Idina Menzel doesn\u2019t do anything halfway \u2013 even when she\u2019s deciding on her gay faves. \u201cIt\u2019s so silly,\u201d says the homo-hearted theater queen, surfing Google for \u201chot gay male celebrities.\u201d Her assistant even gets involved. \u201cThis is very important stuff,\u201d Menzel giggles, fully immersed in her search to name her current gay crush.<\/p>\n
Neil Patrick Harris? Too typical. George Michael? Maybe 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I could do a woman\u201d she realizes, before catching the unintentional humor in that: \u201cI mean, not do a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
And on she goes, scouring the web relentlessly. Again, she laughs. \u201c(My assistant) just went onto a gay porn site. That\u2019s helpful!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten minutes later, she\u2019s got it: Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes and Anderson Cooper, because \u201cthat makes me sound really smart.\u201d Not that she has to sound anything except beautiful, and that she already does \u2013 as demonstrated in her 20 years on stage, from \u201cRent\u201d to \u201cWicked\u201d (originating the roles of Maureen and Elphaba, respectively), and as a cradle-robber on \u201cGlee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now the ever-sweet Broadway diva has a new live album, \u201cIdina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony,\u201d airing on PBS Saturday, before she hits the road this summer for a series of tour dates (Menzel will perform June 27 at the Detroit Opera House; tickets are on sale Monday, March 5). She caught up with us recently to talk toes, hubby Taye Diggs\u2019 gay tendency and learning the real definition of \u201cwhite party.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBarefoot at the Symphony\u201d is the name of the new album \u2013 do you have nice feet?<\/strong> Is the second toe longer than the big toe?<\/strong> Will your tour be a lot like this album?<\/strong> Do people expect you to fly when you do \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d?<\/strong> How did it go over when you covered \u201cPoker Face\u201d with the symphony?<\/strong> On the album you recall a crush you had on a gay professor during your freshman year in college. What was it about him that you were so into?<\/strong> Since you have a history of falling for gay men, did Taye have to pass some kind of test?<\/strong> Oh, Idina, these are all red flags.<\/strong> Who has the bigger gay following?<\/strong> You know, you take everything from the gays: Taye Diggs. Kissing Puck on \u201cGlee.\u201d Waking up with Patrick Dempsey in \u201cEnchanted.\u201d What do you have to say for yourself?<\/strong> What was your recent gay cruise experience on Atlantis\u2019 Allure of the Seas like?<\/strong> What would you tell your son, Walker, if he came out to you?<\/strong> Is your character on \u201cGlee,\u201d Shelby, done for?<\/strong> Are you looking at being a part of a musical again?<\/strong> Any word on a \u201cWicked\u201d movie?<\/strong> So much has happened in your career since playing Maureen in \u201cRent.\u201d Is that still a part of you?<\/strong> What about \u201cWicked\u201d? Do you have nightmares about going green?<\/strong> Idina Menzel doesn\u2019t do anything halfway \u2013 even when she\u2019s deciding on her gay faves. \u201cIt\u2019s so silly,\u201d says the homo-hearted theater queen, surfing Google for \u201chot gay male celebrities.\u201d Her assistant even gets involved. \u201cThis is very important stuff,\u201d Menzel giggles, fully immersed in her search to […]<\/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":[28,12,13,5],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony","tag-taye-diggs","tag-wicked"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-1d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","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=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThey\u2019re all right. My toes are pretty in proportion to each other. No weird toes.<\/p>\n
\nNo, they\u2019re actually nice like that. It\u2019s just that \u2013 from working out and stuff \u2013 my heels are always dry. But the toes are nice!<\/p>\n
\nThe album is a culmination of a year and a half of touring and playing with these amazing symphonies. So, this summer when I go on tour, I obviously need to retain some of the songs that I know people would shoot me for if I didn\u2019t sing them, but I am going to clean the slate and freshen up the show and explore some brand new material.<\/p>\n
\nNo, I don\u2019t think they do. (Laughs) But I\u2019m sure they expect me to hit very high notes, which isn\u2019t always an easy thing to do.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s funny: the audience was everyone from theater people to symphony people to just your regular audience coming to see some entertainment for the evening. But \u201cPoker Face\u201d was great. I did it because I knew people would like to see something from \u201cGlee\u201d and I thought the juxtaposition of the song with the orchestra could be really cool, but I didn\u2019t realize it would become a comic piece for me. The first couple of times I did it I realized these stories and I stopped the full on symphony in the middle of the song, which you never do, to tell people the story behind it. Then it just started becoming this little creature that I used every night as a way of singing that song but also having fun with the audience and being really spontaneous.<\/p>\n
