Idina's Film Roles 1/2/04

CNN aired the second RENT story on "Impact" (May '97). There were a couple shots of Idina (Pictures by Kelly Wong):

** Italics represent dialogue spoken within clips **

[Clip of "Seasons of Love" -- zoom in on Idina]

Reporter: Next--Their biggest night. Her biggest break.

[Commerical break]

[Shot of opening night hustle and bustle; Cast onstage]

Reporter: On the evening that the musical, "Rent" opened on Broadway, the stars were offstage. Onstage, there are no big names. At least not yet.

[Idina in a cute baseball hat at her apartment]

Idina: I thought I'd get through opening night. I have a job to do and I feel very pressured about it. You know? People are paying me money to come and do what I have said (my whole life) I do very well, and now the pressure is on, and it's hard.

[Clip of "Take Me or Leave Me"]

Reporter: "Rent" is the break 24 year-old Idina Menzel has been praying for.

Idina: You know, I come from doing weddings and bar mitvahs on the weekends as a singer--Paying the rent that way, so...

[Clip of Idina bringing out a black dress for all to see]

Idina: [dress.wav]This is like the quintessential, lounge singers' dress. Got a little...if you can see...black sequins. *laughs* [end of dress.wav]

Reporter: And how often would you have to wear this?

Idina: I would wear this--Well, you know, I wouldn't want to wear the same one. Sometimes I'd have four gigs in one weekend.

[Clip of Idina and her mom(?) going into the Bitter End]

Idina: Tonight's important because it's my own music.

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Idina Menzel.

Reporter: [money.wav] To get out of the wedding business, she was singing in small New York clubs.

[Clip of Idina singing her own song]

Reporter: Do you have to get paid for this?

Idina: No...People are charged five dollars at the door, but most of my friends are on the guestlist because I don't charge them, and I do pay my musicians. I pay money and I usually come out negative. [End of money.wav]

Reporter: So, why do you do it?

Idina: It's the only way to get out there and be seen. *mock saddness* So that someone will give me money, so that I can record an album.

[Clip of "Christmas Bells"]

Reporter: And then four months ago, Idina took a job just that tied herself over.

Idina: Joanne, which way to the stage?

Idina: January and February are like the slowest months for people to get married, so I was like, "Shoot, I have no money coming in. I have no gigs. This will be the perfect little hiatus for me. I'll be in this play." *laughs*

[Clip of "Over the Moon"]

Reporter: Did you have any idea when you auditioned for this that it was going to go where it's going?

Idina: [berstein.wav] No. When you say you pinch yourself, I don't pinch myself because I'm on Broadway, I pinch myself because I'm not waking up Saturday morning putting on this black, sequined dress and like, going to...Berstein's bar mitvah on Long Island. [End of berstein.wav]

[Another clip of "TMOLM"]

Reporter: She owes it to a man she barely knew - The composer of "Rent," Jonathan Larson.

Idina: I think he picked me because I have a raw quality.

[Clip of "TMOLM" that proves her "raw quality"]

Idina: I only knew him for a month--it's so stange, but I really feel he believed in me, and he saw something that I could give up there...and I'm grateful for that.

[Clip of rehearsal]

Michael Greif: Okay, now let's go back to the tippie-top everyone.

Reporter: The first show you try out for; the first play you're in, you make it to Broadway.

Idina: [intimidated.wav] And I'm surrounded by all of these professional, young people that have done a lot of great stuff, and I felt really intimidated, and sort of like I was letting them down, you know? Like, "Why are they onstage with her, she hasn't done anything?" [End of intimidated.wav]

[Clip of Idina talking to Michael Greif]

Idina: I'm just scared I'm like, gonna step on the wire and--

Michael Greif: Well, we'll just do it more, and more, and more.

Idina: Okay...

Reporter: Did you feel that you didn't have the theater background?

Idina: I don't. I'm learning...a LOT, everynight right now.

[Yet another clip of "OTM"]

Reporter: Will it make a difference when you actually go on Broadway? Do you think it will feel different?

Idina: [1200.wav] Yeah! There are 1200 people to screw up in front of *laughing* instead of 150! [End of 1200.wav]

[That damn "OTM"...]

Reporter: And it's not just the pressure onstage...

[Clip of "Time Out" fashion shoot]

Idina: Ooh, I just woke up.

Idina: I mean this past week has been unbelivable as far as shoots at six in the morning, and then having to be at rehearsal at twelve-thrity, and then having to do a preview show at eight.

Idina: Which shoe do you like better?

Idina: You don't get home 'til like, two in the morning. You wake up and do it again.

Reporter: For the next six months though, she knows she's not going to be singing at any bar mitzvahs.

Idina: So..."A Broadway star"...I just keep saying that, but I don't feel like a star! I just have this job with fourteen other cool, really warm people - talented people - and we're just all in this crazy, little ride together.

[Opening night backstage clips]

Aiko Nakasone: [aiko.wav] This is happy opening Hawaiian-style. *puts a lai over Idina's neck; hug; kiss; laughter abound* [End of aiko.wav]

Reporter: And on opening night...

Idina: We'll drink this [40 oz of beer] before the show *giggle*.

