LOS ANGELES—“All I ever hear is it’s in development and that Kristen Chenoweth and myself will be way too old to play the roles, so maybe I’ll play the witch’s mom or something,” Idina Menzel quipped when we asked her for an update on “Wicked,” the film. We talked to her in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel last Oct. 26, a few days before the iconic Stephen Schwartz musical in which she originated the Wicked Witch role, marked its 10th anniversary on Oct 30.
The long-haired brunette, who won a 2004 Tony Award for her portrayal of the green-skinned Elphaba, added, “You don’t have that lightning in a bottle very often—so, sure, I’d like to be in the movie. I keep telling them, just CGI some wrinkles. I’m green, so who cares?” Marc Platt, who is producing the film adaptation of “Into the Woods” (now in production in the UK), has reportedly tapped Stephen Daldry, whose credits include “Billy Elliot” and “The Hours,” to direct “Wicked” the film.
Idina is working on a new musical, “If/Then,” in Washington, DC. The show may earn her another round of praises when it debuts on Broadway on March 4 next year.
Old friend
MENZEL. “The best way to learn is to emulate and imitate.” Photo by Ruben Nepales
Idina disclosed, “It’s written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, and it’s being directed by my old friend, Michael Greif, who gave me my first professional job in ‘Rent.’ It’s being produced by David Stone, who gave me my ‘Wicked’ job. So, I’m surrounded by family.”
“It’s a beautiful piece,” she gushed. “It’s 100-percent original, and it’s about a woman my age who comes back from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York City, where she went to school. She’s getting a chance to start over. The music is just beautiful.”
The music is also memorable in Idina’s new film, “Frozen,” a winning Disney animated film, in which she and another Kristen—Kristen Bell—voice two sisters, Elsa and Anna, respectively. Idina and Kristen (it turns out that she can sing very well, too) duet in “For the First Time in Forever,” one of several instant Disney classic songs composed by Robert Lopez and Kristen-Anderson Lopez.
Idina shared that for their first table read, she and Kristen surprised “Frozen” directors, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, and Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer, John Lasseter, with a duet of Bette Midler’s hit, “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
Asked if she has met Barbra Streisand, who inspired her when she watched the legend in the film, “A Star is Born,” Idina replied, “I have, yes. I was invited to sing in a tribute to her at the Kennedy Center Honors. I was asked to sing ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ right before Beyoncé came out with ‘The Way We Were.’ —Talk about nerves. The first album I bought was Barbra’s ‘A Star is Born,’ with Kris Kristofferson in the ’70s. Her range, the effortless quality that she has, and the marriage between her vocal acrobatics and her heart set a standard for me. She’s not always perfectly polished around the edges—that appeals to me.”
Idina also recalled that she discovered rock ‘n’ roll “in an awkward way. I didn’t have older brothers and sisters introducing me to the Beatles. My parents listened to Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.”
“At an early age, I started doing weddings and bar mitzvahs,” she said. “I was a singer with a band. I had to learn every style of music in order to work a lot. You have to know rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, Madonna, Whitney Houston and Billie Holiday. A lot of Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan.”
Memories
On her memories doing those weekend gigs, Idina answered, “I don’t have a recording of it, thank God. But, I always look back on it fondly. It was an incredible education to learn all kinds of music.
“I was leaving high school, driving illegally in my car, meeting with 35-year-old guys, and singing ‘Express Yourself’ by Madonna. So, I have a lot of chutzpah because of that. I knew that I didn’t want to copy the other artists and sound like an imitation. But, I knew enough back then to know that the best way to learn is to emulate and imitate. So, I would listen to Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.”
Idina is married to actor Taye Diggs, with whom she has a son, Walker Nathaniel, who was born in 2009. “My husband and I work together well,” she shared. “We met in ‘Rent,’ and we’ve done a couple of other shows and plays together. We’re actually at our best when we’re working together. But, if we’re home and I ask him to read lines with me for an audition, he starts directing me, so we’re learning where to draw the line!”
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