When Idina Menzel landed the role of Maureen Johnson in \u201cRent\u201d in 1995, she had no idea it would be her big break on Broadway \u2014 or that she would meet her future husband, castmate Taye Diggs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a struggling wedding singer\/bar mitzvah singer, and I was just happy to get this job in the midst of January and February because there\u2019s no weddings in that time, so I needed work,\u201d the New York native said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first day we sang \u2018Seasons of Love\u2019 that we learned in rehearsal, I thought this beautiful song is special, but I had no idea to what extent that would be. And as far as my husband goes, I thought he was really hot, but I didn\u2019t think we had very much in common,\u201d Menzel said and laughed.<\/p>\n
Her star rose to new heights when she played Elphaba in the original Broadway cast of \u201cWicked,\u201d singing \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d while soaring above the stage of the Gershwin Theatre from 2003-05.
\n\u201c[Singing that song on Broadway is] a different sensation, but it\u2019s still thrilling for me, especially now because I feel so lucky to have a song like that in my life that people know so well, that people love, and it\u2019s a beautiful way to revisit \u2018Wicked\u2019 for me every night,\u201d she said during a call from her tour bus in Texas.<\/p>\n
Fans can hear it live when Menzel performs at 8 p.m. June 27 at the Detroit Opera House. Tickets range from $35.50 to $95.50.<\/p>\n
As the Wicked Witch of the West, she won the Tony Award for best performance by a leading actress in 2004.<\/p>\n
Because she was in \u201cWicked,\u201d Menzel\u2019s life was changed \u2014 for good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the platform that it puts me on as a role model that I\u2019ve become because of what that character represents and how young people connect with her, so that\u2019s a huge responsibility that I embrace and I love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important, significant aspect of playing Elphaba was, as women, we are often afraid and let our true power, our true strengths, kind of be eliminated in society because we don\u2019t want to seem threatening or off-putting. And I had to learn that about myself, as a human being, that I wasn\u2019t doing anybody any favors by stifling, quelling those things that make me special.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days she\u2019s embracing her beauty, that amazing voice \u2014 and singing shoeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony\u201d was released as a CD and DVD by Concord Records in March. A special also aired on PBS.<\/p>\n
The singer offers glimpses of her life through music by Cole Porter, The Police, Barbra Streisand and Lady Gaga.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome songs chronicle a specific time in my life that I wanted to share with the audience, so the Cole Porter song is from my college days, Lady Gaga is \u2018Glee,\u2019 \u201d she said.
\nOn \u201cGlee,\u201d Menzel played Shelby Corcoran, mother of Rachel Berry (Lea Michele).<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked being on that show; I liked being around all those talented singers and dancers. It makes me feel like I\u2019m in New York a little bit more when I\u2019m stuck in LA,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n
Soon Menzel will work on a project for the big screen: She\u2019ll be the voice of the Snow Queen in Walt Disney\u2019s \u201cFrozen,\u201d based on Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s \u201cThe Snow Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a dream of mine come true; I had a little piece of it in \u2018Enchanted\u2019 [as Nancy Tremaine], but this is a whole different ballgame,\u201d she said. \u201cAs soon as I get off tour, I go into the studio and really start getting into it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Idina Menzel landed the role of Maureen Johnson in \u201cRent\u201d in 1995, she had no idea it would be her big break on Broadway \u2014 or that she would meet her future husband, castmate Taye Diggs. \u201cI was a struggling wedding singer\/bar mitzvah singer, and I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65,"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":[28,6],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-summer-tour-2012"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012_06_21.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-11","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","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=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}