Idina Menzel, the Tony-winning performer whose luminous soprano achieved worldwide fame via the Oscar-winning composition “Let It Go,” created the parts of Maureen and Elphaba for the Broadway premieres of Rent in 1996 and Wicked in 2003. Subsequent screen appearances include the 2005 movie transfer of Rent, a recurring role on Glee between 2010 and 2013, vocal work as Elsa in Disney’s Frozen (2013) and its 2019 follow-up Frozen II, and a supporting turn in Uncut Gems. Maintaining an independent path as vocalist and songwriter, she has issued recordings that fuse adult alternative, vocal, and contemporary pop, among them the Top 30 entries Holiday Wishes (2014) and idina (2016). Drama Queen became her seventh solo album when it appeared in 2023.
Born and raised in Syosset, New York, Menzel began formal vocal instruction at age eight and later sang at weddings and bar mitzvahs during high school. She earned a B.F.A. in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1993. Her first major professional engagement arrived in 1995 when she was chosen to play Maureen in the rock musical Rent. Reimagining Puccini’s La Bohème in 1990s New York’s East Village rather than 1840s Paris, the production reached Broadway in April 1996, secured four Tony Awards including Best Musical, and earned Menzel a nomination for Featured Actress in a Musical. She exited the cast in July 1997 and cut her debut solo record, Still I Can’t Be Still, a collection of original adult alternative material co-written with bassist Milton Davis and issued by Hollywood Records in 1998.
While taking on further off-Broadway roles, Menzel made her feature-film bow with a brief appearance in Kissing Jessica Stein (2001). She next originated the role of Elphaba opposite Kristen Chenoweth’s Glinda in Wicked, which opened at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, received ten Tony nominations, and brought her the 2004 award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. That year she also issued the self-released EP Here.
Balancing stage, screen, and recording commitments, Menzel performed off-Broadway in Michael John LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See in 2005 and reprised Elphaba for Wicked’s West End premiere at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre in 2006. In 2007 she portrayed Nancy Tremaine in Disney’s Enchanted and saw a dance remix of “Defying Gravity” become her initial club success. Warner Bros. released her second full-length album, I Stand, in 2008. The same year she joined Josh Groban, Adam Pascal, and others for Royal Albert Hall presentations of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ Chess in Concert; Reprise issued the cast album in 2009. Menzel followed with a self-titled EP on the same label in 2010 that mixed studio and live tracks, and she began playing Shelby Corcoran on Glee.
Her PBS special Live: Barefoot at the Symphony documented a 2011 concert with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under Marvin Hamlisch; the program aired in 2012 and yielded CD and DVD editions from Concord Records. Shortly afterward she supplied both the speaking and singing voice of Elsa in Disney’s animated feature Frozen, an international hit that opened late in 2013. The Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez song “Let It Go,” performed by Menzel, peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and captured a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
She followed the film with the seasonal collection Holiday Wishes, released by Warner Bros. Records in October 2014; it became her first Top 50 solo album and reached number six on the Billboard 200. Returning to Broadway, she starred in the Tom Kitt–Brian Yorkey musical If/Then, earning another Tony nomination for leading actress. While continuing to voice Elsa in shorts such as 2015’s Frozen Fever, Menzel recorded her third studio album of original material, idina, which entered the Top 30 of the Billboard 200 upon its 2016 release. She and Nia Long led the Lifetime remake of Beaches that premiered in early 2017; Warner issued an accompanying soundtrack featuring her performances. The two-disc set idina: live appeared on Arts Music in 2018. In 2019, alongside a co-starring role in the acclaimed Uncut Gems, she released her second holiday album, Christmas: A Season of Love, which charted on the Billboard 200 and included contributions from Billy Porter, Josh Gad, Ariana Grande, and additional guests. Menzel collaborated with Porter and Camila Cabello on the 2021 live-action Cinderella, contributing the Oscar-shortlisted original song “Dream Girl,” and returned to the screen the following year in the Disney sequel Disenchanted.
Drama Queen, her seventh solo album, arrived in 2023 and featured the tracks “Move” and “Beast.”
