Idina Menzel Bio
Idina Kim Menzel was born on May 30, 1971. Idina is an American actress, singer and songwriter who achieved fame for her performances as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the Tony award-winning musical Wicked and as Maureen Johnson in the Broadway and film versions of Rent.
Menzel was born in Long Island, New York as Idina Kim Mentzel, of Jewish heritage. Her mother, Helene, is a therapist, and her father, Stuart Mentzel, worked as a pajama salesman. She was raised in Syosset, New York with her younger sister Cara and later changed her surname Mentzel because of constant mispronunciation. When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced and she started working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer, a job which she continued throughout her time at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Drama at NYU prior to being cast in Jonathan Larson's rock musical Rent.
In 1995, Menzel auditioned for Rent, which became her first professional theater job and her Broadway debut. After Rent opened off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 26, 1996, it was moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre due to its popularity. For her performance as Maureen Johnson in the original cast of the musical, Menzel received a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She completed her last performance on July 1, 1997. Following the success of Rent, Idina Released her first solo album entitled "Still I Can't Be Still" on "HollyWood Records", Idina also originated the role of Dorothy in Summer of ’42 at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, starred as Sheila in the New York City Center Encores! production of Hair and appeared on Broadway as Amneris in Aida. Menzel earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance as Kate in the Manhattan Theatre Club's 2000 off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. Her other off-Broadway credits include the pre-Broadway run of Rent and The Vagina Monologues. As Elphaba in Wicked with Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero (Original Broadway Cast). As Elphaba in Wicked with Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero (Original Broadway Cast). In 2003, Menzel starred alongside fellow actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway in Wicked, a musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman based upon the popular 1995 Gregory Maguire novel. Idina received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. On her third to last performance of Wicked on January 8, 2005, she fell through a trap door and cracked a lower rib. The injury prevented her from performing in the January 9 show. Menzel did, however, make a special out-of-costume appearance at that performance, performed her final song, and received a 5 minute long standing ovation. Menzel was replaced by Elphaba standby Shoshana Bean. Following Wicked, Menzel appeared off-Broadway in the Public Theater's production of See What I Wanna See, a Michael John LaChiusa-penned musical whose run ended in December 2005. For her role as various characters, she received Drama Desk Award and Drama League Award nominations. She reprised her Tony Award-winning role as Elphaba in the West End production of Wicked when it opened at London's Apollo Victoria Theater on September 7, 2006. Menzel finished her run on December 30, 2006. Menzel was then succeeded by fellow Elphaba standby Kerry Ellis and later, June 6 2008, Alexia Khadime. Menzel has played the leading role of Florence in the 21st Anniversary two-night concerts of Chess at the Royal Albert Hall, London from May 12, 2008 through May 13, 2008. Kerry Ellis (Menzel's former Elphaba standby) joined her.
Menzel's film roles include appearances in Just a Kiss, Kissing Jessica Stein, Tollbooth, Water, Ask the Dust, Enchanted, and Rent, in which she and five other original cast members reprised their stage roles. Menzel performed at the 1998 Lilith Fair summer concert festival and continues to write and perform original music. She has toured extensively and frequently performs in various venues throughout New York City. She produced and released her debut album, Still I Can’t Be Still, for Hollywood Records in 1998. One single from the album, "Minuet," made the Radio & Records CHR/Pop Tracks chart at #48 in October 1998. Her second album, Here, was released independently by Zel Records in 2004. Menzel has contributed to soundtracks, including those for the film The Other Sister and the ABC television dramedy Desperate Housewives. In 2007, she appeared on the Beowulf soundtrack singing the end credits song, "A Hero Comes Home". Singer Ray Charles invited Menzel to duet with him on one of the tracks of his album Genius & Friends. The tracks were recorded in 1998 but were never produced, and it was one of his dying wishes that the album be made, a wish which was fulfilled posthumously. Menzel has appeared on the cast recordings of Rent and Wicked, two of the best-selling cast recordings of all time, as well as the recordings of Lippa's The Wild Party, LaChiusa's See What I Wanna See, and the soundtrack of the film Rent. She recently signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records. A new studio version of Defying Gravity was released in May 2007 on iTunes. A remix of Defying Gravity was the "anthem" at the 2007 Gay Pride Parade and Festival in Los Angeles and that version appears on the official CD from the event. It has instantly become a collectors item. Her third solo album, I Stand, was released on January 29, 2008. It includes many new tracks such as the lead single, "Brave" as well as the title track "I Stand" and a song released on EP, "Gorgeous". The album debuted at #58 in the Billboard 200 making it the first solo album by Menzel to make the charts. There are five versions of this album, the original version, the special limited edition, the iTunes version, the Barnes & Noble edition, and the Borders edition. On April 1, 2008, Menzel kicked off her "I Stand" tour in support of her new album.
Menzel married actor Taye Diggs, her co-star from the original Broadway production of Rent, on January 11, 2003 after 7 years of dating. They have a Yorkshire Terrier named Sammy Davis, Jr., and two cats named Ella and Coltrane whom they call their "Jazz Cats" since they were named after famous jazz performers. On December 6, 2004, it was reported by the New York Post that Menzel and Diggs were threatened with harm in a series of letters because of their interracial marriage.
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