Idina Menzel on Returning to London After ‘Wicked’: It’s Surreal

I was equal parts excited and nervous to interview the great Idina Menzel. Aside from being an amazing talent and someone I admire greatly, she is also the most famous person I have ever conversed with to date. (There was that one time I sat directly behind Gwen Stefani as a seat filler at the MTV Music Awards, but other than staring at the back of her head, we didn’t really have a lot of interaction.)

So, I was a bit put out when I went bragging around the office and hardly anyone knew who she was or was impressed by my amazing interview score. What the hell people?!

Menzel won a Tony for the role of Elphaba in Wicked, one of the most popular Broadway musicals ever? She was Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent and reprised the role for the film adaptation? She’s is married to Taye Diggs who starred in both of those musicals with her? Glee?! Come on.

Hopefully, you know exactly who she is now. If you are still staring blankly, you need some culture in your life! First, watch this:

Next, go on Netflix and watch Rent – and maybe Enchanted for good measure. Finally, download her album, Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony.

Menzel has been touring to promote that album over the past year. “It’s been amazing. It’s been a great year. It’s been a lot of traveling and meeting new people and I’ve really gotten to fine tune my show and get it where I want it. But I’ve had a couple of weeks off so you guys are getting me nice and fresh.”
She just returned, in fact, from the UK leg of her tour where she spent tmost of her time in London before a brief jaunt up to Scotland. It certainly isn’t her first time performing on the legendary London boards, but she is still impressively humble about it.

“I love London, because I spent half a year there when I took Wicked there for the first time, so it’s like a second home for me. But any time you are out of the country and a lot of people show up and know who you are and are fans, it’s surreal.”

In addition to her work on Glee, Menzel is working on an upcoming Disney animated film Frozen, in which she will offer her voice for the Snow Queen. There are even online rumors of an Enchanted 2, in which Menzel might reprise her non-singing role.

But all of these other projects aside, it is the thrill of being face to face with a live audience that Menzel loves best.

“Whether it is a play or my own concert or just standing at a piano, I just love live performance more than anything. I like that I have a real good balance, though. I love that I can go into a recording studio and have the solitude, and I love that I can be on a film or on TV. All of that stuff adds to my love for live performance, because I can have some time away from it so I don’t get burned out. It compliments it so you can come back invigorated.”

After you have fallen in love with Menzel and her voice — if you weren’t already a fan — go see her perform