Since she began appearing on the Fox TV show \u201cGlee\u201d a couple of years ago, Broadway star Idina Menzel is noticed by fans more than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s an enigma about it.\u201d the 40-year-old New Yorker said in a recent phone interview. \u201cWhen they do approach me, they talk about \u2018Wicked\u2019 or \u2018Rent.\u2019 There\u2019s more of an awareness of that\u2019s the girl in the green makeup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel, who won a Tony Award for playing the future Wicked Witch of the West in the musical \u201cWicked\u201d and was nominated for a Tony for playing bisexual performance artist Maureen in \u201cRent,\u201d performs with a small orchestra June 5 at the Gallo Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n
The concert is to promote her latest CD and DVD of a PBS special, both titled \u201cIdina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CD and DVD include her cover of Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cPoker Face\u201d (featured on \u201cGlee\u201d), \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d from \u201cWicked,\u201d \u201cNo Day But Today\u201d from \u201cRent\u201d and a medley of Sting\u2019s \u201cRoxanne\u201d and Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cLove for Sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also include her humorous stories about life in show business. She talks about feeling awkward singing the lyrics from \u201cPoker Face,\u201d which include the line, \u201cI\u2019m just stunning with my love glue gunnin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
She discusses performing for her idol Barbra Streisand at a Streisand tribute for Kennedy Center Honors and then having Streisand mostly ignore her afterward. Menzel also talks about feeling strange playing the mother of \u201cGlee\u201d actress Lea Michele, who is only 15 years younger.<\/p>\n
Menzel said she wasn\u2019t worried about revealing too much in her stories. \u201cMy intention is to be as authentic as possible,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 I feel that\u2019s what makes a great performer \u2014 people feel like they get to know you. You can get inside their soul a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that Streisand later sent her a hand-written card thanking her for her performance.<\/p>\n
Born in Queens, N.Y., Menzel earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in drama at New York University and worked as a wedding singer before she landed a part in the then-new musical \u201cRent\u201d in 1995. It was her first experience in a Broadway show and it became a huge popular and critical hit, winning the Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony Awards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went in and auditioned because I needed the work,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cI hardly knew what it was. It wasn\u2019t until rehearsal that I started to realize, \u2018This is something special.\u2019 \u201d
\nIt was through the show that she met Taye Diggs, who played landlord Benjamin Coffin III and later became her husband. The two reprised their roles in the 2005 movie version of \u201cRent.\u201d They have been married nine years and have a 2\u00bd-year-old son, Walker.<\/p>\n
Diggs, known for his role as a doctor on the \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d spinoff, \u201cPrivate Practice,\u201d sings \u201cWhere or When\u201d with her on her CD and DVD.<\/p>\n
Menzel was cast as Elphaba in \u201cWicked\u201d for the 2003 San Francisco preview and Broadway debut later that year. She thought the show was great right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen exploring the character in the story, when I learned the music on the callback, it moved me so much,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was something about me that needed to play that character.\u201d
\nMenzel said she hopes to continue to play Shelby Corcoran on \u201cGlee\u201d but isn\u2019t sure what will happen with the character.<\/p>\n
She also hopes to be back on Broadway soon in a new musical that she can\u2019t yet talk about. In the meantime, she\u2019s concentrating on getting ready for her summer concert tour. She\u2019s a bit nervous about bringing along her son on the tour bus and worries how he\u2019ll do being dragged from city to city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make sure he has everything he needs and that it\u2019s a terrific experience for him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She has someone to help with child care, and Diggs plans to visit from time to time. He may decide to join her occasionally on stage for a song; she said she\u2019s not sure yet if he\u2019ll come with her to Modesto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m bringing some music in case,\u201d she said, adding that she loves singing with him. \u201cIt\u2019s who we are and what we love. It\u2019s very nostalgic and feels very comfortable with us and pretty romantic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since she began appearing on the Fox TV show \u201cGlee\u201d a couple of years ago, Broadway star Idina Menzel is noticed by fans more than ever. \u201cBut there\u2019s an enigma about it.\u201d the 40-year-old New Yorker said in a recent phone interview. \u201cWhen they do approach me, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71,"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],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-summer-tour-2012"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012_04_barefoot.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-18","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","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=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}