Yahoo Lifestyle Idina Menzel Reflects on ‘Conflict That I Have in Myself’ on Her ‘Life-Changing’ Road Back to Broadway (Exclusive)
Two weeks before Idina Menzel returned to Broadway in the new musical Redwood, wildfire began to quickly envelope Southern California. Like many in the entertainment industry, she was only just beginning to reckon with the devastation on the West Coast.
“I’m a little preoccupied with my family in California,” the actress exclusively tells Parade on the morning of Jan. 8, when mass evacuations from Los Angeles were already underway. She’s Zooming in from her dressing room at the Nederlander Theatre, where she made her Broadway debut nearly 30 years earlier in the groundbreaking 1996 rock opera Rent. Starbucks coffee cup in hand, Menzel is deep in rehearsals for Redwood, which began preview performances in New York City last Friday.
A labor of love she co-conceived alongside director Tina Landau from an idea they dreamed up 15 years ago, the musical’s themes are eerily timely. One year after a life-altering family tragedy, Menzel’s character, a mother named Jesse, escapes to the redwoods in Northern California as a way to cope but finds that even the most beautiful wonders of the world can—without warning, and quite literally—go up in flames. “From the ashes comes rebirth,” she’s assured by a woman named Becca (Khaila Wilcoxon), a conservationist whom she meets along the way.
“It’s been life-changing to live in this world of the redwoods. They’re so fierce and wise and astounding,” Menzel says, explaining that Redwood’s story is told from the “mind and the perspective of this woman in upheaval.” She adds, “It’s poetic and modern, and it’s so near and dear to my heart, and it reflects a lot of the emotion and the conflict that I have in myself.”
At 53, Menzel has become one of the most celebrated musical theater actresses of her time. A Tony Award winner for her performance as Elphaba in the Broadway blockbuster Wicked, she originated some of the most sought-after, modern-day female roles, including Maureen Johnson in Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer-winning Rent and Elsa in the hit Disney musical film Frozen. Still, she remains grounded—if not a bit more critical of herself than she once was when she began her career singing at weddings and mitzvahs.
“When I was younger, I had a stronger sense and belief in [myself],” she admits. “When I was standing up there at a bar mitzvah singing a Whitney Houston song, there was something in me that knew I was destined to do this for a living and that there was more to it than just singing at Temple Beth Shalom. I remember just standing there and saying, ‘Just give it time. Your time will come.’ And I think that the more successful you become, the more the fear of falling and crashing becomes, and the imposter syndrome creeps in. I miss that freedom that I had—and that confidence.”
In 1996, everything changed. Menzel was part of a small group of edgy twentysomethings plucked from obscurity to be part of the cast of Rent, a contemporary take on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La bohème. After a sold-out Off-Broadway run—made particularly poignant by the death of its composer Larson at age 35 following the show’s final dress rehearsal—Rent took Broadway by storm. Menzel received her first Tony nomination for playing Maureen, a queer and unapologetically outspoken performance artist who makes her grand entrance by motorcycle.
“When I played Maureen, I didn’t know all the stuff that comes along with the theater community and the politics and the awards. I had no idea about all of that because I was kind of preoccupied with wanting a record deal and writing my own music and wanting to be a rock star for a minute,” Menzel explains. “Maureen was just full of all of that levity and abandonment and rebelliousness and my humorous side and my sexy side. Then unfortunately, like I said, [as] you become more and more known, you start to go inward and become a little bit more fearful.”
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“Being here [at the Nederlander],” she says, “I miss her, and it’s wonderful because I am trying to channel that again.”
Menzel has since become a household name synonymous with Broadway and musicals. Frozen’s “Let It Go” is arguably one of the most popular Disney songs of all time, her 2014 Oscars introduction by John Travolta went viral (she still pokes fun at “Adele Dazeem” today), and her performance as the (not-so) Wicked Witch of the West recently made its way back into the cultural zeitgeist with last year’s release of the wildly successful first part of Wicked.
Vanishing from the public eye is now nearly impossible—but, in creating Redwood, it’s something she thinks about. “Just driving towards the sun was so intriguing to me,” she says. “The idea of the strength and the fortitude it would take to actually be up in the canopy of a redwood tree, 200-300 feet in the air, and to stay up there and live up there… Could I really do something like that?”
As mother to 15-year-old Walker Nathanial Diggs—whom she shares with ex-husband and former Rent co-star Taye Diggs—she’d “never even conceive” of doing something as extreme as her character does in Redwood, but she’s considered a similar escape.
“What I do think about sometimes is leaving the business and just sort of going off the grid—realizing how superficial it all is, and what if I could just take that part that so desires to be loved and liked and not care about it anymore?” she muses. “That [stems from] rejection in this business or criticism, the stress and anxiety I feel all the time about my voice and staying healthy. That kind of stress is sometimes when I think about, What if I just leave it all and get a little farm and take care of old horses?”
