\u201cAll I ever wanted was to make a living singing,\u201d says Idina Menzel, the Tony-winning singer-actress renowned for her roles in the landmark Broadway hits Wicked and Rent<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was 15, that meant singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs. Now I get to sing with an 80-piece orchestra in beautiful concert halls. When people want to buy a ticket and spend 90 minutes listening to you, especially in this economy, that\u2019s a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel\u2019s army of adoring fans \u2013 multiplying because of her recurring role in TV\u2019s hugely popular Glee \u2013 more likely will think the chance to hear her sing with the Houston Symphony this weekend at Jones Hall is their gift.<\/p>\n
Though concerts and recordings have been part of Menzel\u2019s repertoire for more than a decade, her concert schedule kicked into high gear when she began collaborating with symphony orchestras last year. She\u2019s presented her symphonic program in 40 cities \u2013 last weekend at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall, with the Royal Philharmonic led by legendary stage and screen music man Marvin Hamlisch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real mix, very eclectic,\u201d Menzel says of the set she\u2019ll perform under Houston Symphony associate conductor Robert Franz. \u201cThere are the songs you\u2019d expect, from shows I\u2019ve been in. There are songs I grew up singing, classic show tunes and pop songs \u2013 as well as newer ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel\u2019s Glee role as Shelby Corcoran, coach of a rival choir and birth mother of series lead Rachel (Lea Michele), will be prominent in several episodes this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re shooting on Glee today, so I was up at 6:15 and spent as much time with my little boy as possible.\u201d Menzel and actor husband Taye Diggs, who met while doing Rent, are the parents of 2-year-old Walker. \u201cWhen I\u2019m on an episode, they\u2019re good about rolling all my work into a few days, so I can go do my concert schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though performing live in theater and concerts is her first love, Menzel says she\u2019s thrilled and proud to be part of Glee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel lucky to be part of a TV series that seems to revere the theater, the people and music of the theater. I\u2019m happy it lets a larger audience see how much work goes into a show, so they understand what goes into doing eight shows a week. I think the appetite for that kind of music is always there \u2013 but for a while, TV lost track of how to put it out the right way. Now, Glee has found a way to do it that\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel\u2019s stage credits include notable off-Broadway shows such as Andrew Lippa\u2019s The Wild Party and Michael John LaChiusa\u2019s See What I Wanna See, as well as playing aggressive performance artist Maureen in Jonathan Larson\u2019s Rent But originating Elphaba, the outcast green heroine of Stephen Schwartz\u2019s megahit Wicked, likely will remain her signature achievement \u2013 and that\u2019s OK with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all these shows, it\u2019s been great being part of a new work taking shape, part of what influences its development. With Rent, I can remember sitting at the piano with Jonathan, a wonderful memory I wouldn\u2019t trade. Shows like Rent and Wicked are more than Broadway hits. They are experiences that change people, that catch the zeitgeist and define a generation.\u201d
\nMenzel is positive she will return to the theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband and I are happy with our home in Los Angeles, but we haven\u2019t given up our apartment in New York! There are two or three shows being written that I\u2019m looking at doing, but it\u2019s too early in their development for me to put names to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Menzel is happy getting her live-audience connection in concert halls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the music industry in such flux, it\u2019s powerful to have the autonomy to get out there and play all these venues and cities. This format gives me the intimate rapport with the audience that I love, combined with the thrill of having a huge orchestra behind me. I\u2019m having the best time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAll I ever wanted was to make a living singing,\u201d says Idina Menzel, the Tony-winning singer-actress renowned for her roles in the landmark Broadway hits Wicked and Rent \u201cWhen I was 15, that meant singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs. Now I get to sing with an 80-piece […]<\/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":[33,12],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-33","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\/99","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=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}