July 25, 2023 • 26 mins
Drama is no stranger to this Tony-winning star of the stage known as "The Queen of Broadway", so her latest studio album, "Drama Queen" is very much apropos. Idina Menzel joins me on LOVE SOMEONE to share the inside scoop on her August release of this 70's-inspired dance/groove/disco LP.
For those of you who have only heard her amazing vocal skills when she implores you (and every child in the world) to, "Let It Go", you'll be delightfully surprised when you find yourself up and shaking your groove thing to tracks like, "Move", "Beast", and "Dramatic". Slip into something satin or sequined and join us for this conversation! ~ Delilah
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
July, Oh July, How I love your warm evenings. Warm
nights that bring folks onto their back decks and their
front stoops. Warm nights that invite summer strolling around the lake,
along the river, extended visits to neighborhood parks. I'm grateful
(00:27):
for the days that stresssch out long into the evening
hours and the lovely, laid back, lazy pace. I'm grateful
for so much. The ability to step out of the
studio and into the warm embrace of July or fresh
air and fresh perspective is no small thing. I'm grateful
(00:48):
for gratitude, for love, for entertainment, for inspiration. These are
the things that I want to share with you with you,
my listeners, and I believe today's episode will help me
on that mission. Some folks just seem to have it all.
Today's guest is one of those people. Adina Menzel is
a Tony Award winning powerhouse. She is, of course, a singer,
(01:13):
an actress in film and TV, a songwriter, a Broadway star,
and a philanthropist. She rose to fame as Maureen in
the popular Broadway musical Rent, and her career took off
when she won a Tony Award for her role as Alphaba, Alphaba,
(01:34):
the Wicked Witch of the West, who really wasn't wicked
at all in the smash music Wicked. Her voice can
be heard, of course, as Elsa in Disney's Award winning
Frozen and its song that my kids and my grandkids
sing every day, Let It Go, voiced by aDNA, It
(01:54):
became an instant international phenomenon, winning the Oscar for Best
Original Song. It's a song that you hear everywhere, everywhere
you go, still to this day. In addition to her
contribution to multiple cast albums, her prolific recording career includes
a catalog of successful solo albums Still I can't be
(02:16):
still Here I stand a Dina, and you know how
we love Christmas Here at the Delilah Show, Christmas a
Season of Love. We've played that a lot last year.
Adena is joining us today to tell us about her
new album, Drama Queen, and I already know just from
the title that it's material that's going to speak to
(02:37):
my heart. I can't wait to get dramatic with a
Dina Manzell right after I bring the curtain up and
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(03:43):
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how are you, Adina Menzel, Welcome to love someone with Delilah.
I haven't talked to you in what seems like for
but because you know I have so many children and grandchildren,
(04:04):
I hear you every day.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I know it's a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It's a good thing because I love you.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You've got little ones do they do they watch you? O, he's.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Just thirtyen, he's thirteen going on fourteen. He wants nothing
to do with me. That's not true. No, what I
did a I did a show the other night, and
I forced him to come because I thought it would
be really cool for him to see me do this
particular music for the first time. And he came up
to me after and he was very emotional. He said,
I'm very emotional, mom, and he hugged me in front
(04:35):
of a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Wow. Yeah, yeah for a thirteen almost fourteen year old boy,
that's huge.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, So that was that was really nice. But most
of the time he wants nothing to do with me.
He's at a math final right now, and well, let's
just send him pauseitive energy because it's seventh grade. You know,
how is this boring for your listeners, this kind of
mommy stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
We're all moms or grandmoms at this point in the game.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So he's, uh, yeah, he's at he's at a math final,
and I was just handing him positive energy because you know,
seventh grade is such a transition from elementary school, and
like he didn't have tests in the elementary school that
he was at So it's just been crazy this for him,
and the workload. More than the workload, the executive functioning
(05:21):
for a young boy, you know, is a whole new thing. Anyway,
let's talk about something else.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Uh well, I was just going to say, my daughter,
who is setting in on this Delilah Junior. He's going
into high school next year. So she's going from a
school of three hundred students to a school of almost
a thousand students.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, that's overwhelming. It is, Yeah, so overwhelming. Walker's in
the school right now that his school, the junior high
and the high school in the same school, So he's
got these huge kids walking around. You know. The good
thing is that they're really sweet and they act like
big sisters and brothers, and so it's cool. Back in
(06:01):
my day, I would have been like bullied in harass,
and I remember that these girls would throw spitballs in
my hair down the locker room. Was afraid to go,
I mean down the hall, and I was afraid to
go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Okay, now where do you think How do you think
they feel now when you know you're winning every award
in the world and you have an album that's coming out,
do you think they're like, dang, we probably should have
hung out with her instead of throwing spitballs in her hair.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Now most of them have come to my shows and
stuff after and acted like we were best friends. And
one girl that's never the one, the worst one. It's
probably really sweet now and everything, but in my head,
she'll never redeem herself, you know, And I've never seen
She's the only one I've never seen since, and she
(06:50):
was the queen of the bullies. Yeah, she was so
mean to me. So maybe she really did have a thing,
or maybe she doesn't even remember, you know. That's the thing.
