Cate
.:.BoZ.:.
Caitlinda: Public Figure
Posts: 1,525
|
Post by Cate on Feb 11, 2004 19:38:28 GMT -5
From Rick: I love your performance in Wicked, and I have been following this fantastic show since its tryout in San Francisco. I was wondering what the green makeup is made of, and how long it takes to get it on and off? Is it harsh on your skin? I can't possibly imagine putting that on and off eight times a week and still manage to look as beautiful as you do.
Idina responds: Thank you. The makeup is made by MAC. They already had a green made, just by coincidence, and it's water-based so we take these Japanese brushes which are really soft to the skin and we wet them and it's sort of like water coloring my face. It's actually really light and translucent and my skin kind of comes through it a little bit and then we use the color purple as a contour, which seems to be good--I guess it's the opposite end of the color wheel. It's OK. I get two facials a month and I moisturize a lot, and I've gotten it down to about 40 minutes doing everything--with my wig and everything on. But I enjoy the process. It's fun. It's like I'm a kid and I get to paint my body.
__________________________________________________________
From Miguel: At what point did you and Taye know that you were meant for each other? Please tell me that there is some great Rent story behind your courtship!
Idina responds: No, actually we just became really good friends first because the Rent experience was so extraordinary. Everyone got really close, but Taye and I especially became close friends. And then one night we went to the movies, and I think we saw Twister, and he held my hand. And there it was! I could say it's because I kept mooning him [the character of Maureen moons Benny in Rent] and putting my ass in his face every day, so maybe that helped.
__________________________________________________________
From Brian: Idina, I'm such a fan of your solo career and just you in general. Any chance we'll hear some of your songs on a future record? (i.e. "Penny," "Only Hurts When I Breathe," "All Hail the Queen," etc.) Loved you in Rent, loved you ever since!
Idina responds: Thank you. Actually, "Penny" is on the next selection of songs. I have an upcoming CD coming out that I recorded this summer during our hiatus from San Francisco to New York from Wicked, and it's just a couple of songs that I've always performed that I've written that I never got a chance to really take some time and put down like I always wanted, so I'm excited about it. It's unplugged. It's very very simple. It's much different from the first album. It's really just acoustic guitar, piano, and some percussion. I wanted to incorporate my theater audience and my pop audience, and I hope I've found a good kind of in-between genre for the music.
__________________________________________________________
From Mike: What kind of vocal training have you had? As a singer, it amazes me that you can produce that volume and power in your voice night after night. I have enjoyed you in Rent, Aida, Hair, and Wicked. Any dream roles you are itching to be revived? Maybe Funny Girl?
Idina responds: When I was young I studied classically, and then I started doing weddings and bar mitzvahs and I had to learn all this other kind of music--all the pop music and the Motown and the R&B--and I sounded too trained when I sang that. So I went to a teacher that I still go to--her name's Tanya Travers--and she works with a lot of people in the pop and rock world. It's a technique based on the way you speak and trying to be as natural as possible, and when I started doing more theater stuff we applied the technique--and it worked because it really helped keep my cords strong. I found that the eight shows a week, singing at the range that I'm singing, lends itself to this technique. I go to her constantly, and I'm very diligent about my voice lessons and my warm-ups. I warm up every day--before both shows if there's a two-show day. I treat it like a muscle, like running the marathon. I would love to do Funny Girl, but I don't know if I could. No one wants to walk in Barbra Streisand's footsteps. That's kind of impossible. But I actually like working on original material, and I'd love to work with some of the great composers out there that are doing something new, and maybe if they saw me for a character that they were working on, that would be the dream for me right now.
|
|
Cate
.:.BoZ.:.
Caitlinda: Public Figure
Posts: 1,525
|
Post by Cate on Feb 11, 2004 19:38:42 GMT -5
__________________________________________________________
From Wayne Hesington: Hi Idina, Your show has lots of movement and technical things happening. Do you have any good stories of bloopers or glitches? Congratulations to you and the cast of this very entertaining and fun show.
Idina responds: The best story is: Norbert flies in on a rope like Tarzan, and sometimes he comes in so hard and then the rope swings back, and it swings out of control. One time, in San Francisco, Kristin Chenoweth's neck was bothering her and she was wearing a neck brace. The rope swung back and it swung around her neck and almost pulled her out like a cane around her neck. I don't know if it's because I'm tired or because the show is so demanding, but I don't have much of a threshold. I just sort of stand there, and I squeeze my thighs together and hope I'm not going to pee in my pants on stage.
__________________________________________________________
From BwayJonathan: Ms. Menzel, I am such a huge fan of yours! How did you celebrate the holidays and New Year's this year (besides performing)? I was so happy to see you after the show when I came to New York. You are incredibly beautiful! My family even named our Christmas tree "Idina" because it's tall and green, and it smells good!
Idina responds: Oh, that's funny! How did I celebrate? I was in the holiday spirit, but mostly because I enjoyed it for being here. The best audiences are during the holidays. But I really was working hard, and I don't really do much partying or anything. I have to kind of go home every night and be quiet, and I don't drink any alcohol. So in order to just keep up, I go home and I watch TV, and I've been missing out a little bit on that. But the good times were actually being here for the holidays and raising money for Broadway Cares. It's fun. We did a lot of really crazy auctions with Joel Grey.
