Tony winner Idina Menzel will release her latest album idina: live October 12. A mix of of songs she originated like \u201cLet It Go\u201d from Frozen and \u201cI\u2019m Not That Girl\u201d from Wicked as well as her renditions of tunes she loves like \u201cDon\u2019t Rain On My Parade\u201d and \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water,\u201d Menzel gave Playbill a sneak peek of her version of Rent\u2019s \u201cSeasons of Love.\u201d<\/p>\n
That piqued our curiosity about Menzel\u2019s long history with the Jonathan Larson musical, the roles she\u2019s played over her career, and her life as a recording artist. Here, she answers questions about it all.<\/p>\n
With four Broadway musicals, six solo albums, movies, etc. you have a lot of material to choose from. How did you go about narrowing down the tunes for the live album?<\/strong> Depending on the band I have out with me, I will sometimes change the arrangements to focus around the most memorable hooks of the songs\u2014the parts the crowd can sing together. In an arena, there\u2019s nothing like it. We remember where we were when that song first came into our lives, and where we\u2019ve come since then. I like to tell a story through my setlist. I like to go down memory lane, but also shake things up a bit to keep things fresh. There is a balance to that: I want to stay creatively inspired and challenged, and also stay true to the song and give the audience what they expect. I mean, sometimes you just want to hear the original, right? Trying to understand my audience that way is important to me.<\/p>\n \u201cSeasons of Love.\u201d What do you remember of hearing and rehearsing that song for the first time? What was the feeling in the room?<\/strong> <\/p>\n Rent was, of course, your breakout\u2014as it was for the rest of the cast. Can you share a memory that vividly sticks with you\u2014from a rehearsal, a performance, an after-hours hang with your castmates?<\/strong> Since playing Maureen, you\u2019ve gone on to play so many different types of women. When you step back and take stock, what do you think of the women you\u2019ve gotten to play? What has each brought out in you\u2014not necessarily as an actor, but as a person?<\/strong> <\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen you morph in and out of roles, evolve, become a mom, but the music is always there. Is there a song that sums up who you are?<\/strong> Tony winner Idina Menzel will release her latest album idina: live October 12. A mix of of songs she originated like \u201cLet It Go\u201d from Frozen and \u201cI\u2019m Not That Girl\u201d from Wicked as well as her renditions of tunes she loves like \u201cDon\u2019t Rain On My Parade\u201d […]<\/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":[46,49],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-46","tag-idinalive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-cz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","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=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIdina Menzel: It\u2019s a fun challenge when trying to adapt some of these massive theatre and film songs for the concert stage. Other than \u201cLet It Go,\u201d most songs you associate with me aren\u2019t your typical radio songs, but they are my \u201chits.\u201d I can stick a mic out and the audience sings every word, which is the greatest feeling.<\/p>\n
\nThis was the very first thing we learned together as a cast. All of us sitting around behind our music stands figuring out our parts. I remember being so moved. There was something electric in that room. It was the perfect song to bring us all together, to form a family.<\/p>\n
\nThere are so many memories: the day the producers came into the New York Theatre Workshop and announced we were moving to Broadway. Standing at the piano beside Jonathan Larson singing \u201cTake Me or Leave Me.\u201d Anthony Rapp rapturously running around the room doing \u201cLa Vie Boheme.\u201d That horrible day we lost Jonathan.<\/p>\n
\nMaureen showed me I could be funny. She reaffirmed the belief I had in myself that I had what it took to make it in this business. Elphaba put me in touch with my power as a woman, and taught me how to be unafraid of that power. I learned that what made me different is what made me special, and to not apologize for that. Elsa was similar to Elphie: a reminder years later that you can\u2019t be afraid of your power. To hide your strengths is doing a disservice to the world. In other words, own it! Elizabeth [in If\/Then] was about new beginnings. I was going through my divorce while I was in that show. Singing \u201cAlways Starting Over\u201d on stage each night\u2014how was I going to start my life again?<\/p>\n
\nI can\u2019t choose one. We evolve and change and grow, and sometimes one song will resonate with me. And sometimes it\u2019s another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"