I don't know anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Do you go to class reunions, do you go back
to your high school? Do you do those down memory
lane trips?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I would have, but I haven't. Every time there is one,
I had a show or something, so I haven't. But
I see certain people a lot, Like I said, the
doing theater and concerts and going on tour. You know,
people come and they ask the tickets and they come backstage,
and so I can. I've seen a lot of people
through that that it's actually been really nice too. And
(07:32):
then I sort of re establish a relationship with some
of them. Which has been really cool.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I've known Michael Bubla since he was a teenager, like twelve,
do you have yeah? And he says, got to I
was such a nerd when I was a kid, you know.
I think he was twenty the first time I had
a chance to meet him. Same with Josh grob And
I met him when he was a teenager. And I
always wonder because you know, they've shared being bold lead
(08:00):
or made fun of or you know, for being music geeks.
I always wonder, like, do people come to your shows
and say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, or like
in your case, they pretend they knew you, they were
friends with you.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, no, they just they don't say they're sorry.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Well, the good news is the first time I met you,
I was in love with you. I had seen you
in Chicago as Alphaba, and I was in love with
you from the first note you sang the first time
you appeared on the stage in your green and I
(08:42):
have loved you ever since.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So thank you. That was a special time for me.
That show So yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I loved you so much as Alphaba. I have seen
the show I saw you. I saw it with you twice,
but I've seen the show eight times.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Now, wow, well, you probably take the girls to see it.
I do.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I take the girls to see it. I take my
grandkids now to see it. And oh my gosh, it's
just such a such a beautiful story of true friendship.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
People's like, isn't it a love story? I said, yeah,
it's a love story, but.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Not not that, do you think exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, so you've been busy now, you haven't slowed down.
You've you've got a new album out. And Delilah Junior
and I were talking before the interviews. She said, talk
to her about Enchanted. Did she like being the mean
step mom?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You mean? And Cinderella? I was the mean step mosment
and I came back as the princess that I mean,
as the queen that I went up into the animated
world at the end of Enchanted one and then we
come back and we revisit James Martin and I and
then yeah, Cinderella.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Was the Cinderella that was the one I was thinking
toy and.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It was that was so much fun. Camilla cou it
was a gorgeous person inside it out, and yeah, so
it was all fun. I spent during COVID once they
started to get to figure out production for things. I
spent my life in like corsets around and enchanted, you know,
(10:20):
and well like we went there, then they'd shut down.
We'd come home and get back with my pj's and
do my day coupage and then hang out with my
son in virtual school. And then they'd say, oh, we're
back up for a month. So I go back and
try to fit my ass into these coursets again. My
boobs got bigger because I put on weight. Then they'd
be like spilling out of the course and then they
have to add you know. Anyway, that was a lot
(10:43):
of my COVID, But.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I have you lost the because you look fabulous. Everybody
called it the COVID fifteen, and my world it was
the COVID forty exactly because sourdough. Because my girlfriend Marta
like a year before COVID hits started talking sourdough and
she taught a sourdough class and sourdough, Hello.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Cowardough class is so funny. Yeah, my husband started baking. Yeah,
that was his destress. Well, he kept working during COVID
because he works in an impatient facility for chemical dependency
and mental illness. So he was still going every day.
But so then he came home and he started baking
(11:27):
as his sort of way to decompress.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
But so he and I have a have an extra
pound or two. Are you saying that we found?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No, he doesn't because he doesn't gain a freaking pound.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Ever, I has to run like miles, you know. It
just makes me And yeah, my husband can. He's he's
almost seventy. He can wear his green beret uniform from
when he was in his early twenties.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Amazing, what what? I not fair? Not fair? Anyway, I've
been I have been getting working out so that I
can get these great disco kind of inspired jumpsuits and
move around the stage and I have dancers now, and
I've been having the best time with this new album
(12:11):
because during COVID, actually I had this epiphany that I
didn't want to I wanted to do music where people
could like really get up and move and dance and
have a different experience with me where they don't have
to sit in their seats and like feel like their
behave theater goers. Because I had done some clubs late
(12:31):
at night, in the middle of the night in London
when I was there doing press for something, and I'd
show up at clubs at like one in the morning
and and the crowd was like pushed up against the
stage and the energy was amazing, and so I was
I really was like excited to make music like that.
(12:54):
And I thought, well, what kind of music really showcases
a big voice? But still, you know, grew and I
thought of all the people I loved, that, all the
women I loved, especially that did disco albums and dance albums.
