John Travolta infamously butchered her name as \u201cAdele Dazeen\u201d before millions watching the 2014 Oscars telecast. But singer and actress Idina Menzel, in the best tradition of showbiz, rolled with the unexpected, performing best original song \u201cLet It Go\u201d flawlessly for the worldwide audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make a lot of jokes behind the scenes,\u201d Miss Menzel told The Washington Times, adding that she has been tempted to pay the \u201cfavor\u201d forward to other celebrities. Before introducing Mariah Carey at this year\u2019s Billboard Music Awards, the New Yorker thought, \u201cWouldn\u2019t people think it funny if I called her \u2018Maria Curry\u2019 or something,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cThen we decided no, that wouldn\u2019t go over well.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Mr. Travolta\u2019s gaffe became the stuff of Internet legend, it also gave Miss Menzel a bigger push onto the world stage \u2014 helped by the incredible staying power of \u201cLet It Go\u201d from the animated film \u201cFrozen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important to me that even though my profile has gotten bigger because of \u2018Frozen,\u2019 that I\u2019m still able to connect with every single person in that audience,\u201d Miss Menzel said of her world tour, which stops at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, on Saturday evening. \u201cThat\u2019s challenging to do the bigger the venues get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Menzel came to the concert stage by way of Broadway, having originated the role of Maureen Johnson in \u201cRent\u201d in 1996. Then came \u201cWicked\u201d with Kristen Chenoweth, which turned the story of \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d on its head, and for which Miss Menzel was awarded a Tony for best leading actress in a musical for portraying Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in the theater are like athletes, especially singers,\u201d Miss Menzel said. \u201cWe have to train and stretch and build up our endurance and be able to perform under all different kinds of circumstances. [It] keeps me at a certain level of what I expect from myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a seeming affinity for new works, Miss Menzel headlined the New York premiere of \u201cIf\/Then\u201d last year, with music by Tom Kitt, whom she describes as \u201cone of the most talented people I know.\u201d The show won multiple Broadway.com audience awards, including favorite new musical.<\/p>\n
The Great White Way prepared Miss Menzel for multiple costume changes, but one of the upsides of her solo show, she said, is getting to embody a \u201ccharacter\u201d without switching garb.<\/p>\n
\u201c[If] I\u2019m in green makeup as a witch or just up there in jeans and bare feet singing my songs I still have to take a risk and make myself really vulnerable in front of a live audience,\u201d Miss Menzel said, \u201cand allow myself to be seen, if you will. It\u2019s still the soul of who I am that\u2019s behind it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in my own concert, I can take a breath, take my time, change the order of the set. And yet I\u2019m singing for two hours straight \u2014 just me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Audience favorites from \u201cRent\u201d will be on the tour bill, she said, because \u201cI can put my microphone out and the audience can sing along. I make sure I include those songs that people really want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said spontaneity keeps her performances fresh, whether it be her \u201cwardrobe malfunction\u201d at Radio City Music Hall or a slipped four-letter word in front of young children in the front rows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be perfect all the time, but I know that the more interesting performances aren\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re the ones with imperfections, where you\u2019re going to feel something much more true and honest and idiosyncratic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entertainer hopes she can encourage other women to get rid of their fears and pursue their dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think [being] strong, fierce women [is] something we grapple with,\u201d she said. \u201c[Women] can somehow suppress that because we\u2019re afraid of seeming threatening or being disliked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Menzel is keen to maintain onstage the energy she had as a young woman, which is key to connecting with her young fans, be they girls or boys.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look back on my younger self I just knew that I was going to do something special with my life, and people were going to know who I was because of my singing and acting,\u201d the singer said. \u201cAs you get older maybe you\u2019re more aware of the world and the things people say about you.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I try to harness that younger self and [recall] that she wouldn\u2019t have taken no for an answer and just knew she was good at what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The young lady who had so much self-confidence grew to be a woman who could turn a potentially uncomfortable moment on the world\u2019s stage into humor. About a year after Mr. Travolta\u2019s infamous flub, Miss Menzel introduced him at an event as \u201cGlom Gazingo.\u201d The \u201cSaturday Night Fever\u201d star joined her at the podium, all smiles, and the two shared a good-natured hug and a laugh.<\/p>\n
Timelessness is part of Miss Menzel\u2019s musical repertoire, she said, whether it be themes of love or empowerment.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery show, every song is just part of a different time in the chronology of your life,\u201d she said. \u201cA certain song can hit me in a different way on a different night or different time in my life. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s so beautiful about what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Travolta infamously butchered her name as \u201cAdele Dazeen\u201d before millions watching the 2014 Oscars telecast. But singer and actress Idina Menzel, in the best tradition of showbiz, rolled with the unexpected, performing best original song \u201cLet It Go\u201d flawlessly for the worldwide audience. \u201cWe make a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":540,"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":[36,11],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","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\/wash.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-8H","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","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=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}