There\u2019s the Idina Menzel who will look out on a crowd, spot a little girl carrying an \u201cI love you Idina\u201d sign, and invite the kid on stage to get her poster autographed.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the Idina Menzel who will look out on a crowd, spot an adult fan with a sign requesting a song, and quip: \u201cYou can\u2019t make requests. It\u2019s not a f—— bar mitzvah.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which Idina Menzel will we get on Friday night, when the beloved Broadway star (\u201cRent,\u201d \u201cWicked,\u201d \u201cIf\/Then\u201d) and Disney princess (\u201cFrozen\u201d) brings her 2017 world tour to Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre?<\/p>\n
Both. Definitely both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demographic of my audience is all over the map, which is an amazing thing,\u201d says the actress and singer, who will perform classic pop covers, musical theater favorites and her own solo work (including selections from her new album, \u201cidina.\u201d). \u201cBut it\u2019s also a tricky thing, to make sure that I can involve the young people \u2013 the really<\/em> young kids \u2013 and then the older men, and the parents in between. And I\u2019m a 40-something woman, you know, so I have to stay true to myself. I\u2019m not doing a kids\u2019 show.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel spoke to the Observer recently about the novel way parents can shield kids from profanity at her concert, the character she\u2019s played that is closest to her heart (hint: you\u2019ve probably never heard of this one), and the important lessons she\u2019s been getting from Steph Curry.<\/p>\n Q. Because of \u201cFrozen,\u201d bunches of young girls consistently show up at your concerts. How does that play into your overall approach?<\/span><\/p>\n A. Well, this is the thing: The 12-year-old girls from \u201cFrozen\u201d used to be the 12-year-girls from \u201cWicked\u201d that used to be the 12-year-old kids from \u201cRent.\u201d The generations have moved, they\u2019ve had kids, and I think they\u2019ve grown up with me. So there\u2019s an understanding and a support from them as fans and as friends. I think that Vince Vaughn helped me out when he said \u201cEarmuff it for me\u201d in \u201cOld School.\u201d And I just say to the moms that they\u2019ve gotta give me a \u201cget-out-of-jail-free\u201d card; once in awhile, I gotta let it rip and be myself.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. I also saw there\u2019s a release date for \u201cFrozen 2\u201d (Nov. 27, 2019), so you\u2019ll be teeing up yet another generation of 12-year-old girls in a couple years, huh?<\/span><\/p>\n A. Exactly. … I\u2019m not quite sure how I\u2019ve gotten that lucky, but this pattern of pretty empowering women roles is a gift and a responsibility, I feel. And they\u2019re not just<\/em> great projects. They\u2019re projects that live on and take on such meaning and resonance with people. They mean so much to me.<\/em> I mean, I learn from these characters that I play. They challenge me to think a certain way and believe in myself a certain way.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Do you have a favorite character that you\u2019ve played?<\/span><\/p>\n A. I think one of my favorites is from a movie that nobody saw. There\u2019s this little movie \u2013 it was by Robert Towne, who wrote \u201cChinatown\u201d \u2013 called \u201cAsk the Dust.\u201d It starred Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek, it was set in the 1930s, and I had this great supporting role. I just fell in love with her and what she was about. She wasn\u2019t as brave as a lot of the \u2013 er, not brave, that\u2019s wrong. … I\u2019d say she had a hard time finding herself. She had a drinking problem and self-esteem issues. She was very wounded. She doesn\u2019t overcome that status as much as the other women that I play, and I don\u2019t think it got reviewed that great, but I was proud of my performance.<\/span><\/p>\n A. Nope. That\u2019s probably another reason I like it so much. It\u2019s nice to feel like I can be recognized as a really good actress without singing.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Is that something that\u2019s important to you, to keep an eye out for roles that don\u2019t require you to sing?<\/span><\/p>\n A. Honestly, you can\u2019t be so picky in this business. If something great comes along \u2013 as long as it\u2019s beautifully written or I can collaborate or be in the room with people that are gonna make me a better artist \u2013 then I just go. If it involves music, cool; if it doesn\u2019t, cool. I just want to be around great people and get better. That\u2019s all that really matters.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Back to the shows: I understand that there\u2019s a moment toward the end where you bring kids up on stage from the audience to sing \u201cLet It Go\u201d with you.<\/span><\/p>\n A. Yeah, most of the time. That\u2019s when my real maternal instincts come out, because I have to handle like 20 kids on a precariously high stage, and their crazy<\/em> moms that are pushing them up there, not paying attention, just trying to take their picture. … But the whole thing is just about sharing that with them. To bring the kids up as a reminder of what it really<\/em> is about. I love doing that.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Do you ever get sick of that song, though?<\/span><\/p>\n A. People always think \u201cLet It Go\u201d would get boring to sing all the time, but it doesn\u2019t. I\u2019ve always wanted like a hit song. I\u2019ve had iconic songs, but that song got played by the mainstream. So I\u2019m so proud of it. I enjoy it. <\/span><\/p>\n Q. OK, but does it ever get stuck in your head, like it does with the rest of us?<\/span><\/p>\n A. (Laughing.) Not so much. If it does \u2013 if I sing it a little bit \u2013 my son gives me like the stink-eye. (Her son Walker turns 8 in September; his father is actor Taye Diggs; the couple divorced in 2014 and she is currently engaged to actor Aaron Lohr.)<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Your son\u2019s on the road with you, right?<\/span><\/p>\n A. Most of the time, yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. How does he like touring?<\/span><\/p>\n A. I think he loves it. I mean, he gets to be on a tour bus \u2013 how cool is that? We have these bunk beds, and he\u2019s got his movies all set up, and he\u2019s really into basketball now, so I bought a big hoop that fits on the truck. We can take it out in every parking lot that we show up in, so he can play.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Do you two play one-on-one?<\/span><\/p>\n A. Yeah. I mean, I hurt my knee … but I don\u2019t want him to know that. I don\u2019t want to be that parent that can never play, so I play through the pain. I\u2019ve always been into basketball, but I\u2019ve been learning how to actually play<\/em> \u2013 by like watching YouTube videos of Steph Curry to learn how to do a crossover. \u201cBreak ankles\u201d apparently is the new term. (Laughing.) I\u2019ve been working on my handles. I gotta make my son proud, you know?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s the Idina Menzel who will look out on a crowd, spot a little girl carrying an \u201cI love you Idina\u201d sign, and invite the kid on stage to get her poster autographed. Then there\u2019s the Idina Menzel who will look out on a crowd, spot an adult […]<\/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_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-45"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-bi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","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=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}