So I've been able to, you know, not compromise my
big melodies and big singing and but also do something
that felt really good that I felt like was an
(13:16):
organic transition but also would be something a little unexpected.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Because you're younger than me, you kind of missed out
on the jump suits. Yeah, you were in onesies when
I was in jumpsuits.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's not true.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It is true. It is true. You were Okay, maybe
not onesies, but you were probably in the parachute pants
with matching jacket teal and pink. Yeah, did you have
the teal in pink matching jacket and yeah, but a.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Lot of fluorescent and my hair was like this, like
like this with hairspray, like I think that, yeah, so
is mine. So yeah, but yeah, I named the album
Drama Queen one because, as your daughter knows, I played
queens a lot of queens in my career for some reason.
(14:15):
Two because I sometimes think I'm a queen in my
own mind, but also because I feel like I wanted
to reclaim the term a little bit. You know, it's
kind of like reclaiming the term diva. And you know,
a drama queen in my case is someone that has
lots of big emotional you know, big feelings, bold feelings,
(14:39):
passionate feelings.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I tried the same with broad to me, when you're abroad,
that's a compliment.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yes, exactly well, that's yeah, that's my East Coast, you know,
Long Island. Yeah, exactly so. And then I really feel
like it it encompass a lot of the themes that
have been sort of you know, a pattern in my
life and in the projects I've been a part of
where we really, you know, especially as women, embrace, you know,
(15:12):
this real fire that we have in us and not
trying to shy away from that, and so a lot
of the songs have to do with that. I'm really
glad that it coincides with Pride. So I'm going out
and hitting a lot of the Pride festivals and I've
just been having the best time with it. I'm really
(15:33):
I'm really proud of it too.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Now do you have do you have any many disco
skirts that you can twirl in?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Only if I wear like two pairs of tights because
I don't feel like my legs are I feel like
my legs are too flabby for the mini minis.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I met Cher backstage in one of her outfits and
she was in her seventies at the time, I think,
and damn she was rocking it. I'm like, you, you
are my goal.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
You are my goal, one of my inspirations for the
album because she came out with members, she came out
and Believe and that whole dance album. Oh yeah yeah,
rocking it.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I can't Where can we find out a Dina
about your tour?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Uh, it's mostly this summer, hitting a lot of the festivals.
I guess you can go on my website, you can
check out I'm going to be in DC at Pride, Provincetown,
No Providence, Rhode Island, Saint Petersburg, Saint Louis. Then I'm
going to go to London and hit a bunch of
cities in New Europe, which I'm really excited about, and
(16:38):
then we'll see about a tour and a couple months.
You know as well, you could just check out on
my website or my socials, I guess. So I'm figuring
out how can I do Let it Go and find
gravity as dance tunes, you know as well, give them
a little.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Good oh yeah, you know. Oh, and let it Go
as a dance tune could become an anthem of a
whole different nature.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I would play that song on my show for women
who need to walk away from destructive marriages or destructive relationships.
I have played let It Go.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Everybody thinks of it as a kid's song or a
Disney song, but really it's kind of an anthem.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yes, it is an anthem.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Throw a beat in there and flash some lights and
we'll be dancing.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, and let your fire out, you know, don't withhold
your talents or what makes you special for anybody.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
You know, or your ice in that case, let your.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Eyes exactly, and don't wear your gloves to keep your
icicles from coming out of your you know.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, take those damn gloves off. Adina Menzella is sharing
some time and some love with us today. I have
more questions for her, but first a round of applause
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(18:49):
big deal. I'm very flattered, partly because you're so stink
and talented and you're in a lot of their favorite
movies that I let them watch, and partly because since
the day I met you. I've been impressed by your
grace and your kindness to everyone and your honesty.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, for better or for worse,
that's my deal. You know. Sometimes I get myself in trouble,
put my foot in my mouth, or you know, when
you're really honest, you allow people to see your weaknesses
and you got to be careful there, you know. But
I think the vulnerability is all of our strengths, you know,
(19:28):
it's what makes us human, and the fact that we
can make mistakes. It's just more interesting, you know, than
being perfect. So that's the way I tumut myself when
I feel like shit.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, have you ever met anybody whose life appeared perfect?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah? Yeah, Or that I thought was perfect, Yeah, like
three kids, skinny as can be, gorgeous, dresser, doctor, saving
lives doing you know, and then found out, you know,
marriage is a mess and just a bunch of things.
