Idina Menzel “choked” during her audition for ‘Wicked’ on Broadway - but got the role anyway
The 46-year-old actress has appeared in several Broadway musicals over the course of her career, but has admitted that she’s not impervious to an audition flop as she failed to hit the high notes in ‘Defying Gravity’ during her audition for the role of Elphaba the Witch in the famous Stephen Schwartz play.
16 June 2017
She said: “I learned ‘Defying Gravity’ and I was so excited to do it because I just fell in love with the song, and it would make me cry at home all the time.
“I practiced the really high note, and I got to that part, where you go, ‘You won’t bring me down’ and I was singing beautifully the whole time, then I got to, ‘You won’t bring me,’ and I choked.”
And Idina refused to let her mishap get the better of her, as she simply yelled “the F word” and carried on with her performance.
She added: “I just said the F word so loud at the top of my lungs, and I looked at the accompanist, like ‘Don’t you start to play on or cut me off,’ and then I took a deep breath and I went: ‘Me.’ And I just nailed it!”
Things worked out for the best for the brunette beauty though, as the musical’s director Joe Mantello later told her that her slip up actually helped secure her the role.
She told Vogue magazine: “He thought I was so evil and witchy.”
‘Wicked’ won Idina her first Tony award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2004, and although she would love to star in the upcoming movie adaptation of the musical, she thinks she’ll be “too old” by the time it’s finished.
She said previously: "I'm gonna be way too old by the time [producer Marc Platt] gets it done."
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