If luck is the crossroads where opportunity meets preparation, then it\u2019s clear that Idina Menzel has been going through life with the spiritual equivalent of a four-leaf clover hanging over her head.<\/p>\n
Starting with a 1996 Tony-nominated debut as an original cast member of the off-Broadway and Broadway versions of \u201cRent,\u201d Menzel later played Elphaba, the \u201cwicked witch of the west,\u201d alongside Kristin Chenoweth in \u201cWicked.\u201d Having won a 2004 Tony Award for that role, she received her third Tony nod for starring as Elizabeth in the 2013 musical \u201cIf\/Then.\u201d<\/p>\n
All this happened before Menzel reached a new plateau, landing on the radar of little girls everywhere when she provided the voice for Queen Elsa in the 2013 film \u201cFrozen,\u201d for which she sang the immortal Oscar and Grammy-winning song \u201cLet It Go.\u201d The groundswell of popularity and success that came with being part of that particular project even has the singer, who stops by Starlight Theatre on Wednesday, Aug. 16, shaking her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessionally, (\u2018Frozen\u2019 is) one of the best things that ever happened to me,\u201d she said with a laugh during a recent interview. \u201cWhen you can have success in your career and it really touches people and connects with young people especially, there\u2019s something even more special and profound about that kind of accomplishment. I had no idea it would be as big as it is. I count my lucky stars and look forward to doing the upcoming sequel. Once every decade, I get a sort of a zeitgeist type of opportunity, and I\u2019m just very, very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are quite the professional heights attained by the Syosset, N.Y., native who is currently touring behind last year\u2019s \u201cIdina,\u201d her fifth solo album and first non-holiday recording since 2008\u2019s \u201cI Stand.\u201d With a new batch of songs to promote, Menzel is eager to mix it up on stage this summer. She recently got to do just that at a newly renovated venue in her hometown backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show on Long Island was a big deal to me, because I grew up going to Nassau Coliseum. I saw U2 play there. That was one of the first concerts ever. And the fact that Billy Joel was there two nights before me and opening it up was all very nostalgic and exciting for me,\u201d she said wistfully. \u201cHometown shows are something I really look forward to, but they also make me very nervous and bring back a lot of mixed emotions from my childhood. All of a sudden, my songs took on different meanings because I was thinking about different things. I did all kinds of music that chronicles my career, whether it was pop songs, (material) from a show or great music that I\u2019ve always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still very much a Long Island gal at heart, Menzel has plenty of great \u2014 and a few bittersweet \u2014 memories of attending classes in the Syosset school district and where she fit within the social fabric of the schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember plenty of kids having a lot of money, and I was on the low end of middle class, and so it was hard to grow up around that. There was a lot of entitlement,\u201d Menzel recalled, noting the district was very supportive of the arts. \u201cI think it\u2019s hard for a kid to have an understanding and perspective of what they are lucky to have. I didn\u2019t have as many Jordache jeans as someone else. I did understand that I was very lucky and that my parents gave me a great many things on my father\u2019s pajama salesman\u2019s salary, and I remember some great teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the successes she has enjoyed in her career and more recent opportunities that include a lead role in the Lifetime Network remake of \u201cBeaches,\u201d Menzel\u2019s personal life has been more rocky in recent years.<\/p>\n
After giving birth to son Walker Nathaniel Diggs in 2009, her decadelong marriage to fellow \u201cRent\u201d cast member Taye Diggs ended in a 2014 divorce. Last September, she announced her engagement to actor Aaron Lohr, whom she met when both appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of \u201cRent.\u201d<\/p>\n
This recent emotional roller coaster ride is reflected throughout the dozen songs on the new record that she worked on with collaborators Greg Wells (Katy Perry, Adele) and Eric Rosse (Sara Bareilles, Tori Amos).<\/p>\n
Highlights include the piano ode \u201cLast Time,\u201d with Menzel going from a slow build into the lines, \u201cDon\u2019t let the last time I saw you\/Be the last time\u201d and \u201cI See You,\u201d a power ballad not unlike Christina Aguilera\u2019s \u201cBeautiful\u201d that hits home with aching couplets like, \u201cHere\u2019s to the lonely\/To the broken-hearted\/I want you to know I feel your pain\/Here\u2019s to the hopeless\/The almost forgotten\/To those who got lost along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
This latest record allowed Menzel to revisit some of those hard moments and work her way through them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot to write about. I\u2019d gone through a lot of changes in my life. I was going through a divorce while simultaneously, my whole professional life was taking off,\u201d she said. \u201cI met someone that I love very much after I got divorced, so there\u2019s a lot of rebirth and there\u2019s a lot of sadness and regret. There was a lot to write about.\u201d<\/p>\n
If luck is the crossroads where opportunity meets preparation, then it\u2019s clear that Idina Menzel has been going through life with the spiritual equivalent of a four-leaf clover hanging over her head. Starting with a 1996 Tony-nominated debut as an original cast member of the off-Broadway and Broadway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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":true,"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":[45],"class_list":["post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-45"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-aj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}