(20:04):
So if you never know what people are experiencing. So
I try to think about that when I show up
to school.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I think people whose lives appear perfect are a better
actor than you, you know what I mean. I think
they're acting so hard and working so hard to manage
other people's perceptions of them. I don't know how old
I was when I gave myself permission to not give
a damn what somebody else thought about me. Their opinion
(20:35):
to me is none of my business. Number one and
number two, I don't have the time or energy to
waste one second trying to impress you. I'm just going
to be me.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I on the other hand, I mean, I know I'm successful,
but I do want to impress people. I still want
people to like what I do. It's still hard for
me to have critics come to my play and give.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Me But you got to know at this stage in
the game that you have a voice of an angel,
powerful angel, a warring angel. You know, we're talking about
the ten foot tall angels that are blazing.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
A little cherub.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You're not a little cherub. But I hope that I
hope that you are able to receive the truth of
your gifting. Thank you, and then forget them where the
clunky heels were the platform shoes and have some fun.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
A little shoulder, yeah, show a lot of shoulder. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I had I hijacked my Halloween party eleven years ago
and got married.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
What's that mean?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Like We didn't tell anybody we eloped. We eloped at
our Halloween party. We didn't tell anybody.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Sparing when you got married.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Well, I ordered a dress offline and I didn't have time.
It came like the day before. I didn't have time
to try it on beforehand, and so I pop my
dress on and everything was kind of popping out. Spillage.
There was spillage. Yeah, we didn't have because we didn't
tell anybody we were doing it. We didn't have a
professional photographer or anybody there. But some folks, you know,
(22:13):
snap pictures with their friends or whatnot. And I have
a couple of those pictures and I'm like, WHOA, I
should have tried that dress on before.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I got married. In my backyard too, to my husband
that I'm with now. And it was great. Although our
neighbors new neighbors moved in, they tried to report us
and everything. So then we tried to kiss their butt
and like bring them champagne and because we were doing
renovations in the backyards, and then they were like annoyed,
so we went over. We invited them, you know, but
it was so stressful because I felt like, we're just
(22:42):
we're gonna have music we're gonna enjoy just you know,
it's just one time. I'm not like, you know, they
think they automatically think if you're in the business, that
you're gonna have crazy rock and roll parties. Little do
they know all I do is binge watch and sit
on my couch. You know. You know it's funny the
golden I went back and I realized they're kind of
I always thought they were older women, Like it's like
(23:05):
like older, and they're I think they're my age now
living but like my age living with my best friends
down in a retirement. I don't know, it's just I
can't understand what was going on there with the casting.
But I think I just I have distorted and a
distorted idea of how old I am now.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I think the truth is, uh, we are very different
at this age than our parents or our grandparents were
at this age.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, they had kids so early and so yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
They loved hard. I mean my grandparents. My sister is
the historian in our family, and she was telling me
how for years my grandparents were migrant workers. They would
they lived in Arkansas, but they would come out to
the West Coast in the summer and work in strawberries
or picking beans or.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Oh wow, my grandpa and Max used to brag that
he would do signs and had gold leaf pint to it.
That's went made it's special. But he h yeah, he
was a sign painter. And he used to teach me
how to do lettering a lot. So I'm good at
like doing bubble letters and cursor and calligraphy and stuff
like that. Because of him.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I miss beautiful sign work. I missed that was an
art form. Yeah, especially like on the sides of buildings
when they would do a brick building and do the
signs on the brick building. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And then my dad's old pajamas, So.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Was a pajama sel. Did he make the pajamas? Did
he design the pajamas?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Salesman? So he'd go to J. C. Penny and hope
to get like, you know, a million pairs of bede
pajamas sold. And he still says to this day, the woman,
the buyer, you know, put me through college. And he
would bring all of his buyers to all of my shows,
that was the thing. So he'd see my shows like
fifty times. I think he saw wrench and wicked about
(24:56):
fifty times or something. But because that was a nice
night out to take them, you know, and schmoozze, maybe
get a good order. But I had lots of beautiful
pajamas and nightgowns.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Aidina, thank you for spending time with us today. I
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Have a beautiful summer, have a beautiful rest of your summer,
and hopefully I will see you soon. Love you guys,
Love you Byhan bye. Adina Menzel brings her electrifying vocal
chops to high energy electro dance pop anthems on her
latest album, Drama Queen, with funky grooves and a disco
infuse vibe. It's an invitation to throw off the shackles
(25:40):
of expectation, embrace your inner Drama Queen, join her in
the spotlight, and move to the dance floor. Put on
some roller skates if you want a disco roller skate.
It's a fun, fresh new album that brings the drama
in the best way possible. The full album will be
available next month in August, and the single Move is
(26:01):
ready for you to download right now. Keep up with
aDNA and all of her projects at adnamanzel dot com.
Follow her on Instagram, on Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook. Get
out there and enjoy all that summer has to offer.
Or take advantage of the long, warm evenings. Maybe take
in an outdoor theater performance, or simply use the extended
(26:24):
daylight hours to sit in quiet, comfortable contemplation. Don't spend
a minute more than necessary indoors, go outside and play.