There are times when Menzel faces a lot of pressure. As someone who’s made a career of performing eight shows a week and touring the world, she knows that every day and every performance could be different—not always will the high notes she’s known for come out so effortlessly.
“I’ve learned that my voice isn’t my entire identity and my big notes and my acrobatics are not my entire identity. Those days where I have been sick and I’ve gotten on stage, and I haven’t had a range and I’ve had to navigate the melody and make other choices, I’ve had some of the best performances I’ve ever had,” she says. “Even though I was scared and worried that I was going to let people down, I actually felt like I was more in touch with myself and was able to reach people in a deeper way. So I’ve found that’s been a gift for me because I really did feel my whole life: All that makes me special is my singing voice. Now I understand that it’s more than just singing. It’s storytelling, and it’s the way that I do that.”
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Still, it’s not always easy. “Oh my God, it’s embarrassing because these characters I’m most known for—Elphaba, Elsa—they’re all about embracing who you are and not compromising yourself for anyone. And I don’t know if I’m very successful in doing that. I’m like a role model for empowerment, and I still have to get up every day, remind myself that I’m meaningful and relevant. I’m being honest about that. Honestly, the opportunity I get to be on tour when I go in concert and sing these iconic songs, that’s when I am reminded of how lucky I am and how important it is to sort of embrace every moment and find and to celebrate those things in me that are unique and that are… unique—period.
“I do feel like mistakes are a gateway for an audience to really see you authentically. And the more we as artists can make ourselves vulnerable, the more we are able to really give an audience a real profound experience,” she adds. “It’s when we are afraid to do that, that I think people aren’t as moved by a performance. It’s a double-edged sword because it’s so scary and terrifying to allow yourself to be stripped down and vulnerable in front of thousands of people. But it’s also what I truly know is the way that I feel I can make a connection.”
At the end of the day, she’s just mom to Walker—the most important of all the roles she’s played—and wife to husband Aaron Lohr, a former actor whose credits include the Rent film adaptation alongside Menzel. (Lohr, 48, now runs an inpatient facility for addiction and mental illness in Malibu and is a licensed therapist.)
Does Walker think that Menzel is a “cool mom” given her celebrity status? “I think inside he does,” she says with a warm laugh, “and he’s super proud of me. But on a daily basis, he finds my vocalizing extremely annoying and irritating, and he could care less about the fame and all of that. It’s sort of both sides of the coin with my son because he’s still just a teenager, just doing his own thing. But recently I was given this national honor for the arts at the White House, and I brought him and my husband. Walking from the East Wing to the West Wing, and this whole orchestra was playing ‘Let It Go,’ he was holding my hand. I could feel this intense pride that he had, and that was very emotional for me.”
The day at the White House was undoubtedly a big deal for Menzel, but her ultimate high of 2024 was just being a “basketball mom,” she explains. “The biggest highlight is sitting at a practice for my son on the side and just watching him play in practices or games. That is my happy place. I love to just watch him play. He’s got an incredible work ethic. And honestly, that’s where I just kind of… well, I couldn’t say I relax because every ball that goes up that doesn’t go in is very anxiety-provoking for me! But I love it. I love it so much.”
And as a wife, she’s lucky to have found love again in a partner like Lohr. “He’s just so soulful,” Menzel describes. “He was soulful as an actor, and he’s soulful as a therapist and a lifesaver. He really listens to whoever’s sitting in front of him. He listens to me, he’s patient with me. He’s an incredible stepdad to my son. He’s nonjudgmental, so I don’t know how to describe it. I just know that I’m very happy.”
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At the time of her Parade interview, Menzel was still decorating her dressing room at the Nederlander—the same one she occupied nearly 30 years ago. “Where I’m sitting right now is where Daphne Rubin-Vega and I sat, the two of us in this tiny dressing room, and then that’s where Taye, Jesse [L. Martin] and Adam [Pascal] were,” she says, pointing behind her. “We broke this wall down. I don’t know how three full-size men all lived in there for a year!”
With Redwood approaching its Feb. 13 official opening night, Menzel is trying to relish in creating yet another Broadway musical from scratch. This time, she even gets harnessed on stage to climb a tree trunk that ascends into the overhead fly space of the theater, all while singing. (“I’ve been out to Oakland several times to learn how to climb a tree, a redwood,” she says of her time working with vertical dance troupe BANDALOOP, “and also to dance on one—to swing and sing, as I like to say!”)
“To bring it all full-circle,” she adds, “the idea of Rent and living in the moment—‘No day but today’—is what I’ve carried through my whole life and my career. So I’m sort of in this right now, and I’m not looking to the future.
“I’m trying to really soak this up and be present.”