Reporter: ...It's crazier than ever.

Rodney Hicks: [hectic.wav] Hey girl, how you doing?

Idina: Did you get my present? [End of hectic.wav]

Rodney: *kiss* Thank you!

Idina: You're welcome!

Reporter: But the biggest night of her life is bittersweet.

[Clips of cast members gathered onstage; Idina crying]

Reporter: [jon.wav] There are fifteen people who have their careers launched because of Jonathan, and he won't be there. [Trying to get Idina to cry, eh?]

Idina: *quietly* He is there...He's there. [End of jon.wav]

Anthony Rapp: We dedicate this opening night, and every performance to our friend, Jonathan Larson.

Reporter: A moment for the cast and Jonathan's family to remember the one person who isn't there to see it.

[Jonathan's picture]

Idina: [jon2.wav] No one ever forgets. You know, we always try to keep a sense of him. And we feel him there. [End of jon2.wav]

As stated in her e-mail dated October 1st, Idina told fans that the RENT cast would be on CNN Showbiz Today. Although the clip was only 2 minutes long, Idina had some screen time (for about 10 seconds).

Idina: [cnn.wav] As soon as you get something wonderful like this, you're looking onto the next...thing, and that doesn't seem fair, I mean, there are so many people that would die just to be on Broadway. [End of cnn.wav]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Idina Menzel has come a long way since her days as a wedding singer. She came out of no where, sizzling on Broadway as the sex kitten in the sleeper hit "Rent." And now she's singing her own songs on her debut album. As she attains each new dream, Menzel proves that she is a woman constantly seeking the fast track to success.

In fact, her first album is titled "Still I Can't Be Still." "It's a take on all the meanings of the word 'still,'" Menzel says. "Still, meaning serenity, calmness; and still, meaning more to come. And I think that it really stemmed from the fact that there were all these wonderful things happening for me while I was in 'Rent,' and then given the opportunity to make my album. And I was constantly unsatisfied, and through that stemmed probably a lot of the emotion in many of the songs."

The first single off the album is called "Minuet." "'Minuet' is a song about my boyfriend, but it's a song about the graceful dance between the sound of one's heartbeat and their breath at one time," Menzel says. Menzel's boyfriend is Taye Diggs, her co-star in "Rent" and star of the film "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." While he was shooting his first film, she was recording her first album. "It feels like we're on the right path," Menzel says. "It feels like it was meant to be, the relationship, the career decisions, everything."

But don't think Menzel's success in her career and personal life will slow her down. "A year ago I think I was quoted in some playbill article saying, 'What do you want to do in a year?' and I said, 'I'd like to be on a bus, opening for Lenny Kravitz," Menzel says. "I didn't get the Lenny Kravitz gig, I think he's in Europe doing something else -- but somebody like (Kravitz)" is what she aspires to, she says. "So I was at Lilith Fair and I was in a van, and I think I'm getting closer and closer to that goal." And she won't be still until she achieves it.

When Taye was promoting "How Stella Got His Groove Back", the ladies of "The View" (Starr Jones especially) were a puddle of happy goo in his presence. He talked with Starr about being nekkid "as the day is long", his "apple booty", and how women in the theater were screaming "Turn around! Turn around!" at the screen during his shower scene.

Starr says she can lust after Taye because she'd already talked w/Idina and they were "cool" :) She then introduces Idina, who is sitting in the audience: "I've met her, and she is simply stunning. She's an actress and songwriter in her own right." Then Taye and Idina are drilled about their sex lives and there is much laughter. Idina laughs and says something about how "kinky" they are...What we gather from the whole thing is that the couple is freak nasty, and that's a good thing.

"Spark!" is a show on the Bay Area's KQED channel (aka PBS). They aired a special about the engineering involved with art. Luckily for us, they featured "Wicked" and all of the work that went into it. Unfortunately for them, I overlooked all of those behind-the-scenes details and just focused on actual clips from the performance. Here are screen caps of Idina as a very green Elphaba/"wicked" witch.

Idina and Kristin Chenoweth (as Galinda) talk about their hopes in the Emerald City...(and apparently their dreams to become the newest additions to the Beatles - what with those crazy green sunglasses).

Galinda becomes determined to make her new friend Elphie "Popular". No, Idina is not giving Kristin a piggyback ride, they're on a bed.

One of my favorite songs ("The Wizard and I") where Idina gets to belt her heart out about the Wizard...and her :) These pics are all of Idina holding the last note of "The Wizard and...IIiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIiii" before thundering applause (yay)! I also enjoy how Idina's character looks like a green, female version of "Collins" from RENT :P

Tollbooth, The (2003).... Raquel Cohen-Flaxman
Just a Kiss (2002) .... Linda - Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) .... Pathetic/silly Bridesmaid - [Screen caps by Rachel J!] Pic 1 (right side) Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4
Summer of Sam .... Ritchie's girlfriend (?) [scene cut] (1999)
"Hercules" (1998) TV Series (voice) .... Circe
Music Video for "Minuet" (1998) .... Herself

For the most up-to-date info, please check out Idina's filmography at the Internet Movie Database