{"id":496,"date":"2015-10-23T13:52:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T13:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=496"},"modified":"2015-10-23T13:52:34","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T13:52:34","slug":"idina-brings-gravity-defying-songbook-to-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-brings-gravity-defying-songbook-to-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina brings gravity-defying songbook to town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Menzel drawing on diverse styles for concert tour that lands at SDSU this weekend<\/em><\/p>\n

You know her songs.<\/p>\n

You know her shows.<\/p>\n

And of course you know her singular name.<\/p>\n

(Sit down, Mr. Travolta.)<\/p>\n

What you might not know about Idina Menzel (besides the fact that Adele Dazeem, as John Travolta called her at the 2014 Oscars, is an anagram for \u201ca dazed melee\u201d) is that this wickedly talented musical-theater queen still has the heart of a rock \u2019n\u2019 roller.<\/p>\n

That aspect of Menzel first came through loud and clear nearly 20 years ago, when she made her breakthrough Broadway debut in the 1996 megahit \u201cRent\u201d as the streetwise performance artist Maureen Johnson.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a side of herself she now seems to be tapping into once again for her latest concert tour, which brings Menzel to San Diego State University on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In previous dates on the tour, Menzel\u2019s set has included a take on Radiohead\u2019s \u201cCreep\u201d \u2014 not exactly standard musical-theater fare, even by Broadway\u2019s increasingly adventurous standards.<\/p>\n

In her last solo show here, for the \u201cSymphony at Salk\u201d benefit in 2011, Menzel also performed a version of the Police tune \u201cRoxanne,\u201d a song that remains on her set list.<\/p>\n

That previous show closed with the song perhaps most identified with Menzel (at least up to that point): Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz\u2019s soaring \u201cDefying Gravity,\u201d from \u201cWicked,\u201d the 2003 musical that propelled Menzel onto Broadway\u2019s A-list and won her a Tony Award.<\/p>\n

Now, though, she has been opening her shows with that number \u2014 because it seems another song has taken its place as her climactic crowd-pleaser.<\/p>\n

(And if you start to fret toward the end of the show that she might not sing that song at all, let it go.)<\/p>\n

Of course, even with all those new fans to please from \u201cFrozen\u201d (the Disney movie that made \u201cLet It Go\u201d a massive hit), Menzel is still also pitching her concerts to followers of her Broadway and solo work. (Although they might not hear a whole lot from her latest recording, a Christmas album.)<\/p>\n

Among the selections she has been performing lately are several from \u201cWicked\u201d and \u201cRent,\u201d plus a medley of Ethel Merman numbers.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s also material from \u201cIf\/Then,\u201d the 2014 musical that marked Menzel\u2019s first time back on Broadway since \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of which: If you miss her this time around, Menzel will be at the San Diego Civic Theatre in January, in the national touring production of \u201cIf\/Then.\u201d It\u2019ll be a rare chance to see the original star of a Broadway production on the road with the show.<\/p>\n

That dedication to the piece seems to symbolize Menzel\u2019s clear passion for the projects she works on (including her charity A Broader Way, which focuses on assisting young girls from urban areas).<\/p>\n

As she told the Union-Tribune before a 2009 concert here: \u201cI think great, authentic, truthful work finds its way to the top. You\u2019ve gotta kind of keep believing in what you\u2019re doing. The cream always rises.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Five Faces of Idina (so far)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 \u201cRent\u201d (1996): Menzel originated the part of the bisexual performance artist Maureen in the late Jonathan Larson\u2019s groundbreaking musical, directed by UC San Diego grad (and onetime La Jolla Playhouse artistic chief) Michael Greif.
\n\u2022 \u201cWicked\u201d (2003): The original Elphaba, the green-faced diva and misunderstood witch in this still-running musical juggernaut, remains the one by which all others are judged.
\n\u2022 \u201cGlee\u201d (2010-13): Menzel\u2019s stint as the show-choir coach Shelby Corcoran in this hit Fox TV series helped boost her career beyond Broadway.
\n\u2022 \u201cFrozen\u201d (2013): As the voice of Queen Elsa in the Disney animated film, Menzel\u2019s performance of \u201cLet It Go\u201d helped make the single a worldwide hit. (Its writers, Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, are at La Jolla Playhouse right now with the new musical \u201cUp Here.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cIf\/Then\u201d (2014): Menzel played one woman on two parallel life tracks in her return to Broadway; the musical reunited her with \u201cRent\u201d director Greif. (And it \u2014 and Menzel \u2014 come to San Diego in January.)<\/p>\n

The Idina files<\/strong>
\nFull name: Idina Kim Menzel
\nBorn: May 30, 1971
\nBirthplace: New York
\nGraduated: New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts
\nKey honors: Tony Award, lead actress in a musical (\u201cWicked,\u201d 2003); Tony nominations for \u201cRent\u201d (1996) and \u201cIf\/Then\u201d (2014); Breakthrough Artist Award from Billboard Women in Music (2014).
\nPersonal: Recently divorced from \u201cRent\u201d co-star Taye Diggs; one son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Menzel drawing on diverse styles for concert tour that lands at SDSU this weekend You know her songs. You know her shows. And of course you know her singular name. (Sit down, Mr. Travolta.) What you might not know about Idina Menzel (besides the fact that Adele Dazeem, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":497,"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":[9],"tags":[36,11],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-36","tag-world-tour-2015"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/bww2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-80","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}