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Interviews
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Idina Menzel - rock chick, film star, musical diva or classical actress? Philip Fisher meets the star of Wicked who is just about to release a new album Idina Menzel has long been the darling of Broadway and more recently won over British hearts with her performance as Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West, in Wicked. Now, in addition to her stage career, she is in Britain promoting her new album, I Stand, from which the singleBrave made it into the Billboard Top 20. Miss Menzel is one of those small framed, lithe women with big green eyes who are destined to look young forever. In a luxurious West End boutique hotel just around the corner from the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the star exudes not only enthusiasm but great warmth as she talks about her career past, present and future. Neither of her parents was in any way involved in show business. Her father made a career as "a little girl's pyjama salesman" while her mother retrained as a social worker and therapist. Although she had studied classical music as a child, it was the influence of a grandfather who enjoyed singing that set the young Idina off on the road to becoming a performer. She was given her first public performance as a wedding singer, a part-time moneymaking activity made necessary by the breakup of her parents' marriage when the future star was 15. The singer emphasises that this proved to be great training as "first of all, I was making great money for a teenager and I was having to learn all different genres of music, the jazz and the swing to Motown and all the pop and rock hits of the time. It really expanded my lexicon of music". The variety also sparked an interest in writing music which has continued to this day, and she has co-written I Stand. The acting bug had clearly bitten, since when choosing her university degree, the young lady plumped for a course at NYU studying drama. Showing wisdom, and despite her proven vocal skills, she deemed it better to study straight acting on the basis that the college's theatre programme was much stronger and more challenging than its musical equivalent. At that time though, she was much more interested in "putting my rock band together, playing at every crazy little club down in the East and West village and trying to put my pennies together to pay the drummer; get five friends to show up at CBGBs (the famous cradle of American punk a couple of decades before) so that the bar owner would have me back". The kind of break that everyone needs came in 1995 when she auditioned for an off-Broadway musical called Rent, by an unknown writer named Jonathan Larson. With intended irony, Miss Menzel explains that "I took the job because I thought it would get me through the slow months of the wedding season". She was selected to play the role of Maureen and progressed with the original cast from the New York Theatre Workshop to the previously mothballed Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, and then to the glittery heights of an original cast recording and movie, receiving a Tony nomination on the way. Perhaps the best thing that came out of Rent though, was a meeting with fellow star, Taye Diggs, who later became her husband. Rent was "a bittersweet experience" following the death of its creator after the first preview. This generated a real sense of commitment and dedication amongst a young team of actors. An indication of this is the fact that in a six-month run, no cast member missed a performance "sick or not, you had to show up and put forth his music and his value and his lyrics". From there, she got a record deal that failed to take off and then built a career back in musical theatre, appearing, amongst other roles, off-Broadway in The Wild Party, and then on the Great White Way in Aida (Elton John and Tim Rice not Verdi). Then came Wicked. "I read the book, which I was in love with and I just felt really connected and attached to this character, I related to the dark, grungy girl who didn't quite fit in." Part of the appeal of Elphaba was the opportunity to dress the part. In "green eye shadow and lipstick with big black biker boots and a black dress, I kind of came in like some Goth chick", far more appealing to Miss Menzel than the sweeter role, created by Kristin Chenoweth, of Glinda. The four-year journey ran through all of the workshops and ended with a major, long-running Broadway hit, a Tony award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and a London transfer where she reprised the role. She is also keen to bang the drum for new work in the theatre. "There's not enough original pieces. Everything's taken from a movie or a revival. It's important to keep pushing to find new material". Her own part of the process is also something special. "Originating a role, being part of an original musical, it's such a big deal, something I'm really proud of. It's a wonderful, fulfilling process to sit with a composer at their piano and have them come in and say I've figured out Scene Two and I rewrote the song and you realise it's in a key that's perfect for your voice or has your rhythms and inflections". What this means is that "by the time you're doing a Wicked or a Rent, the character and you are so enmeshed that you don't know where one begins and the other ends". If all of her current ambitions are to be fulfilled, Idina Menzel will be busy over the next few years. After finishing a promotional tour for the album and appearing in a TV special of her own, she wants to "get back into theatre because I miss that, have a baby soon if I can, and do another film". In addition, she would love to do some Shakespeare or a Tennessee Williams play, and reveals that her favourite is The Rose Tattoo, which she would love to play if an opportunity arises. Whether it is as a rock chick, film star, musical diva or classical actress, fans on both sides of the Atlantic can be assured that their favourite witch will never be far from the limelight. "I Stand" is released here on 13th October in a special UK version with four bonus tracks.
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