NewsIdina Menzel and Amy Poehler Are Mom BuddiesThe Tony winner talked about her upcoming tour, marching in L.A., remaking Beaches, and how she got the role of Elphaba.
Preparing to launch her 2017 world tour, Tony winner Idina Menzel stopped by Late Night with Seth Meyers January 23.
One of her early stops on the forthcoming tour is the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York, where Menzel grew up.
Known for her roles in Frozen, Wicked, and Rent, Menzel talked about her audition for the Wicked Witch of the West. “I had to hit the high note at the end, and I botched it, I totally cracked,” she confessed. “And then I didn’t give up, I went for it again. I hit it, I really nailed it. And that’s supposedly why the director gave me the job—he just thought I looked totally evil when I did that and I could totally be a great witch.”
Though that performance as Elphaba earned her a Tony, Menzel admitted that performing at home on Long Island actually feels more stressful than comfortable—like going back to high school.
Speaking of school, Menzel’s seven-year-old son attends the same school as comedian Amy Poehler’s kids, and the two have become pals. “Being a mom at school can make you feel like you’re back in high school,” said Menzel. As she says in the video, Menzel and Poehler team up to support each other.
Menzel also stood up to support all women as she participated in the Women’s March in Los Angeles January 21. “I marched with 750,000 people in L.A.,” she said. “It was good! First of all, I got to meet Jane Fonda,” she said. “It’s not all about meeting celebrities; we did have priorities, but it was cool.”
“The whole street where we were supposed to march was full, so we were just stuck,” Menzel described.
Menzel attended the Women’s March with her mother, and the two later watched the premiere of the Beaches remake for Lifetime. Though the actor said she doesn’t like to watch herself, her mother loves to watch her daughter. “She’s probably watched [Beaches] 12 times in one day,” laughed Menzel.
A proud mother, Menzel’s mom is always in the audience—and ready to defend her daughter against critics. “She and my sister, whenever I’ve been in a play or a Broadway show, their thing is at intermission, they look at each other and are like, ‘Let’s do this,’ and then they go to the bathroom and stand online and listen to what everybody says,” said Menzel. “Most of it’s nice, but if there’s ever [a bad] one, they are ready to take that b*tch down.”
Everything was Rent 20 years ago, when the show opened at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre April 29, 1996. The cast takes us back to what life was like then.
This year’s Marfan Foundation Gala honored Jonathan Larson and featured performances by cast members of the many productions of Rent from over the years.
From accounts of auditions thought to have gone wrong to a surprise FaceTime with an original cast member, these 90 minutes were everything we could ask for and more.
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