__________________________________________________________
From Adriana: Do you and Taye plan on having kids? If you two replaced Adam and Eve, the human race would be infinitely more attractive.
Idina responds: Thank you, thank you. God, everyone's filled with so many compliments. Yes, we do plan to have kids. I just can't be pregnant and up on a flying contraption right now. It would be a little precarious. But yes, we would like to have kids.
__________________________________________________________
From Jan: Hey Idina, I saw you in Wicked and you were fantastic! Do you ever feel that you and Kristin are competing for the spotlight?
Idina responds: No, actually we just found a really good simpatico. It's the type of thing where, when one person does something really good, it only helps your performance. I feel like the best example of that is when Kristin comes out in the beginning of the show. It's such an amazing entrance, and she has such charisma and charm that she immediately--no matter what state the audience might be in--she immediately warms them up. And then it only makes my entrance and my beginning song better. No, we don't compete for the spotlight. We have to compete as characters a little bit, but we just challenge one another. And we try to keep it really fresh, and we throw each other different things every day, just to keep ourselves on each other's toes.
__________________________________________________________
From Matt K: Would you ever go back and play Maureen again?
Idina responds: No, I would not unless it was something we did all together as an original cast. It was a special thing back then, and I would always feel uncomfortable unless it was my friends from the beginning.
__________________________________________________________
From Jan: Hey, Idina! You were amazing in Wicked. What would you say is more fun: being green, or asking the audience to moo with you?
Idina responds: Oh, that's a good question. They're like apples and oranges. That was an amazing time in my life and an experience that I will never forget--just being a part of that show and in that cast and having that time on stage to do that performance piece. But this is like a whole other thing. It's just a more demanding role, and a more sympathetic character. Right now I'm doing this, so of course I'd say I love doing this.
__________________________________________________________
From Molly Lehmann: Idina, You are an idol to so many aspiring young actresses, including myself. Did you have a musical theater idol/icon that you looked up to and inspired you? And just for fun, do you have any pets? What kind, and what are their names?
Idina responds: I guess it was Barbra Streisand. Back when I was young, like when I was eight, nine, 10 years old, I was just an Annie freak. I saw it twice. I saw it with Andrea McArdle and Sarah Jessica Parker. So I was a big fan of theirs, and I used to try to sing all the songs at the top of my lungs. Then my mom brought me to a voice teacher when I was really little because she thought I had talent. And then the teacher said, "Whoa! I'm going to take you just because you're screaming your head off and I don't want you to lose your voice forever." I have two cats: a boy and a girl. I adopted them. They're brother and sister, and the boy's name is Coltraine and the girl is Ella, as in Ella Fitzgerald. They're jazz cats!
__________________________________________________________
From Christopher Cusumano: How do you feel playing an American icon? Do you feel you've done the wicked witch justice for not only Wicked fans, but Wizard of Oz fans? Do you think there are any differences between the Wizard of Oz witch, and the Wicked witch?
Idina responds: I actually think that the Wizard of Oz witch is sort of the public persona of who she was, and Elphaba, the girl that I play, is behind the scenes of what Wizard of Oz fans didn't know. That's how I look at it. So there's part of her that I can take from, but the other part leaves me all the freedom in the world to play with, because nobody knew what was going on and we can make that up. And with Joe Mantello, the director, and with Kristin and the writers, that's what we did. So I just think that she was misunderstood, and I think it's a great message for everyone not to judge people and to seek for the truth harder--not just assume things because they're told them.
|
|
Elphie
.:.BoZ.:.
As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it?
Posts: 1,435
|
Post by Elphie on Feb 12, 2004 2:07:53 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by defyinggravity530 on Feb 12, 2004 19:36:57 GMT -5
I love reading all question and answer and interview things. Makes them seem more like real people. So excellent!
|
|
gypsy
.:.BoZ.:.
Who's the mage?
Posts: 825
|
Post by gypsy on Feb 12, 2004 21:35:39 GMT -5
*doesn't answer*
LilFaba: Gypsy's just bitter because Idina didn't answer her question.
-gyps
|
|
Cate
.:.BoZ.:.
Caitlinda: Public Figure
Posts: 1,525
|
Post by Cate on Feb 12, 2004 21:53:47 GMT -5
*doesn't answer* LilFaba: Gypsy's just bitter because Idina didn't answer her question. -gyps Don't feel bad. I sent like four or five and none of them were answered...*gives LilFaba a VWB (virtual wicked brownie) to give to Gyps* |
|
|
|
Post by defyinggravity530 on Feb 14, 2004 20:21:54 GMT -5
Yeah don't feel bad. I also sent her like 8 questions, all different and she didn't answer any of them either.
|
|
|
|
Post by idina4eva on Feb 16, 2004 12:34:44 GMT -5
Eight questions?! I can only think of like three I want to ask her...your creative juices must be flowing more than mine...darn! HFOS.
|
|
- Yero, the Wonder Winkie
- Dee, the Talented Tongue
