Idina Menzel: Flying High

Original Broadway Wicked star Idina Menzel is Defying Gravity and heading for a concert tour of Australia. She took time out to chat to Coral Drouyn about the joys of being in love with what she’s doing.

“LOUD” – that’s the word Idina Menzel uses to describe her voice in childhood. “I come from a Jewish family, you have to be loud to be heard.” It isn’t any coincidence that Broadway’s current Diva was born in Queen’s N.Y, not far from where the original Music Theatre Diva, Ethel Merman was born. “Barbra Streisand was brought up in Brooklyn, and that’s just a few miles further down the road. She was my idol, my inspiration,” she adds. Three east coast girls – the Broadway stars of their generations – each born within a stone’s throw of the famous theatres of The Great White Way; yet it wasn’t proximity that got them there, it was pure talent, and determination “and Loudness,” Idina adds with a chuckle, “Have you ever heard a Russian Jewish family all speaking over the top of each other? You shout – or you disappear.”

By the time she was eight years old, Idina knew what she wanted to do. “I wanted be Annie,” she says. “I didn’t just want to be in Annie, I wanted to play the lead. I would practise singing “Tomorrow” at the top of my lungs, and I was so determined that my parents decided they would get me some singing lessons.”

Idina’s first singing teacher was Mrs Steadman.

“I remember she listened for less than a minute then yelled out ‘STOP.’ That must have been the first time my parents ever saw me shut up instantly. She told me she didn’t coach children but she would make an exception with me. Not because of my ‘great talent’, but because the way I was yelling was damaging my throat and she could see real trouble ahead.”

So Idina started lessons, learning how to control her breathing, her power, her voice.

“It’s harder to sing in a whisper than it is to belt,” she explained. “I guess I’m always going to be seen as a belter, because Defying Gravity is that kind of song – but WOW, I was amazed at how much emotional power you can have when you sing softly”.

Mrs Steadman didn’t just set Idina on the right path, she also prophesied the future, though Idina had no way of knowing it then. Mrs Steadman had a green living room; green rugs, sofas, wallpaper. Idina learned to sing surrounded by green. Twenty five years later she would take Broadway by storm in Wicked, wearing green make-up. “It’s actually pretty spooky,” she recalls, “and I didn’t make the connection till long after Wicked. Maybe Mrs Steadman was a witch in her own way.”

By the time she was 15, and her parents had split, Idina was singing for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, but it was always covering the female recording artists of the day.

“I was singing Whitney Houston, and Celine, and Barbra even. I could do a pretty good impression with her Bronx accent. The only thing I wasn’t doing was singing ME – and I kept thinking, I want to be a recording artist. I want people to hear MY voice, MY songs – I don’t want to spend my life as a covers singer. But eh…I was earning a living and I was grateful for that.”

It took a random incident to turn things around. Idina’s old boyfriend from High School was working on the workshop and development of Rent.

“Adam Pascal said to me that I should contact them for an audition, that there was a role I was right for. Honestly, the Broadway dream wasn’t on the agenda. I was far too tall to play Annie by that time and I told Adam there was no way they would even look at my picture. And that’s when Adam told me they already had. He had sent it in. I didn’t know whether to kiss him or hit him.”

Idina got the role of Maureen and went on to receive a Tony nomination for the show. “Rent is still so special. That’s where I met my beautiful man Taye.” (husband Taye Diggs.)

Rent was the gateway to stardom, with Idina reprising her role in the film, and acting in other films during the late 90s. She released the first of three solo albums and recorded some of her own songs.

“I loved it,” she says. “It was my voice, not me being a character – just me being me. You know what? I’m pretty comfortable with me being me. I know her. She works hard, she has things to say, she feels, she laughs. Hey, I’m happy to step on a stage with me anytime, even though I still get nervous. I can count on her.”

And that’s what Idina will be doing in Australia. Just she and herself, and a 42 piece orchestra, and an auditorium full of fans. She may, or may not, wear shoes, and you can be assured that what you get will not be Maureen or Elphaba (though you’ll hear “those” songs) but the real Idina. The years between have seen the phenomenon of Wicked win her a Tony Award and Stephen Schwartz work with her on the show stopping numbers.

“I was involved for about two years in workshopping the show before we opened,” she tells me, “and now I’m having a completely new musical written for me. I mean, how cool is that? I’ll start work as soon as I return from Australia.”

And what about Glee? More people know her from the phenomenal TV series than have ever seen her on Broadway. Idina expected it to be a one off guest role but it too defies gravity and just keeps growing. It divides her audience in half, but Idina loves that.

“I love the Glee fans,” she told me. “They ground me – so many of them don’t know what I do on stage, but they’re so accepting of me. And the Music Theatre crowd often don’t watch Glee, but it doesn’t matter. Once a concert starts, we’re all part of the same thing and I just want everybody to have a killer night, because that’s what I’ll be doing. And I’m told that Australians are very relaxed and easy going, so it doesn’t have to be too stuffy or proper. We can let our hair down.”

And take our shoes off Idina – that’s what I’m planning to do, and thousands of us can hardly wait.

Photographer: Robin Wong.

Idina Menzel headlines the final weekend of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival on June 22, ahead of concerts at Sydney Opera House (June 26 & 27) QPAC Brisbane (June 29) and Hamer Hall, Melbourne (June 30).

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