Oh, for a broomstick.<\/p>\n
Idina Menzel, the original misunderstood green witch Elphaba in the Broadway run of \u201cWicked,\u201d continues to enjoy a high-flying career. It\u2019s just that right now, she\u2019s crawling cross-country on a tour bus that will bring her to Detroit on Wednesday for a concert at the Detroit Opera House.<\/p>\n
When I caught up with her by phone last week, the bus had just pulled into Little Rock, Ark., en route from a show in Austin, Texas, to the next gig in Nashville, Tenn. It was late morning. Menzel was yawning and trying to appease her 3-year-old son and tour companion, Walker.<\/p>\n
The singer didn\u2019t say whether she was yet wearing shoes that morning, but she did explain why she\u2019s likely to appear on stage barefoot, as she\u2019s been doing on the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just more comfortable and I sing better,\u201d says Menzel, who turned 41 in May. \u201cTraveling with Walker so much, pushing his stroller, carrying him and dealing with a car seat on airplanes, I began to really feel it in my legs and feet. One day, I just stopped wearing the heels I was wearing. I\u2019d been singing with symphony orchestras and felt I had to dress a certain way.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally, I just decided, forget it. I needed to be more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s just fine with her well-conditioned musical material. Menzel knows where her artistic heart lies, and it\u2019s solidly in the tradition of the Broadway musical. That\u2019s hardly surprising since she has become a key part of Broadway\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n
Before \u201cWicked,\u201d for which she won the 2004 Tony Award as best actress in a musical, Menzel had established her place on that pantheon as Maureen in the original production of Jonathan Larson\u2019s \u201cRent,\u201d which brought a 1996 Tony nomination for best featured actress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been blessed to have iconic songs that go along with the characters I\u2019ve played,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re like hit songs for me. I turn the mic toward the audience and they join in. They know all the words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel\u2019s fans always clamor for Maureen\u2019s big \u201cRent\u201d number \u201cTake Me or Leave Me,\u201d which happens to be a duet with her girlfriend Joanne. \u201cI can\u2019t sing it alone, so I go out into the audience to see if anyone would like to sing it with me.\u201d What she typically gets is a chorus of volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s great. I never get tired of singing these wonderful songs. It\u2019s a gift that I\u2019ve gotten to play those two roles. They changed my life, and singing the songs makes me appreciate where I\u2019ve been and what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a prolific songwriter herself, Menzel also has a deep affection for the American songbook, and her concert program is sprinkled with original music as well as the pop classics she grew up singing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a huge Cole Porter fan and used to sing \u2018Love for Sale\u2019 in college,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned the American songbook from my favorite singers \u2014 Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan. And when you depart from the structure, you can do a lot with those songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for Menzel, the light that ever leads her on is the beacon of Broadway. Trucking about the country is fine \u2014 for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m determined to get back to Broadway as soon as I can,\u201d she says, sounding fully awake. \u201cBut I want it to be an original piece. I\u2019ve been working with several composers. I want to give them their creative space. You know, just be a muse for them, stand at the piano and let them hear their material. I miss New York so much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oh, for a broomstick. Idina Menzel, the original misunderstood green witch Elphaba in the Broadway run of \u201cWicked,\u201d continues to enjoy a high-flying career. It\u2019s just that right now, she\u2019s crawling cross-country on a tour bus that will bring her to Detroit on Wednesday for a concert at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[28,6,7],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-summer-tour-2012","tag-career"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-V","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","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=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}