She created major characters in two musicals that inspired feverish followings. She has starred in three hits, each with a single word for its title.<\/p>\n
She is charmingly candid about things many celebrities don\u2019t discuss. She likes to perform barefoot. And she is coming to the Marcus Center.<\/p>\n
Idina Menzel\u2019s life and career have been on a long upward arc since her teenage years as a Long Island wedding and bar mitzvah singer. Her first professional theater job out of college was playing the self-absorbed, bi-sexual performance artist Maureen Johnson in \u201cRent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show was a Broadway sensation, winning a Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and capturing the imagination of a generation of \u201cRentheads.\u201d Menzel received a Tony nomination. Not bad for a beginner.<\/p>\n
Idina found her husband, the hunky Taye Diggs, in the \u201cRent\u201d cast, and she admits to getting romantic with him in their dressing rooms while offstage during performances. Naughty.
\nAlthough \u201cRent\u201d is among Broadway\u2019s biggest hits of the past 20 years, it was only a launch pad for Menzel. Enter Elphaba, the green-skinned witch in the Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actress created the character, was awarded a Tony, and won the undying love of early teen girls and the gay community. In the musical, Elphaba is a strong representative of the shunned and alienated.<\/p>\n
Menzel\u2019s third triumph has been in the hit TV series \u201cGlee,\u201d where she plays the biological mother of character Rachel Berry and the coach of the Vocal Adrenaline glee club. The actress\u2019 family life \u2013 she has a 2-year-old son and her hubby co-stars in the \u201cFamily Practice\u201d television series \u2013 has made West Coast small screen work more practical for her at the moment.<\/p>\n
But Menzel is packing up her toddler, Walker, and taking him on the road for the concert tour that brings her to Uihlein Hall next Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re taking the bus, just like a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band,\u201d she said during a phone interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what to expect. I often feel guilty when I drag him around.\u201d<\/p>\n
We can expect Menzel to be shoeless. \u201cI sing my notes better that way,\u201d she explained, adding that she made that discovery one night when an aching back prompted her to kick off her heels.<\/p>\n
The star is touring to support her new CD and DVD \u201cIdina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony,\u201d recorded in Toronto last fall as part of a PBS special of the same name. That concert\u2019s song list is extremely eclectic, ranging from a smart mashup of Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cLove for Sale\u201d and Sting\u2019s \u201cRoxanne,\u201d to Jimmy Webb\u2019s \u201cAsleep on the Wind\u201d and the Lady Gaga number \u201cPoker Face.\u201d Husband Diggs joins her for a sublime duet on the Rodgers and Hart standard \u201cWhere or When.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel of course also sings songs from her Broadway hits, \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked,\u201d and Andrew Lippa\u2019s \u201cLife of the Party,\u201d in which she also appeared. The show improbably closes with her belting \u201cTomorrow\u201d from \u201cAnnie,\u201d the tune she always sang around the house when she was a kid.<\/p>\n
We will get at least some of those numbers in her Marcus Center concert next week. Menzel travels with a six-piece rhythm section and picks up 20 strings and horns in each city.<\/p>\n
She changes the song list from night to night, depending on her mood. Will Diggs be on the bus and join her onstage? \u201cMaybe,\u201d she said, adding that it depends on his work schedule.<\/p>\n
Menzel likes to be chatty during her concerts. \u201cIdina Menzel Live\u201d contains quite a bit of commentary and story telling between songs, and we will likely hear the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am most proud of maintaining spontaneity and intimacy with an audience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The star wasn\u2019t able to do that with her idol, Barbra Streisand, to whom she sang \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade\u201d at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors gala. Menzel was seated at her table after the performance, and Streisand proceeded to ignore her most the evening.<\/p>\n
After more than two hours, Streisand looked at Menzel and asked, \u201cDid you sing for me tonight? I wasn\u2019t wearing my glasses.\u201d Bad Barbra.<\/p>\n
Menzel tells that story on her new CD and on the PBS special.<\/p>\n
A return to Broadway is on Menzel\u2019s agenda, she says. She prefers working in new original musicals, and those take years to develop. In the meantime, she has her shoes off and is riding the bus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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