{"id":73,"date":"2015-07-31T15:57:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/?p=73"},"modified":"2015-10-22T21:55:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T21:55:40","slug":"idina-menzel-talks-barefoot-at-the-symphony-poker-face-and-her-secret-talents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-talks-barefoot-at-the-symphony-poker-face-and-her-secret-talents\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel Talks \u201cBarefoot at the Symphony,\u201d \u201cPoker Face,\u201d and Her Secret Talents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The gorgeous and talented Idina Menzel stops by to chat about her PBS musical special \u201cIdina Live: Barefoot at the Symphony,\u201d busting out Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cPoker Face\u201d with a full-on orchestra, returning to Broadway and the place she calls home, good \u2018ol New York, New York.<\/p>\n<p>Can you tell our viewers and readers how you decided to work with orchestras on tour\u2014was there a specific incident that powered your decision to go for it?<br \/>\nI was invited to work with symphonies all over the country, and it was something that I was nervous about, but also really excited about because it\u2019s very theatrical, very dramatic\u2014And, you can get lost in that, but I wanted to maintain a sense of intimacy and I think we really did that.<\/p>\n<p>There are many great components to your PBS special \u201cIdina Live: Barefoot at the Symphony\u201d\u2014what was your personal highlight from your performance?<br \/>\nThere were many favorite parts for me. I have Marvin Hamlisch conducting and he\u2019s a very special man\u2014I feel very honored having him on stage with me. My husband Taye Diggs makes a guest appearance. There are a lot of spontaneous moments, which I think is the best thing about the special. And, there is a lot of New York humor, actually. There are moments that happen that night that never happened before, which is important for me as a theater person because I feel like the audience gets to see something that only that audience gets to see.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is it called \u201cBarefoot at the Symphony?\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019m a Long Island girl at heart and standing up there with a full-on orchestra in these amazing symphony halls can be daunting at times. One day, I had to not wear shoes because my back was killing me\u2013I had been traveling with my two-year old. I went out there and I never sang better than that night. I just felt like myself and it keeps me grounded. It\u2019s a good juxtaposition between this huge orchestra and where I really come from.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How have your audiences reacted to orchestral workings on Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cPoker Face\u201d after seeing it on Glee? <\/strong><br \/>\nOh, the audience loves it! But it\u2019s the symphonies I always worry are insulted, or that I\u2019m insulting their intelligence, when I\u2019m asking them to play \u201cPoker Face\u201d because they are all graduates of Juilliard. I think after we do it, they get the humor behind it and we all have a lot of fun with it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Any other song highlights or funny moments that you really love?<\/strong><br \/>\nI do \u201cNo Day but Today\u201d from Rent and I love it because it\u2019s how I got my start. It\u2019s very New York and it sets the tone for what I believe and how I live my life in this business. The audience sings along with me and it\u2019s a really beautiful moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you hope audiences and listeners take away from your CD and watching the PBS special?<\/strong><br \/> <br \/>\nI want them to feel like they get to know me. A lot of people, in this town especially, they probably know a girl with green makeup, and in this special, I get to sing but I also get to share a lot of who I am and my days back in long island growing up, Broadway moments and everything. I feel like they\u2019ll really get to see the true me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can we look forward to seeing you back on Broadway? <\/strong><br \/>\nI can\u2019t wait to get back. I\u2019m working on a couple things that I can\u2019t talk about yet, but it will probably be an original musical, which takes longer to do, obviously. My husband and I are dying to get back to New York City, so the answer to that is, yes!<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are your favorite places, restaurants, secret spots in New York?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy favorite place is Blue Ribbon. If you are an actor or a theater person, you need late-night places with great food. And coming from L.A., everything is open late here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you have any secret talents?<\/strong><br \/>\nI don\u2019t know if this is a talent, but I can fake-sing, phonetically, any song with lyrics. Because I was a wedding singer back in the 80s, I would sing \u201cSmooth Operator\u201d a lot, and I didn\u2019t know the real words\u2014but, since nobody ever listens, it doesn\u2019t really matter because no on ever notices. I do that \u2018til this very day with all my Beyonce songs.<\/p>\n<p>Catch the video below with a fun outtake of Idina singing \u201cSmooth Operator\u201d her way.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"UTF-8\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/portableplayer\/?cmsID=140769143&#038;videoID=reBVpArFniWLLIstS9h1r4uG8Z4MJyZp&#038;origin=nbcchicago.com&#038;sec=blogs&#038;subsec=1st-look&#038;width=600&#038;height=360\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIdina Live: Barefoot at the Symphony\u201d airs March 6 on PBS. Also, look for the live CD and DVD with bonus footage. Idina will return to New York City and perform at Carnegie Hall on October 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The gorgeous and talented Idina Menzel stops by to chat about her PBS musical special \u201cIdina Live: Barefoot at the Symphony,\u201d busting out Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cPoker Face\u201d with a full-on orchestra, returning to Broadway and the place she calls home, good \u2018ol New York, New York. Can you [&hellip;]<\/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_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":[28,12],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-1b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","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=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}