Only the women who’ve played Elphaba and Glinda in the show’s two decades onstage understand why the roles are so taxing — and so rewarding, too. The graduates of Shiz University are making their alma mater proud. In the 21 years since “Wicked” opened in New York, 43 […]
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have found their way back to Oz. Broadway’s original witches make a surprise appearance in director Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked,” but not as Elphaba and Glinda. The duo, who originated the leading roles in 2003, sing a new verse in “One Short Day,” […]
Idina Menzel, Ana Gasteyer and others open up on the pleasures and perils of playing the iconic “Wicked” character eight times a week. There may be no more spellbinding protagonist in contemporary musical theater than Elphaba Thropp, that green-skinned wallflower with a penchant for soaring over Oz and […]
Idina Menzel says that when the musical “Rent,” in which she played the flirty, bisexual performance artist Maureen, was making its surprising leap to prominence in the mid-1990s, journalists tended to overplay the similarities between the fresh-faced cast and the young East Village bohemians they were representing onstage. […]
Defying the Oz It’s ironic that Idina Menzel’s first line of dialogue in a Broadway show was “Which way to the stage?” More than eight years after her debut in Rent, this born performer shows no signs of needing directions. Menzel, a Long Island native who grew up dreaming […]
A few days before Halloween, Idina Menzel found herself 200 feet in the air, sitting in the canopy of a redwood forest. Outfitted in a bulky safety harness, puffer vest, climbing gloves and a bright red helmet, the voice of Elphaba and Elsa couldn’t help but break into […]
EIGHT times a week, Idina Menzel, who plays the witch Elphaba in the Broadway musical ”Wicked” at the Gershwin Theater, covers her face, hands and neck with green makeup, then puts on a matching bodysuit so that she is the color of a snow pea from head to […]
Michael Cole at a Wicked Reading in December 2001 Part of The Schwartz Scene back issue archives. Carol asked me to write about my experience singing in the ensemble of the December reading of WICKED. For those of you who don’t know, a “reading” of a musical or […]
IDINA MENZEL Ever since she burst forth on the stage of the Nederlander Theatre in the original cast of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent, Idina Menzel has been a force to be reckoned with in the musical theatre. The New York native possesses one of the most unique […]
Chatting ‘Wicked,’ ‘Frozen 3,’ ‘Rent’ and more ahead of her ‘Take Me Or Leave Me Tour’ Idina Menzel has had many patrons under a spell since she played Maureen Johnson in the musical Rent in 1996. Her powerful voice, demanding stage presence and proud identity as a […]
There’s something familiar about watching Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have a conversation — the way that one of them tends to be a bubbling extrovert, the other more introspective but observant and ready with a joke. After a long day in workshops for their respective musical projects, […]
She wasn’t in costume, she wasn’t in makeup, and she wasn’t even in character. But when Idina Menzel took the stage in a tracksuit yesterday afternoon at the Gershwin Theater, the standing ovation — some 1,800 strong and five minutes long — was like few you’ve ever seen: […]
It’s been several years since Idina Menzel donned the green body paint and pointy black hat of her Tony-winning role as Elphaba in ‘Wicked,’ but it seems like she’s never too far away from the misunderstood heroine. Menzel plans to perform a few of her best-known songs from […]
On Broadway, Idina Menzel is a superstar, headlining Wicked after her memorable run in Rent. In movies, she’s still paying her dues. The Rent movie recast her as Maureen, but she played second fiddle to Salma Hayek in Ask the Dust. Now in Disney’s Enchanted, she is the […]
Singer and actress Idina Menzel offered a preview of the highly anticipated sequel to Frozen when she spoke to The Hollywood Reporter at an event honoring Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz on Thursday night in L.A. “It’s a real girl power, badass kind of superhero type of movie. They’re […]