Long Island native Idina Menzel has come a long way since singing in wedding bands and at bar mitzvahs. In 1995, she originated the role of bisexual performer Maureen Johnson in “RENT” – her Broadway debut – and her career took off from there. She released her first solo album, Still I Can’t Be Still, in 1998 and filled a spot on that year’s Lilith Fair tour with Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow and other female musicians.
After several more stage roles, Menzel secured the role of the green girl, Elphaba, in the Broadway musical adaptation of “Wicked” – the untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West. The role earned Menzel her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Since leaving “Wicked” in 2005, Menzel has starred in the film version of “RENT,” taken on a non-singing role in “Enchanted” with Patrick Dempsey and appeared in more stage roles. Now, Menzel is preparing to go on tour with her new solo album, I Stand, released in January. The News had a chance to speak with Menzel before her concert last Tuesday in Pittsfield.
Stephanie Shore: How did you go from being a wedding band singer to musical theatre? Was that always something you wanted to do?
Idina Menzel: When I was really young, my parents would take me into the city from Long Island to see Broadway shows and I always dreamt of being on stage. And then the older I got, the more songwriting I started doing, the more I wanted to write my own music. And I thought that was going to be the path I took. And then on a fluke, I went in for an audition for ‘RENT,’ and I got that, and then my life took that path. So you could say it’s sort of come full-circle.
SS: What’s your writing process like?
IM: It varies. I carry a little cassette recorder around with me. I stick with cassette because I can’t seem to get away from that [laughs]. I walk around, I’m on a plane, I’m in the shower, and I just get ideas and melodies in my head and I put them down and then I take those to a collaborator – in this case, mostly Glen Ballard, who produced my album and wrote most of the songs with me – and I sort of throw the kitchen sink out there and all the ideas I have, and I have someone like him fuse it all together and make sense of it.
SS: How, as a happily married person, do you write songs about heartbreak?
IM: Well, first of all, no marriage is perfect. My husband [actor Taye Diggs] and I love each other very much, but we have our struggles, and ways that we miscommunicate, and the fact that we live in different cities all the time and have to spend a lot of time apart
