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Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

Idina Menzel

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

NBC News

News, Celebrity, Society & Culture, Pop Culture, Movies, Technology, Tv, Interview, Broadway, Music, Politics, Tv & Film

4.73.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Idina Menzel became an international star with the animated movie Frozen. But Menzel already was a star in her own right, known for her performances in Rent and Wicked, with the latter earning her a Tony award. That unmistakable voice and a determination to succeed have taken Menzel from the wedding circuit on her native Long Island, to sold-out arenas across the country. Idina and Willie Geist got together for a Sunday Sitdown at one of the spots in New York where it all started for her.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down Podcast.

0:04.4

My thanks is always for clicking and listening along.

0:07.9

Got a really good one for you this week with Tony winning actress and singer Adina Menzel.

0:14.5

Many of you may have picked up Adina in 2013 when a little movie called Frozen came out.

0:20.6

She of course played Elsa, the big sister to Kristen Bell's little sister in that film.

0:27.4

That was one of the highest grossing animated films in the history of movies.

0:31.3

And of course spun off the song Let It Go, sung by Adina Menzel.

0:36.8

But she had a long successful career before that.

0:40.6

She grew up in New York's Long Island dreaming of being a singer.

0:43.9

All she wanted to be, she sang at Bar Mitzvah's, she sang at weddings, she did whatever she could,

0:49.2

and then started coming into New York City.

0:51.6

Often to a little spot down in the village called The bitter end.

0:56.0

And that's where we got together for our Sit Down.

0:58.2

That's where you hear us talking.

0:59.8

Small stage, small room, but a lot of big names have come in there and played.

1:03.9

It's where she started hustling and learning how to sing to a crowd and trying to make a name for herself.

1:09.0

She eventually auditioned for and won a role in a new musical at the time in the 90s called Rent.

1:15.8

Seasons of Change, all of it.

1:18.1

She was nominated for a Tony and that show became huge.

1:21.6

From there, she got a part in Wicked for that role as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

1:28.6

She won the Tony Award and she became,

1:32.8

many people believe the Queen of Broadway.

...

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