Idina Menzel, the Tony Award winning Broadway star of Wicked, RENT and Glee, will perform her acclaimed symphony concert for the first time outside of the US on Thursday 6 October 2011 for one night only at the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under the baton of the legendary Broadway composer, Marvin Hamlisch.
Returning to London, where she famously recreated her Tony Award winning performance of Elphaba in the original West End cast of Wicked, Idina will arrive in the UK following a sold out US tour. Backed by a 60 piece orchestra, Idina will perform a diverse repertoire of musical theatre and classic pop favourites for her many British fans.
Idina recently joined the cast of Glee, playing the coach of rival Glee club Vocal Adrenaline. She is best known for originating the role of Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, for which she received a Tony award for Best Actress in a Musical, and a Drama Desk Award nomination. She subsequently reprised the role in the West End, for which she won a Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Idina received a Tony nomination for her debut Broadway performance as Maureen, in the Pulitzer and Tony Award winning hit musical RENT, and Drama Desk nominations for Manhattan Theater Club’s production of The Wild Party and Michael John LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See at the Public Theater, for which she was also nominated for a Drama League Award. She played Sheila in the Encores! production of Hair and starred as Amneris in Broadway's Aida. Her Off Broadway credits include the original production of RENT, and The Vagina Monologues.
On film, Idina recently appeared in Disney’s Enchanted. Prior to that, she was seen in the film of RENT, in which she reprised her role as Maureen. As a singer / songwriter, Idina writes and performs her own music, and last year undertook a tour promoting her solo album, I Stand. She performed the show in New York, which was subsequently aired on PBS, a US TV network. PBS also aired the concert version of Chess: The Musical, in which she starred at the Royal Albert Hall.
Marvin Hamlisch’s life in music is notable for its great versatility as well as its substance. One of only two people to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, as well as the Pulitzer prize, he is one of Broadway’s most celebrated composers and musical directors. Marvin composed the music for Broadway’s They’re Playing Our Song, as well as the groundbreaking A Chorus Line. He has composed over forty motion picture scores, for prolific movies such as The Way We Were, The Sting, and Ordinary People. Marvin was musical director and arranger for Barbra Streisand’s 1994 concert tour of the US and the UK as well as the TV special, Barbra Streisand: The Concert, for which he received two of his Emmys. He is currently principal pops composer for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and Pops, Seattle Symphony and San Diego Symphony.