\nWell, first, I didn\u2019t realize he was gay until later in life, but he was just so intense and he was the kind of teacher that you know you trusted and respected so much that also could make you cry in a second because he saw right through you and challenged you and expected the most of you. For me, when I got in front of class and felt like I was disappointing a teacher, I would just get so demoralized. That feeling never goes away. Whether you\u2019re standing up in front of 10 people in a class or 5,000 people in an audience, the idea of opening your soul and making yourself really vulnerable is quite terrifying and sometimes, if you\u2019re not prepared, you get really thrown.<\/p>\n
\nNo. Please. He went to the high school of the arts in Rochester and majored in theater in Syracuse, and so many of his friends were gay before we even met.<\/p>\n
\n(Laughs) Yeah, he\u2019ll even engage in \u201crunway\u201d at parties at the house if we pull out the carpet and it\u2019s late at night, he has a couple of drinks and Taye will even do runway\u2026 if you give him enough alcohol.<\/p>\n
\nI think I do! (Laughs)<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s some good stuff, huh? In my defense, I\u2019m a mom of a 2-year-old and \u2013 like, right now I\u2019m in the ugliest outfit, practically PJs, my hair hasn\u2019t been washed in two days \u2013 and if I didn\u2019t have those opportunities I\u2019d never feel like a woman again.<\/p>\n
\nI learned the white party doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you wear white suits; it means you wear as little as possible and maybe some white Hanes underwear and angel wings. (Laughs) I learned that I will never go on a cruise ship again unless it\u2019s a gay cruise because I am now ruined forever. The creativity and the passion and the fun will be unmatched. The best audiences of my life. It was just a blast. There\u2019s a bunch of sides to yourself, but it\u2019s nice to just let \u2018er rip. And sing some duets with some drag queens!<\/p>\n
\nHopefully I wouldn\u2019t have to say much by then. Hopefully he\u2019ll grow up in an environment where he won\u2019t think much of it and it will be very commonplace and yet, if for some reason that discussion did arise, Taye and I would say, if we were to have a son or daughter who were gay, they wouldn\u2019t meet any resistance with us. We always take five steps forward and two steps back, but in our house, in our family and with our friends, he already is in the company of \u2013 and loved by \u2013 all sorts of people.
\n(Taye and I) have very supportive parents and so it\u2019s more the outside world that tends to put some stigma on it, even in this day and age. I think it\u2019s just about raising a son that\u2019s going to be mixed race and how to tackle that and what that means \u2013 even religiously and spirituality, we have a lot of stuff ahead of us. I want to be really clear and defined so that it\u2019s not confusing.<\/p>\n
\nYou know, I don\u2019t know. They\u2019re saying I\u2019m coming back, but you never know. Maybe they\u2019ll go with another storyline. But I love being there. I love the energy on set, and I certainly did enjoy being hot for teacher and having the 17-year-old man with the Mohawk to kiss on. But they keep things really close to the vest, so it\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, but nothing that I really can speak of yet. I\u2019m trying to give people their space to create and do their thing, but that\u2019s my goal and I\u2019m putting my energy toward trying to get back to New York City in an original piece just because that\u2019s where I\u2019ve had the most success and where I feel the most fulfilled. That process of standing at the piano with a composer and a writer as they\u2019re creating from scratch and using you as inspiration, there\u2019s nothing like that.<\/p>\n
\nNo. I just always hear that if it came about that Kristin (Chenoweth) and I would probably be too old, which is really annoying considering all the CGI you can do these days. I called them and told them, \u201cWhat about \u2018Avatar\u2019?!\u201d You never know, but I kind of don\u2019t hold my breath on that one. And I feel lucky enough that I got to do the \u201cRent\u201d movie 10 years after I actually originated the role. So we\u2019ll see about \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nYes, because I put it in my show all the time in some capacity so it actually forces me to get back in touch with that time in my life and what it represented and how I\u2019ve grown since then.<\/p>\n
\nYes! I actually have those recurring theater nightmares. It\u2019s not always just \u201cWicked,\u201d it could be \u201cRent,\u201d and they just desperately need me. The girl playing the role at the time can\u2019t get in and there\u2019s no one around. They call me and I\u2019m like, \u201cOf course I remember how to do it!\u201d and I get on a dark and dreary stage that looks nothing like any set I\u2019ve ever been on before and I can\u2019t remember a single line and I don\u2019t know how to put the green makeup on and I start having a meltdown. (Laughs)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"