I'm so grateful to you and tickled that you join
me here on the air, both on our podcast and
on the radio show. As always, I want you to
be good to yourself and whenever possible, slow down and
(26:48):
love someone
July, Oh July, How I love your warm evenings. Warm
nights that bring folks onto their back decks and their
front stoops. Warm nights that invite summer strolling around the lake,
along the river, extended visits to neighborhood parks. I'm grateful
(00:27):
for the days that stresssch out long into the evening
hours and the lovely, laid back, lazy pace. I'm grateful
for so much. The ability to step out of the
studio and into the warm embrace of July or fresh
air and fresh perspective is no small thing. I'm grateful
(00:48):
for gratitude, for love, for entertainment, for inspiration. These are
the things that I want to share with you with you,
my listeners, and I believe today's episode will help me
on that mission. Some folks just seem to have it all.
Today's guest is one of those people. Adina Menzel is
a Tony Award winning powerhouse. She is, of course, a singer,
(01:13):
an actress in film and TV, a songwriter, a Broadway star,
and a philanthropist. She rose to fame as Maureen in
the popular Broadway musical Rent, and her career took off
when she won a Tony Award for her role as Alphaba, Alphaba,
(01:34):
the Wicked Witch of the West, who really wasn't wicked
at all in the smash music Wicked. Her voice can
be heard, of course, as Elsa in Disney's Award winning
Frozen and its song that my kids and my grandkids
sing every day, Let It Go, voiced by aDNA, It
(01:54):
became an instant international phenomenon, winning the Oscar for Best
Original Song. It's a song that you hear everywhere, everywhere
you go, still to this day. In addition to her
contribution to multiple cast albums, her prolific recording career includes
a catalog of successful solo albums Still I can't be
(02:16):
still Here I stand a Dina, and you know how
we love Christmas Here at the Delilah Show, Christmas a
Season of Love. We've played that a lot last year.
Adena is joining us today to tell us about her
new album, Drama Queen, and I already know just from
the title that it's material that's going to speak to
(02:37):
my heart. I can't wait to get dramatic with a
Dina Manzell right after I bring the curtain up and
shine the spotlight on one of my spectacular podcast sponsors. I
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how are you, Adina Menzel, Welcome to love someone with Delilah.
I haven't talked to you in what seems like for
but because you know I have so many children and grandchildren,
(04:04):
I hear you every day.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I know it's a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It's a good thing because I love you.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You've got little ones do they do they watch you? O, he's.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Just thirtyen, he's thirteen going on fourteen. He wants nothing
to do with me. That's not true. No, what I
did a I did a show the other night, and
I forced him to come because I thought it would
be really cool for him to see me do this
particular music for the first time. And he came up
to me after and he was very emotional. He said,
I'm very emotional, mom, and he hugged me in front
(04:35):
of a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Wow. Yeah, yeah for a thirteen almost fourteen year old boy,
that's huge.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, So that was that was really nice. But most
of the time he wants nothing to do with me.
He's at a math final right now, and well, let's
just send him pauseitive energy because it's seventh grade. You know,
how is this boring for your listeners, this kind of
mommy stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
We're all moms or grandmoms at this point in the game.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So he's, uh, yeah, he's at he's at a math final,
and I was just handing him positive energy because you know,
seventh grade is such a transition from elementary school, and
like he didn't have tests in the elementary school that
he was at So it's just been crazy this for him,
and the workload. More than the workload, the executive functioning
(05:21):
for a young boy, you know, is a whole new thing. Anyway,
let's talk about something else.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Uh well, I was just going to say, my daughter,
who is setting in on this Delilah Junior. He's going
into high school next year. So she's going from a
school of three hundred students to a school of almost
a thousand students.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, that's overwhelming. It is, Yeah, so overwhelming. Walker's in
the school right now that his school, the junior high
and the high school in the same school, So he's
got these huge kids walking around. You know. The good
thing is that they're really sweet and they act like
big sisters and brothers, and so it's cool. Back in
(06:01):
my day, I would have been like bullied in harass,
and I remember that these girls would throw spitballs in
my hair down the locker room. Was afraid to go,
I mean down the hall, and I was afraid to
go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Okay, now where do you think How do you think
they feel now when you know you're winning every award
in the world and you have an album that's coming out,
do you think they're like, dang, we probably should have
hung out with her instead of throwing spitballs in her hair.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Now most of them have come to my shows and
stuff after and acted like we were best friends. And
one girl that's never the one, the worst one. It's
probably really sweet now and everything, but in my head,
she'll never redeem herself, you know, And I've never seen
She's the only one I've never seen since, and she
(06:50):
was the queen of the bullies. Yeah, she was so
mean to me. So maybe she really did have a thing,
or maybe she doesn't even remember, you know. That's the thing.
