Off the charts success hasn’t changed Idina Menzel, but it has altered her set list. The Broadway star, whose voice became ubiquitous thanks to “Let It Go,” the massive hit she recorded for the smash Disney soundtrack “Frozen,” is still the same.
Menzel, 44, remains laid back and open. Her audience, however, has grown exponentially and is much younger than it’s ever been, so some modifications in her concert are necessary.
“But I’m trying not to let it impact the show that much,” Menzel said during a conference call with reporters before beginning her 2015 world tour. “Between ‘Rent’ and ‘Wicked,’ even ‘Glee,’ and now ‘Frozen,’ I’ve always had to figure out how to negotiate, navigate around a wide demographic.”
That’s an enviable problem. She is no overnight sensation. It’s been a steady climb for Menzel, who received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in “Rent” nearly 20 years ago and won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her work in “Wicked” on Broadway in 2004. She enjoys the Great White Way, but she wanted more.
“You want to go as far as you can and so much has happened with my career,” Menzel said. “I’ve been very fortunate with what has come my way. I’ve recorded a number of songs and it’s been a great ride.”
Menzel has a plethora of tunes to choose from when she performs Saturday, July 11, at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
“Most of the songs are from shows that I’ve been in,” Menzel said. “And then there is the other music I want to explore. It’s funny, although ‘Let It Go’ is my only hit radio song of my career, I sort of consider songs like ‘Defying Gravity’ [from ‘Wicked’] and songs from ‘Rent’ to be my other hit songs.”
It’ll be interesting to see how it goes when Menzel performs since she has a large new audience comprised of prepubescent little girls clad in their Disney finery.
“I’m a 43-year old woman up there on stage and I curse, I swear about something and then I realize that’s a mom in the front row with her little 8-year-old daughter in an Elsa costume,” Menzel said. “But I have to be myself, too. That’s a challenging thing is how I reconcile all of that.”
The young fans adorned in their costumes won’t mind a plethora of costume changes, but Menzel claims that she’ll avoid going over the top in terms of wardrobe.
“When I was a little girl I saw Diana Ross perform and she made about 123 costume changes in the concert, and I thought it was so amazing,” Menzel said. “But as I’ve gotten more seasoned in my own career, I realized that I don’t want to leave the stage. So I’m playing around with a dress that can have maybe a couple different looks to it and change on stage and never lose my audience’s attention.”
Menzel can keep it relatively simple in terms of apparel, and she will choose the songs she wants, but there is no way she can leave the venue without singing “Let It Go.” “There’s no doubt about that,” Menzel said. “I love the song.”
But Menzel never thought it would be one of the most popular tunes of this era.
“I knew it was a beautiful song but I had no idea that it would become the phenomenon it has become,” Menzel said. “What people don’t realize is that it’s wonderful to have a song that has heightened my profile, but the beautiful thing about it is that it speaks to me as a woman, and as a reminder for myself about the things that are important and the things that I need to learn. For instance, the idea of not hiding the things that make us powerful and those things that might set us apart and make us extraordinary in the world.”
Menzel was extraordinary well before “Frozen” hit the airwaves. “I’ve accomplished a lot over the years but it’s about working hard,” Menzel said. “That’s how things have happened for me. Good things have happened, but you have to work hard in life to get to a certain place. I don’t regret all of the work I’ve done for a minute. My career has been so amazing and it’s hitting another level now.”
Menzel hasn’t lost a bit of that ethic. Before the tour, Menzel started work on her next album.
“I’m in that process of just being in the writing stages and recording with producers and songwriters that really inspire me,” Menzel said. “There’s not much to say other than that I feel creative and I’m sort of putting my heart out there and exploring different sounds and things like that. I’m not limiting myself. I’m just doing what I feel in my heart and then I’ll see if there’s somewhat of a theme or a trend going on and then I’ll pick the songs that tell that story. But I’m not there yet. Right now I’m just doing music that I love.”
IDINA MENZEL appears Saturday, July 11, at Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville. Tickets are $45. Show time is 8 p.m. For more information, 860-862-8499, mohegansun.com
