'Wicked' star enjoys new spotlight

You might know her as the seductive Maureen in both the Broadway and movie versions of "Rent." Or perhaps you recognize her in "Wicked" as the green-skinned Elphaba, the outcast witch in the magical world of Oz.

Maybe you even saw her as Patrick Dempsey's girlfriend in Disney's "Enchanted." But now you have the chance to know Idina Menzel simply as herself.

The Broadway and film star is coming Sunday to Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre on tour for her new pop album, "I Stand." Last week she took a break from rehearsals for a musical at Vassar College in New York to answer a few questions by phone.

Q: Why did you want to do this tour?

A: The tour was sort of a lifelong dream for me. My dream was to get to the point where I could make a living with my own music and be on a bus with a bunch of weird guys, so that's coming true.

It's been an intricate challenge to figure out how to incorporate different experiences and satisfy my fan base and keep growing as an artist. The music from the album is more of a mainstream sound, along with finding a way to put theater songs in a more pop context, so that there is a cohesiveness to the evening.

Q: Is there a difference for you between performing Broadway and a concert setting?

A: Not for me. It's all performing for a live audience, and I love all the adrenaline of that. It's what keeps me going in life.

What's different is that I'm singing my own lyrics and having to be vulnerable in that way. But I think, as artists, we're always vulnerable. We're always putting ourselves out there, whether I'm in green makeup or in jeans and being myself. I'm taking a risk in front of people, and it's what I love to do."

Q: Does it scare you that there's no character to put on, it's just Idina?

A:. These days I'm feeling more comfortable with Idina, so it's OK. I'm in a more vulnerable place because I can't hide behind the costume. The hard thing is that there can be more judgment to pass because it's my own music and my own story.

I'm at risk of being more criticized. But on the other hand, there's a freedom in knowing who you are and having people pay for tickets to come see me, which is the coolest thing. Whether it's someone else's words or mine, it's still me and I have to open myself up.

Q: How long have you been writing your own songs?

A: I was a wedding singer as a teenager because my parents split up and that was the job I got to help my dad out. I was learning all kinds of music for those gigs, and I had all kinds of influences. They inspired me to write my own music, and I've been doing that ever since.

It just so happens that instead of getting a record deal, which I wanted at the time, I got "Rent," and my life took on that path. I'm grateful for it, but it kept me from recording music because I had to do eight shows a week. When I'm looking back, it's all a part of who I am and the music I'm writing.

Q: What responses to your own material have you seen so far?

A: It's a great feeling to be on stage singing your own songs and having people sing the lyrics along with you ... and it's not just the "Wicked" songs. What I've been getting out of it is that I write songs that come from my own experiences, but then I get letters from fans about how the songs affected or inspired them.

I think that's such a compliment for songwriting when it takes on a larger meaning. That's a real gift to me when that happens.

Q: Where does this album fit into the transitions your career has taken?

A: I don't even see them as transitions, I just see them as all the different things I love to do. I'm hoping to be some kind of Renaissance woman: make my own music, be in musical theater and get more experience in TV and film. It's all a part of myself as an artist that I want to cultivate.

Q: Do you see yourself as following in the footsteps of performers such as Bette Midler, who have traveled the same route?

A: Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler, who did everything, those are the people, as far as careers go, that I would only hope to have a sliver of what they had. Their success gives me a template and permission to know I can do all these things.

You can be in theater and sing your own music, and if you stay true to who you are, that will be the common denominator. That's what I'm trying to do.