I don't know anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Do you go to class reunions, do you go back
to your high school? Do you do those down memory
lane trips?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I would have, but I haven't. Every time there is one,
I had a show or something, so I haven't. But
I see certain people a lot, Like I said, the
doing theater and concerts and going on tour. You know,
people come and they ask the tickets and they come backstage,
and so I can. I've seen a lot of people
through that that it's actually been really nice too. And
(07:32):
then I sort of re establish a relationship with some
of them. Which has been really cool.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I've known Michael Bubla since he was a teenager, like twelve,
do you have yeah? And he says, got to I
was such a nerd when I was a kid, you know.
I think he was twenty the first time I had
a chance to meet him. Same with Josh grob And
I met him when he was a teenager. And I
always wonder because you know, they've shared being bold lead
(08:00):
or made fun of or you know, for being music geeks.
I always wonder, like, do people come to your shows
and say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, or like
in your case, they pretend they knew you, they were
friends with you.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, no, they just they don't say they're sorry.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Well, the good news is the first time I met you,
I was in love with you. I had seen you
in Chicago as Alphaba, and I was in love with
you from the first note you sang the first time
you appeared on the stage in your green and I
(08:42):
have loved you ever since.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So thank you. That was a special time for me.
That show So yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I loved you so much as Alphaba. I have seen
the show I saw you. I saw it with you twice,
but I've seen the show eight times.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Now, wow, well, you probably take the girls to see it.
I do.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I take the girls to see it. I take my
grandkids now to see it. And oh my gosh, it's
just such a such a beautiful story of true friendship.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
People's like, isn't it a love story? I said, yeah,
it's a love story, but.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Not not that, do you think exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, so you've been busy now, you haven't slowed down.
You've you've got a new album out. And Delilah Junior
and I were talking before the interviews. She said, talk
to her about Enchanted. Did she like being the mean
step mom?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You mean? And Cinderella? I was the mean step mosment
and I came back as the princess that I mean,
as the queen that I went up into the animated
world at the end of Enchanted one and then we
come back and we revisit James Martin and I and
then yeah, Cinderella.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Was the Cinderella that was the one I was thinking
toy and.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It was that was so much fun. Camilla cou it
was a gorgeous person inside it out, and yeah, so
it was all fun. I spent during COVID once they
started to get to figure out production for things. I
spent my life in like corsets around and enchanted, you know,
(10:20):
and well like we went there, then they'd shut down.
We'd come home and get back with my pj's and
do my day coupage and then hang out with my
son in virtual school. And then they'd say, oh, we're
back up for a month. So I go back and
try to fit my ass into these coursets again. My
boobs got bigger because I put on weight. Then they'd
be like spilling out of the course and then they
have to add you know. Anyway, that was a lot
(10:43):
of my COVID, But.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I have you lost the because you look fabulous. Everybody
called it the COVID fifteen, and my world it was
the COVID forty exactly because sourdough. Because my girlfriend Marta
like a year before COVID hits started talking sourdough and
she taught a sourdough class and sourdough, Hello.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Cowardough class is so funny. Yeah, my husband started baking. Yeah,
that was his destress. Well, he kept working during COVID
because he works in an impatient facility for chemical dependency
and mental illness. So he was still going every day.
But so then he came home and he started baking
(11:27):
as his sort of way to decompress.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
But so he and I have a have an extra
pound or two. Are you saying that we found?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No, he doesn't because he doesn't gain a freaking pound.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Ever, I has to run like miles, you know. It
just makes me And yeah, my husband can. He's he's
almost seventy. He can wear his green beret uniform from
when he was in his early twenties.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Amazing, what what? I not fair? Not fair? Anyway, I've
been I have been getting working out so that I
can get these great disco kind of inspired jumpsuits and
move around the stage and I have dancers now, and
I've been having the best time with this new album
(12:11):
because during COVID, actually I had this epiphany that I
didn't want to I wanted to do music where people
could like really get up and move and dance and
have a different experience with me where they don't have
to sit in their seats and like feel like their
behave theater goers. Because I had done some clubs late
(12:31):
at night, in the middle of the night in London
when I was there doing press for something, and I'd
show up at clubs at like one in the morning
and and the crowd was like pushed up against the
stage and the energy was amazing, and so I was
I really was like excited to make music like that.
(12:54):
And I thought, well, what kind of music really showcases
a big voice? But still, you know, grew and I
thought of all the people I loved, that, all the
women I loved, especially that did disco albums and dance albums.
