here can’t be many people who dislike Idina Menzel, the long-reigning Queen of Broadway whose voice is matched by few performers living or dead. But if there are any haters, they are likely to be the parents of small children.
It’s been a decade since Menzel voiced the character of Elsa in the animated Disney movie Frozen, but the sound of her belting out Let It Go, the anthem to self-belief and inner strength, has stayed on repeat of the iPads of weary parents – as their children try to release their inner ice princess – ever since.
For Menzel that song, sung by a character conspicuously unburdened by the usual heterosexual love interest, was a career high. “It’s one of the greatest things that’s happened to me. I think even more than playing that iconic character, it’s what Elsa says and how she speaks to people, both in the LGBTQ+ community and to young kids: this idea of us all having this power that we don’t share for fear of alienating others, and eventually unleashing that power.”
But even before the success of Frozen – which saw Menzel perform at the Oscars, where John Travolta bizarrely mispronounced her name as “Adele Dazeem” (she got her own back when they presented an award together the following year, referring to him as “Glom Gazingo”) – she had long established her credentials as an astonishingly versatile singer and loyal LGBTQ+ ally, going back to her first professional role in the groundbreaking musical Rent in 1995.
“The support of the LGBTQ+ community has been everything. I got letters from people about how Rent had changed their life. Their courage and willingness to lead an authentic life is such a shining example for the rest of us.”
It’s that allyship that brings her to a London hotel on a bright day in early July. Outside, in Trafalgar Square, stage is being set up behind hoardings where, the following day, London’s Pride celebrations will kick off with Menzel as a headline act.
The London trip is part of a tour of Pride festivals to promote her new album Drama Queen, a riot of disco, high camp melodies that showcase Menzel’s huge voice and collaborations with the likes of Nile Rodgers and Jake Shears.
“I wanted to have fun. I wanted to make music that people would stand up and dance to. As much as I love them, my audiences tend to listen politely and behave. Whenever I’m in London, I always go to G-A-Y at Heaven at 1am and do a DJ set, and the place is packed. There are shirtless people pressed up against the stage, singing, crying, dancing, and I leave feeling so invigorated. So I thought: what music could I make to bring into those venues, but where I could still embrace my big voice?”
Menzel, 52, who lives in Los Angeles and is married to actor Aaron Lohr, with a son from her previous marriage to Taye Diggs, is at a point in her life where she’s embracing the drama that comes her way, as the title of the album suggests. If she wants to talk about something, she will: her disappointment at not being cast in the upcoming Wicked film (more of which later), her discomfort at getting older, her unwavering support for the LGBTQ+ community.
She increasingly feels a responsibility to speak out, especially when “we’re taking so many steps back” in terms of queer representation. “There’s so much scapegoating going on. I believe very strongly that it’s the allies who should be on the front lines doing the work because the young people need to spend their energy figuring out and staying true to who they are.”
In the US, the flashpoint for the culture war is Florida, where Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis is locked in a battle with Disney, the state’s biggest private employer, and the creators of Frozen, over LGBTQ+ rights.
“Disney used to get a lot of flack,” says Menzel, who was named a Disney Legend by the company in 2022, “for not being…” She mulls her words carefully. “I might get fired from Frozen 3 if I say too many disparaging things. But people thought there was a hypocrisy and I’m actually really proud. I feel like they’ve made leaps and bounds, and taking on DeSantis has meant a lot to people.”
Despite her embracing of these dramas both on and off stage, Menzel is no diva. A very British drama over the unavailability of biscuits to go with her tea (“We only have truffled nuts,” the waitress says) is met with bemusement rather than a tantrum. In fact, Menzel is quieter and gentler than the tracks on her album, not to mention her huge, belting voice might suggest.
It’s a voice that was honed by singing at endless weddings and bars and bat mitzvahs, a side job which sustained her through her drama degree. Then in 1995, a couple of years out of university and with aspirations for “a career like Alanis Morrissette”, she auditioned for a new musical.
Written by Jonathan Larson, Rent candidly explored the lives of a group of artists living under the shadow of HIV/AIDS in New York. Its rock soundtrack found a new generation of musical theatre fans, and Menzel was nominated for a Tony Award. That should have been it: career made, the rest history. What actually happened was… very little.
Yes, there was a record deal and a debut album, but after poor sales the label dropped her. Menzel hopped between a couple of stage shows, but the woman who had wowed Broadway dropped off people’s radars.
Then, in 2000, she went along to an audition for a musical about a couple of witches, one of them green. “Usually I tell myself after an audition that maybe I won’t get it, and that’s fine. But after auditioning for Elphaba in Wicked, I just started crying because it felt right to me. There was a callback and I had to learn Defying Gravity” – the show’s climactic song – “and when I got to the end, my voice cracked on one of the high notes. I was so angry that I said ‘F**k me’ at the top of my lungs. I looked at the accompanist and said, ‘Let’s do that again’. I nailed the note and finished the song. The director said he saw ferocity in me and I got the part.”
Wicked became one of the most successful musicals of all time, due in no small part to the roles that Menzel and co-star Kristin Chenoweth helped to create. So when plans were announced for the upcoming film adaptation, she was surprised not to be involved.
“The hardest part is that it’s made me aware of how old I am. Many women say that they love getting older and wiser, and there are times where I feel that way, but there are times when it’s hard, and this is one of those times.”
She insists that her disappointment is no slight on Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who have been cast as Glinda and Elphaba. “Do I think they’re going to do an amazing job? Of course I do.” The problem, she explains, is that Hollywood has no problem casting an actor like Robert De Niro in The Irishman and digitally de-aging him for most of the film.
“This is where I sound like I have a chip on my shoulder, and I guess I do. Kristin and I could play ourselves younger. But it’s not happening that way.” She pauses and gives a huge smile. “And that’s OK.”
The waitress is back with a pot of tea and, to Menzel’s delight, a plate of biscuits. “You found some!” she exclaims. “Perfect!” Besides, if she had been cast in Wicked, maybe she wouldn’t have had time to wow us in Uncut Gems, the intense, anxiety-inducing film from the Safdie Brothers in which she played Adam Sandler’s partner – another apparent swerve in her career. She’s got another movie with Sandler slated to come out in August, called You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah. “Working with him has been incredible,” she says. “He’s such a mensch. He’s the most generous, wonderful person and he treats everyone with such respect. Comedians don’t get enough credit for their acting sometimes, but he’s the real deal.”
Does she feel the same sense of not being taken seriously as a musical theatre actor? “There’s definitely a similarity there. It’s got better with Glee and Hamilton but back in the day with Rent, we were on the cover of the New York Times, but we weren’t invited to the Grammys.”
Crossing into mainstream pop has been equally freighted with expectations. “I’ve had record deals and when they’ve tried to set up a collaboration with a big pop producer or songwriter, there’s a reluctance because they assume that I’m going to bring this too big, too emotional sound. Then I win them over in the studio. There’s a box that I’m put in and people just assume that it’s going to sound too much like theatre or Broadway.”
Menzel wants to stay unboxed. As well as the films there’s a new stage musical called Redwood, which she’s been developing for more than two decades. But in the meantime along comes Drama Queen in a glitter show of EDM and disco. “Let me be dramatic,” she sings over a pulsing beat in one song. ‘You know I can’t help it, it’s automatic.’
She dunks a biscuit into her tea. “I’m tired of apologising for it.”
Drama Queen is out on August 18