Idina Menzel cites gays as her longtime \u201cpeeps,\u201d and even though Tonys are always nice, she has the real mark of Broadway success in throngs of gay men belting \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d at Splash during Musical Mondays. But now with a major label behind her, Idina\u2019s stretching beyond her Rent and Wicked fame.<\/p>\n
I Stand, which came out Jan. 29, is still very Wicked-y \u2013 don\u2019t worry \u2013 and I spoke with Idina shortly after the release, an event she likened to giving birth. We chatted about performing for the gays, her early Rent days \u2026 and of course, her hot piece-of-husband, Taye Diggs.<\/p>\n
Before we get to the Q&A, you can hear four I Stand tracks here, including \u201cGorgeous,\u201d which Idina wrote about her gay friend\u2019s relationship and the hardships the couple faced living in the U.S. Idina will also be performing at the HRC Gala on Feb. 23. Gay-love all around! Now for the questions\u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure you hear this from gay men on a regular basis, but I love the dance remix for \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d you recorded last year. How did the decision to rerecord come about?<\/strong> Wasn\u2019t it the official anthem for L.A. Pride? And you\u2019ve performed it at pride events?<\/strong> So in a lot of your lyrics and in tracks like \u201cI Stand,\u201d I could definitely see an appeal to the gay community. Did you always have a gay following?<\/strong> Definitely playing a part?<\/strong> I wanted to ask you about the track \u201cPerfume and Promises,\u201d about passion going to waste. Is that about anything or anyone?<\/strong> Oh, OK \u2013 I just loved that one, so I was very curious about it.<\/strong> That\u2019s really cool. I feel like you usually hear about record labels being like, \u2018You have to record it our way. We want to make the most money.\u2019<\/strong> And they do so well.<\/strong> I must ask, do the gay fans ever go crazy over your husband?<\/strong> The gays would all take you over him!<\/strong> Who takes longer to get ready?<\/strong> He lays out different outfit options and all that?<\/strong> Well, I know you guys met doing Rent together \u2013 but what was the first date like?<\/strong> Oh, yeah\u2026<\/strong> Last thing! You\u2019re going to be on The View next week, right? Excited or nervous at all? Idina Menzel cites gays as her longtime \u201cpeeps,\u201d and even though Tonys are always nice, she has the real mark of Broadway success in throngs of gay men belting \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d at Splash during Musical Mondays. But now with a major label behind her, Idina\u2019s stretching beyond her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236,"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":[30,20,13],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-30","tag-i-stand","tag-taye-diggs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2008_02_11_nnn.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-3N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","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=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWell, there\u2019s a pop version and then there\u2019s a dance version. I think that song pretty much changed my life; I wanted people to think, \u2018Yes I am from the theater, and I love where I come from and I\u2019ve done this,\u2019 but \u2026 I thought it had a real pop chorus to it, and I\u2019m really interested and challenged by the idea of bringing back theater music that has a pop hook to it and letting it cross over; and here that really happened.
\nI thought with Glen Ballard putting his take on it and us keeping Stephen Schwartz\u2019s genius, we could try to do that \u2013 not to mention \u2018Defying Gravity\u2019 is a great anthem. And then I realized how great that would be \u2026 just in a club full of people dancing their butts off.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, I did it in Palm Springs and at the White Party \u2013 that was amazing! A sea of naked guys up there dancing their faces off! And I just, you know, put on a fabulous dress and some lashes and went out there and sang to the track \u2013 which I don\u2019t enjoy that much because it\u2019s hard to hear where you start and where you end. I much prefer doing it with a live band, because you can\u2019t really make mistakes with the club mix; it kind of goes without you.
\nBut it was so much fun! It was a great to be a part of that. I had never gone to a gay pride event, and actually my friend who I was telling you about from \u2018Gorgeous,\u2019 he brought his date, so it was fun.<\/p>\n
\nWhen we were first starting out with Rent, after Jonathan Larson had died, we were trying to get his message out there \u2026 and we got these amazing letters. They really liked Maureen and how she was so self-assured. Little did they know I didn\u2019t have much self-assurance. \u2013laughs-<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s why I\u2019m an actress! But no, we got these amazing letters from people about feeling more comfortable about who they were and their own sexuality. So even back then\u2026<\/p>\n
\nSometimes \u2026 I call it \u2018gibberish writing\u2019 \u2026 I just sing melodies and record myself and words come out, and they make sense sometimes, sometimes they don\u2019t. But sometimes something really cool comes out.
\nThat one, I just kind of created, the words fell into \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 I wrote it about regret, but that\u2019s one of the ones I can\u2019t put a specific personal thing on. It\u2019s kind of \u2026 imagining someone else\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
\nThank you! It has a theatricality to it \u2013 like a Rickie Lee Jones song, you know? It\u2019s a good marriage of the different worlds that I come from. [Warner Bros.] was so supportive of me being who I was. They weren\u2019t like, \u2018Don\u2019t do anything theatrical!\u2019 They just said, \u2018Really, be yourself.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nYeah, but they weren\u2019t like that. You know, they have people like Josh Groban and Michael Buble, who aren\u2019t typical artists, who don\u2019t fit into a specific mold\u2026<\/p>\n
\nThey do amazing! They\u2019re much more about, \u2018Go be yourself and we\u2019ll find a way to make it marketable,\u2019 because it\u2019s not all about radio these days: We have the Internet, we have so many other mediums; they are less afraid. And it\u2019s Glen Ballard, my producer, you know, he\u2019s an incredible artist himself, and he said, \u2018Be yourself,\u2019 and he found a way to make it more mainstream and make my songs \u2026 to really let the chorus and the hooks stand out. So he\u2019s a great producer!<\/p>\n
\nOver Taye? Um, I think so. We\u2019ll be out, and they\u2019ll usually say things \u2013 they\u2019ll come up to him when I\u2019m not around \u2013 and say, \u2018Oh my god, honey, I love you \u2013 but I love your wife more.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nWell, that\u2019s what I tell him!<\/p>\n
\n-laughs\u2013 Taye. Wait \u2013 he would be mad. He takes longer putting his outfit together; he cares more about what he wears.<\/p>\n
\nOh, yeah. Whether or not he\u2019s late out the door because of me, \u2019cause I\u2019m a late person and, you know \u2026 just took a shower with 15 minutes to go \u2026 but he puts a lot more thought into the perfect tie.<\/p>\n
\nWell, what happened was \u2013 we really became friends first. We were very attracted to each other; we were in lust when we met, and we thought we had nothing in common. We both pretty much insulted each other at different times \u2013 and would be like, \u2018Whatever!\u2019
\nBut then, Rent was such an impactful experience, and we all just got so close experiencing that. \u2026 Also, his role and my role had very similar on and off stage times, so we would start to spend a lot of time together.
\nAnd I told him about all my ex-boyfriends and \u2013 oh my god! \u2013 so many things I would never do! And then we went to a movie with a bunch of friends \u2013 I think it was Adam Pascal and Jesse Martin \u2013 to see, I think it was Twister. Remember that movie?<\/p>\n
\nAnd we went, and he sort of \u2018swiped my angle\u2019 with his hand \u2013 it\u2019s like the movies \u2013 and then we started flirting a lot. Then one day we did the \u2018friends-hang-out-and-cuddle\u2019 type of thing, and it \u2026 went a little bit further than the cuddling.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, on the 13th!<\/strong>
\nI love The View, first of all. But any opportunity \u2013 I\u2019ve been on a lot of these shows before in green makeup \u2013 so I\u2019m so excited to be on there with my real face and singing my own music. The real me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"