So I've been able to, you know, not compromise my
big melodies and big singing and but also do something
that felt really good that I felt like was an
(13:16):
organic transition but also would be something a little unexpected.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Because you're younger than me, you kind of missed out
on the jump suits. Yeah, you were in onesies when
I was in jumpsuits.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's not true.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It is true. It is true. You were Okay, maybe
not onesies, but you were probably in the parachute pants
with matching jacket teal and pink. Yeah, did you have
the teal in pink matching jacket and yeah, but a.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Lot of fluorescent and my hair was like this, like
like this with hairspray, like I think that, yeah, so
is mine. So yeah, but yeah, I named the album
Drama Queen one because, as your daughter knows, I played
queens a lot of queens in my career for some reason.
(14:15):
Two because I sometimes think I'm a queen in my
own mind, but also because I feel like I wanted
to reclaim the term a little bit. You know, it's
kind of like reclaiming the term diva. And you know,
a drama queen in my case is someone that has
lots of big emotional you know, big feelings, bold feelings,
(14:39):
passionate feelings.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I tried the same with broad to me, when you're abroad,
that's a compliment.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yes, exactly well, that's yeah, that's my East Coast, you know,
Long Island. Yeah, exactly so. And then I really feel
like it it encompass a lot of the themes that
have been sort of you know, a pattern in my
life and in the projects I've been a part of
where we really, you know, especially as women, embrace, you know,
(15:12):
this real fire that we have in us and not
trying to shy away from that, and so a lot
of the songs have to do with that. I'm really
glad that it coincides with Pride. So I'm going out
and hitting a lot of the Pride festivals and I've
just been having the best time with it. I'm really
(15:33):
I'm really proud of it too.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Now do you have do you have any many disco
skirts that you can twirl in?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Only if I wear like two pairs of tights because
I don't feel like my legs are I feel like
my legs are too flabby for the mini minis.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I met Cher backstage in one of her outfits and
she was in her seventies at the time, I think,
and damn she was rocking it. I'm like, you, you
are my goal.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
You are my goal, one of my inspirations for the
album because she came out with members, she came out
and Believe and that whole dance album. Oh yeah yeah,
rocking it.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I can't Where can we find out a Dina
about your tour?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Uh, it's mostly this summer, hitting a lot of the festivals.
I guess you can go on my website, you can
check out I'm going to be in DC at Pride, Provincetown,
No Providence, Rhode Island, Saint Petersburg, Saint Louis. Then I'm
going to go to London and hit a bunch of
cities in New Europe, which I'm really excited about, and
(16:38):
then we'll see about a tour and a couple months.
You know as well, you could just check out on
my website or my socials, I guess. So I'm figuring
out how can I do Let it Go and find
gravity as dance tunes, you know as well, give them
a little.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Good oh yeah, you know. Oh, and let it Go
as a dance tune could become an anthem of a
whole different nature.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I would play that song on my show for women
who need to walk away from destructive marriages or destructive relationships.
I have played let It Go.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Everybody thinks of it as a kid's song or a
Disney song, but really it's kind of an anthem.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yes, it is an anthem.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Throw a beat in there and flash some lights and
we'll be dancing.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, and let your fire out, you know, don't withhold
your talents or what makes you special for anybody.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
You know, or your ice in that case, let your.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Eyes exactly, and don't wear your gloves to keep your
icicles from coming out of your you know.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, take those damn gloves off. Adina Menzella is sharing
some time and some love with us today. I have
more questions for her, but first a round of applause
for an outstanding performance by my podcast sponsor. There's a
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(18:49):
big deal. I'm very flattered, partly because you're so stink
and talented and you're in a lot of their favorite
movies that I let them watch, and partly because since
the day I met you. I've been impressed by your
grace and your kindness to everyone and your honesty.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, for better or for worse,
that's my deal. You know. Sometimes I get myself in trouble,
put my foot in my mouth, or you know, when
you're really honest, you allow people to see your weaknesses
and you got to be careful there, you know. But
I think the vulnerability is all of our strengths, you know,
(19:28):
it's what makes us human, and the fact that we
can make mistakes. It's just more interesting, you know, than
being perfect. So that's the way I tumut myself when
I feel like shit.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, have you ever met anybody whose life appeared perfect?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah? Yeah, Or that I thought was perfect, Yeah, like
three kids, skinny as can be, gorgeous, dresser, doctor, saving
lives doing you know, and then found out, you know,
marriage is a mess and just a bunch of things.
