Mmm\u2026 nice. Idina Menzel is wowing audiences across the country, right now with her very first television special, available now on DVD or CD and now your local PBS stations. For the performance presented on the CD, Idina Menzel LIVE: Barefoot at the Symphony, the Tony Award-winning singer and actress steps up alone, with a full symphony to offer her very own special brand of songs. And, as Mrs. Diggs is the proud mother of a small child, two-year-old son, Walker gave her a bit of inspiration. That is\u2026 to perform barefoot on stage. On each and every stage during her tour, almost since she started out, Idina Menzel performs barefoot.<\/p>\n
It did wonders for the artist to NOT wear heels while performing live. And perform she does! From the opening number, \u201cThe Life of the Party\u201d all the way down the wire to the closing of her signature song, \u201cDefying Gravity,\u201d Menzel\u2019s amazing vocal gifts and personality shine through. Here for The Rage Monthly magazine, she proves beyond a doubt, her fireball of talent is still glowing strong.<\/p>\n
How are you?<\/strong> Excellent. Well, let\u2019s get going. You\u2019re a busy woman.<\/strong> This is a two-part question. For starters, performing live barefoot\u2026\u2028No splinters yet?<\/strong> With all the stops on your tour, is there a clause in your contract about clean and smooth stages?<\/strong> Good. Your voice on Idina Menzel LIVE: Barefoot at the Symphony CD sounds as beautiful and powerful as ever. As you have orchestra alone on stage, what have been your initial experiences on working with a full orchestra?<\/strong> Is your conductor, Marvin Hamlisch on every stop with you?<\/strong> Have you ever heard of a Broadway singer by the name of Ella Logan?<\/strong> She starred in Finian\u2019s Rainbow on Broadway in 1947. When you sing \u201cLove for Sale\u201d on your concert CD, her voice reminds me of you.<\/strong> Really. No, I haven\u2019t seen the DVD yet and am really looking forward to that.<\/strong> On the CD though, I can sense the excitement. Your story about The Kennedy Center and performing during the tribute to Barbara Streisand, that\u2019s hilarious!<\/strong> Yeah and even though I didn\u2019t see you do the song on GLEE, I\u2019m glad you chose the song \u201cFunny Girl.\u201d That song is not performed that much live and it always chokes me up in the emotional qualities.<\/strong> I also really enjoyed when your husband joined you on stage for the duet of \u201cWhere or When.\u201d I bet your husband can do a bad-ass interpretation of Johnny Mathis, if he tried.<\/strong> Yes. How did you decide together to pick that song?<\/strong> Well, you\u2019ve created a lot of memorable moments on this. I do have to tell you that one of my very favorites on your CD is \u201cHeaven Help My Heart.\u201d<\/strong> Mmm\u2026 nice. Idina Menzel is wowing audiences across the country, right now with her very first television special, available now on DVD or CD and now your local PBS stations. For the performance presented on the CD, Idina Menzel LIVE: Barefoot at the Symphony, the Tony Award-winning singer […]<\/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_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":[28,12],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-14","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","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=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI\u2019m good\u2026 I\u2019m in Dallas and about to go live to premiere the PBS special.<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
\nNo!<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s a good question. (Laughter) No one\u2019s ever asked me that. No clause, I just take the risk. I think they take good care of their theatres and stages so we haven\u2019t had a problem.<\/p>\n
\nYeah\u2026 it is thrilling. It\u2019s a little daunting and surreal but it\u2019s just a beautiful experience. That\u2019s as much as I can describe really.<\/p>\n
\nHe\u2019s on a considerable amount and has been on a considerable amount. We met a year and a half ago at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Virginia. We were doing a show together. From then on, we purposely made sure our schedules coincided, so we could do this together. We feel pretty good about each other.<\/p>\n
\nI don\u2019t think so. Who\u2019s that?<\/p>\n
\nHuh\u2026 thank you. I perform the song, \u201cLook to the Rainbow\u201d on the DVD. It\u2019s not on the CD. So, it\u2019s funny. I thought you were going to talk about that.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m gonna check her out. Thanks. I love it.<\/p>\n
\nThank you (laughter). The entire weekend was quite an event. I think the biggest learning experience from it all was about my husband [Taye Diggs] and I and how different we approach being together in those situations.<\/p>\n
\nThanks and it\u2019s such a beautiful song. I was asked to do it on GLEE and I fell in love with it. The musical director and arranger, Rob Mounsey did a really beautiful job with it. So, we don\u2019t have it on the actual PBS special because of time constraints. I was excited though to be able to keep it on the album.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, he can. He likes Johnny Mathis actually. Doesn\u2019t he have a beautiful tone to his voice?<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s just a song that we really loved. We tried not to over think it and find the right thing to do. He had sung that song in his own show that he was working on and did a beautiful job. I said, \u201cThat would be fun and let\u2019s do this together\u2026\u201dTo play with it on stage as though we were strangers, we really like that kind of music and hopefully one day, we\u2019ll do more of that together. Definitely.<\/p>\n
\nThank you. It\u2019s such a bombastic show and everything is so big and loud. That song is so tender and beautiful. So, that\u2019s my favorite song from\u2028the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"