born in Long Island, New York, Menzel made her Broadway debut as Maureen in the Original Cast of Jonathan Larson\u2019s musical Rent. Following the success of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224,"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":[30,21],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-30","tag-i-stand-solo-tour"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2008_10_24.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6Srnq-223","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","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=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIdina Menzel (IM): Hey! No problem. Thank you!<\/p>\n
\nIM: laughs Um, well; first of all, I love Toronto. My husband Taye was there filming Kevin Hill and I used to fly in on weekends and we did back and forth a lot when I was on Broadway in Wicked. It\u2019s a beautiful city. And secondly, so many of my fans in Toronto were writing in saying that they felt left out, and so I felt like I owed it to them to come. Also, I know, it\u2019s a really great theatre city, so I\u2019m hoping for a really great, supportive crowd.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Oh really? Wow. Thank you.<\/p>\n
\nIM: No- I- well, early on\u2026 my influences were just great singers- like Aretha Franklin\u2026 Billie Holliday and Chaka Khan, people who didn\u2019t write their own music- well- who didn\u2019t usually write their own music- but then I started to listen to people like Joni Mitchell, and Annie Lennox\u2026. You know, Sting and Billy Joel, it depends on which period in time you were talking about\u2026 I don\u2019t know why I started to write\u2026 it was just always the way I chose to express myself. I would always sit down and clunk out chords at the piano- I\u2019m not very good- but melodies always came easy to me.<\/p>\n
\nIM: (laughs) You can try to make it more cohesive.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Yeah, I feel really lucky, I have a lot of great people supporting me and this sort of record affords me a lot of opportunities, like I went to the UK to promote the album there, they\u2019re releasing- they just released it- there. You\u2019ve got to keep moving, that\u2019s what I\u2019m learning, you have to keep doing the work, there\u2019s no finish line. And I get to go on tour, which is the best part for me. I get to connect with fans that way, and I get to rediscover my music. I love the live performance aspect of it, so getting to go up and sing the songs live is great. I also like throwing in new songs for the band to learn at sound check, and just being able to keep the show fresh, because then the audience feels like they\u2019ve really seen something special.<\/p>\n
\nIM: That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
\nIM: I haven\u2019t done that in awhile! I think I\u2019ve lost my confidence in it. Yeah, well, I\u2019ve always been confident in getting a beat and a melody and being able to come up with lyrics on the spot. Well, I\u2019m usually confident, laughs, it sometimes depends on the size of the room and the audience. So, if I\u2019m feeling courageous on the day then I\u2019ll do a little flow. \u2026I\u2019ve lost my confidence in that\u2026 I\u2019ve lost my mojo. I haven\u2019t done it in awhile.<\/p>\n
\nIM: I haven\u2019t done that in a long time either! I\u2019d forgotten about that!<\/p>\n
\nIM: Ummmmm\u2026 Yep. Sure. I\u2019d do anything he asked me to! laughs. I\u2019m just not sure what role I\u2019d play. I\u2019d have to think about it. I mean, not West Side Story because I can\u2019t dance\u2026 and Anita would have to dance. But, I mean, sure\u2026 maybe\u2026 Into the Woods\u2013<\/p>\n
\nIM: laughs Yeah, that\u2019d be a stretch.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Oh, I\u2019d love that. But\u2026 we have that in New York now don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n
\nIM: Yeah.<\/p>\n
\nIM: laughs<\/p>\n
\nIM: Oh sure. Yeah- musical theatre people?<\/p>\n
\nIM: Hmmm\u2026 I would love to work with Patti Lupone. And Bernadette Peters.<\/p>\n
\nIM: I- god- there\u2019s so many people- I want to sing a duet with Bono one day.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Yeah, the dream still hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Oh geez. Well, my whole career has been based on shows that younger people can connect with- smart shows that don\u2019t condescend to young people and that they can relate to. They are the future of musical theatre, and I am a huge advocate for that. I\u2019m always trying to find pieces, new material that can be turned into plays. That\u2019s my whole process, because I\u2019ve been so lucky that I\u2019ve been able to work on developing new shows, and I got to see how magical it can be and how they really can change people\u2019s lives. So I read a lot of books, and I Google (laughs) famous women just looking for ideas for things that can be turned into a play. I just keep brainstorming. Because there\u2019s nothing wrong with taking a movie and turning it into a musical, but I try to find as many original sources as I can.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Uh- yeah, the Internet\u2019s a good thing, I have a website so it\u2019s a good way to connect with fans. I still try to get out as often as I can after the show to meet as many people as I can. I also try- even in a big theatre- to make my shows as intimate as possible so that I can connect to the audience, and to ask them to be participatory\u2014sometimes they take advantage of that and get out of hand (laughs). You just do the best you can. And I have the greatest fans, who want the best for me, and they\u2019re flexible, as they move from one genre to another with me. It\u2019s hard, especially when you\u2019re a singer, because you need to protect your voice so you can\u2019t go out and talk a lot after the show. You want to go to sleep early. You want to be able to give 100% to the audience of the next night too. But, the people understand. And the Internet is great. I can receive emails and I like to know what people are thinking and feeling.<\/p>\n
\nIM: No, that\u2019s okay. Ummm\u2026 I think it\u2019s Jonathan Larson and his lyrics \u201cNo Day But Today\u201d. He reached out to people who didn\u2019t feel like they belonged and he validated artists. He taught people- no, he reminded people that we can\u2019t take anything for granted, we have to live in the moment and not take life for granted. At least, that\u2019s what I took away, personally.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Thank you. It\u2019s been great talking with you.<\/p>\n
\nIM: Yeah! Me too. You\u2019re great. I hope to see you there.<\/p>\n
\nIM: You too. Bye!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"