(20:04):
So if you never know what people are experiencing. So
I try to think about that when I show up
to school.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I think people whose lives appear perfect are a better
actor than you, you know what I mean. I think
they're acting so hard and working so hard to manage
other people's perceptions of them. I don't know how old
I was when I gave myself permission to not give
a damn what somebody else thought about me. Their opinion
(20:35):
to me is none of my business. Number one and
number two, I don't have the time or energy to
waste one second trying to impress you. I'm just going
to be me.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I on the other hand, I mean, I know I'm successful,
but I do want to impress people. I still want
people to like what I do. It's still hard for
me to have critics come to my play and give.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Me But you got to know at this stage in
the game that you have a voice of an angel,
powerful angel, a warring angel. You know, we're talking about
the ten foot tall angels that are blazing.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
A little cherub.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You're not a little cherub. But I hope that I
hope that you are able to receive the truth of
your gifting. Thank you, and then forget them where the
clunky heels were the platform shoes and have some fun.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
A little shoulder, yeah, show a lot of shoulder. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I had I hijacked my Halloween party eleven years ago
and got married.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
What's that mean?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Like We didn't tell anybody we eloped. We eloped at
our Halloween party. We didn't tell anybody.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Sparing when you got married.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Well, I ordered a dress offline and I didn't have time.
It came like the day before. I didn't have time
to try it on beforehand, and so I pop my
dress on and everything was kind of popping out. Spillage.
There was spillage. Yeah, we didn't have because we didn't
tell anybody we were doing it. We didn't have a
professional photographer or anybody there. But some folks, you know,
(22:13):
snap pictures with their friends or whatnot. And I have
a couple of those pictures and I'm like, WHOA, I
should have tried that dress on before.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I got married. In my backyard too, to my husband
that I'm with now. And it was great. Although our
neighbors new neighbors moved in, they tried to report us
and everything. So then we tried to kiss their butt
and like bring them champagne and because we were doing
renovations in the backyards, and then they were like annoyed,
so we went over. We invited them, you know, but
it was so stressful because I felt like, we're just
(22:42):
we're gonna have music we're gonna enjoy just you know,
it's just one time. I'm not like, you know, they
think they automatically think if you're in the business, that
you're gonna have crazy rock and roll parties. Little do
they know all I do is binge watch and sit
on my couch. You know. You know it's funny the
golden I went back and I realized they're kind of
I always thought they were older women, Like it's like
(23:05):
like older, and they're I think they're my age now
living but like my age living with my best friends
down in a retirement. I don't know, it's just I
can't understand what was going on there with the casting.
But I think I just I have distorted and a
distorted idea of how old I am now.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I think the truth is, uh, we are very different
at this age than our parents or our grandparents were
at this age.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, they had kids so early and so yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
They loved hard. I mean my grandparents. My sister is
the historian in our family, and she was telling me
how for years my grandparents were migrant workers. They would
they lived in Arkansas, but they would come out to
the West Coast in the summer and work in strawberries
or picking beans or.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Oh wow, my grandpa and Max used to brag that
he would do signs and had gold leaf pint to it.
That's went made it's special. But he h yeah, he
was a sign painter. And he used to teach me
how to do lettering a lot. So I'm good at
like doing bubble letters and cursor and calligraphy and stuff
like that. Because of him.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I miss beautiful sign work. I missed that was an
art form. Yeah, especially like on the sides of buildings
when they would do a brick building and do the
signs on the brick building. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And then my dad's old pajamas, So.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Was a pajama sel. Did he make the pajamas? Did
he design the pajamas?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Salesman? So he'd go to J. C. Penny and hope
to get like, you know, a million pairs of bede
pajamas sold. And he still says to this day, the woman,
the buyer, you know, put me through college. And he
would bring all of his buyers to all of my shows,
that was the thing. So he'd see my shows like
fifty times. I think he saw wrench and wicked about
(24:56):
fifty times or something. But because that was a nice
night out to take them, you know, and schmoozze, maybe
get a good order. But I had lots of beautiful
pajamas and nightgowns.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Aidina, thank you for spending time with us today. I
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Have a beautiful summer, have a beautiful rest of your summer,
and hopefully I will see you soon. Love you guys,
Love you Byhan bye. Adina Menzel brings her electrifying vocal
chops to high energy electro dance pop anthems on her
latest album, Drama Queen, with funky grooves and a disco
infuse vibe. It's an invitation to throw off the shackles
(25:40):
of expectation, embrace your inner Drama Queen, join her in
the spotlight, and move to the dance floor. Put on
some roller skates if you want a disco roller skate.
It's a fun, fresh new album that brings the drama
in the best way possible. The full album will be
available next month in August, and the single Move is
(26:01):
ready for you to download right now. Keep up with
aDNA and all of her projects at adnamanzel dot com.
Follow her on Instagram, on Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook. Get
out there and enjoy all that summer has to offer.
Or take advantage of the long, warm evenings. Maybe take
in an outdoor theater performance, or simply use the extended
(26:24):
daylight hours to sit in quiet, comfortable contemplation. Don't spend
a minute more than necessary indoors, go outside and play.
I'm so grateful to you and tickled that you join
me here on the air, both on our podcast and
on the radio show. As always, I want you to
be good to yourself and whenever possible, slow down and
(26:48):
love someone
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