No Songs For Enchanted Star
Tony-winning Broadway star Idina Menzel (Wicked) told SCI FI Wire that she appears in Disney’s upcoming fantasy musical film Enchanted—but doesn’t sing. Why?
“You’ve got to take that up with somebody else,” Menzel said in an interview while promoting the film. “I was just happy to be part of a big movie.” She added: “It was the first time I ever got an offer, [and] I didn’t have to audition. So I forgot about the other stuff.”
Menzel—best known for her role on Broadway as Elphaba, the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West, in Wicked—plays Nancy, the girlfriend of Patrick Dempsey’s character, Robert. Nancy finds that she has a rival for Robert’s affections when a strange girl named Giselle (Amy Adams) comes into his life. What she doesn’t know is that Giselle is really an animated character from a fantasy kingdom, who has been sent to the real world by an evil sorceress (Susan Sarandon).
Menzel said that her character comes from the reality-based world, so it wouldn’t have made sense in the film to have her sing. “Nancy wasn’t written with any songs, honestly,” she said. “Patrick’s character and my character are the New York people, and we don’t sing. It was never written that way, and I actually was really flattered to be hired as an actress.”
Well, not quite. Oscar winner Alan Menken (Aladdin), who co-wrote Enchanted‘s musical numbers with lyricist Stephen Schwartz, said that there was a song for Nancy and Prince Edward, Giselle’s love from the animated world (played by James Marsden). But it didn’t end up in the final cut.
“Stephen was really pushing for concluding the film with a song sequence and something new, not just a little reprise moment,” Menken said in a separate interview. “And we wrote a title song called ‘Enchanted,’ where Edward and Nancy first connect, and then it opens up into a montage. Really, on practical terms, it was just really extremely difficult that late in the game to deliver that kind of song.”
Menken added that audiences may still get a chance to hear the number on the eventual DVD release. “Much to our delight, we found out that they’re actually going to be including that number on the DVD, I think,” he said.
Menzel also said that she is open to the idea of singing in a possible sequel. “I would totally be up for a sequel,” she said. “The amount of times I’ve been asked about not singing in this movie, I think [director Kevin Lima] would give me a song.” Enchanted opens Nov. 21.