{"id":720,"date":"2018-07-06T16:24:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T16:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=720"},"modified":"2018-07-06T16:38:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T16:38:26","slug":"idina-menzel-on-her-new-record-spontaneity-in-live-shows-and-her-evolving-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-on-her-new-record-spontaneity-in-live-shows-and-her-evolving-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel on her new record, spontaneity in live shows, and her evolving audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare to find a performer as prolific and humble as Idina Menzel. The Tony Award-winning icon has made a name for herself both on stage and on screen thanks to starring roles in Rent<\/em>, Wicked<\/em>, and most recently Disney\u2019s smash animated feature Frozen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Propelled to a household name thanks to Frozen<\/em>, Menzel nevertheless remains as approachable and humble as ever, taking time to talk to GayRVA before her stop in Richmond this Friday, 5\/19, in the midst of her 2017 world tour.<\/p>\n

Menzel is no stranger to Richmond, touring through the city in her previous 2015 tour (read our review of that show here!<\/a>). Attendees this time can expect a similar experience to last time, with some surprises peppered throughout.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can expect a really exciting, eclectic, intimate show with a kick-ass band and a really fun set list where they can expect to hear the songs they\u2019re used to hearing but also some new surprises, some great new arrangements, and some few things from my latest album,\u201d Menzel said.<\/p>\n

When Menzel talks about surprises she\u2019s not kidding: last tour saw her transitioning Frozen<\/em> super hit \u2018Let it Go\u2019 into the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 \u2018Give it Away,\u2019 a music melding so unique it had to have been seen to truly believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI woke up one morning, I dunno it was in my head. I thought \u201cgive it away, give it away, give it away, give it away now,\u201d sounded very similar to \u201clet it go, let it go, let it go.\u2019 ,\u201d said Menzel. \u201cYou\u2019re on the road for a while and things occur with you when you\u2019re jamming with the band and you just throw stuff in and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though having fun with live performances in a big part of Menzel\u2019s magic, she also cites vulnerability and a connection to her audiences as cornerstones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, what makes a live performance great is someone who isn\u2019t afraid to make their self vulnerable,\u201d said Menzel. \u201cSomeone who welcomes mistakes and spontaneity, someone that\u2019s willing to reveal them self to their audience so their audience can really get to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vulnerability also plays a role in Menzel\u2019s music creation process, something clear from her self-titled album released this past October. Menzel opened up about the state of her life while she was getting the record together \u2013 while success was barking at her down, her personal life entered a new, challenging phase that undoubtedly impacted the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was on supercharge because my professional life was amazing, and so many exciting things were happening. My career was sort-of catapulted to another level with the success of Frozen and singing at The Oscars and the Super Bowl,\u201d she said. \u201cBut simultaneously I was going through a divorce and all of what that entails, and all that emotion, guilt and sadness. So there were these two very opposing forces that gave me a lot write about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Frozen<\/em> supercharged her career, it also brought some unexpected twists to her career. Menzel now had a fangroup of varying age groups, something she has accepted in stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is each big project I\u2019ve been a part of\u2013whether it be Rent<\/em> or Wicked<\/em> or Frozen<\/em>\u2013there have always been young people who connected with it,\u201d she said. \u201cThen those young people have now grown up and now have kids, so I\u2019ve got parents with kids who are into Frozen<\/em> but the parents know me from the days of Rent<\/em> so I still sing that kind of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge I welcome, I\u2019m proud of it, I\u2019m proud of having such a huge demographic and audience, and being able to speak to so many different kinds of people,\u201d said Menzel.<\/p>\n

Menzel will perform in Richmond next Friday, May 19th at the Altria Theatre. This will be Menzel\u2019s first performance in a month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare to find a performer as prolific and humble as Idina Menzel. The Tony Award-winning icon has made a name for herself both on stage and on screen thanks to starring roles in Rent, Wicked, and most recently Disney\u2019s smash animated feature Frozen. Propelled to a household […]<\/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-720","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-bC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720","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=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}