Idina Menzel – ‘Rent taught me how important community is’

Idina Menzel is a legend for a reason. On top of being the voice of Elsa in Disney’s multi-billion dollar Frozen series, she also brought Elphaba to life in the first Broadway run of Wicked, the prequel to The Wizard of Oz.

But it was her 1994 debut performance as Maureen in Rent that has stuck with her to this day. Ten years later, in 2005, she immortalised the role in Rent’s cinematic adaptation. The politically charged rock musical tackled the AIDs crisis, found families, gentrification, sexuality and acceptance with a beautiful narrative that is still a cornerstone in the LGBTQIA+ community.

So then, it is only fitting that Idina will be headlining Pride In London this Saturday, July 1, 2023, at the Trafalgar Square Stage (one of five stages across the city).

Looking back, though, Idina exclusively told Express.co.uk she didn’t understand how powerful and life-changing Rent would become for its viewers.

“I had no idea,” she confessed over Zoom. “I was just honestly relieved to have a job at the time… to literally pay my rent!”

Idina seemed genuinely grateful for the career Rent no doubt kickstarted. She still plays some of the show’s iconic songs in her live music performances around the world, and the memories she made on stage are forever on her mind (“I think about it all the time.”)

While she was actually in Rent, however, Idina was purely focused on giving everything she had to her performance. “I think that’s when a lot of the best things happen in life, don’t you?” she mused. “When you’re not expecting it, but you’re doing it for the right reasons. You’re putting yourself out there and surrounding yourself with good people, and you’re not as result oriented, you’re just there to work on your craft and you’re doing what you love … that’s usually when – I feel – the universe repays you.”

Powerful and soft-spoken, the 52-year-old icon took a breath between every question to really give as much thought to her answer as possible. But she was at her most passionate while talking about Jonathan Larson.

Jonathan was the American composer and lyricist who penned Rent and spent countless hours perfecting its Off-Broadway production with Idina and the rest of the cast (including Taye Diggs, Jesse L Martin, Adam Pascal and Daphne Rubin-Vega to name but a few). Jonathan – like Idina – gave everything to Rent. But the day before the show’s first preview event, the writer was found dead in his apartment. It was later confirmed he suffered an aortic dissection.

“For me,” Idina said, looking back on Jonathan’s legacy. “For all of us, that was a time in our lives that defined who we are as people. As artists.

“Having Jonathan in our lives – everything that he has given us posthumously – he does live within us, in everything that we do. We always felt an immense responsibility to communicating his message and music every time we got on stage. Especially when we had lost him we wanted to do right by him. We wanted to make sure he was being heard. So there is a constant connection there.”

Jonathan’s life was revisited for the masses in the 2021 biopic Tick, Tick… Boom! Based on the rock monologue the maestro performed in real life, Andrew Garfield took on the role of the writer and was even nominated for Best Actor at 2022’s Academy Awards.

Idina looked on at Andrew’s performance in awe (“I think he did a wonderful job, I was really moved by that.”) But it was revisiting the inception of Rent that really ignited her passion for the show.

“I really learned when I watched [Tick, Tick… Boom!] that all of the themes and the modes and the melodies and the chord progressions and the influences that [Jonathan] was playing with in his earlier work all blossomed into Rent,” she said. “I heard them and they were sort of illuminated in what we were actually singing when we were in the show.”

Narratively, Idina also adored the cadence of Jonathan’s story in the Netflix picture, calling it a “beautiful example of the artist’s journey”. She praised how it was a “testament to what artists do,” and authentically articulated how success is about “the process, the journey, the learning, the listening, and being influenced and inspired and emulating”.

Rent’s core message has stuck with Idina ever since she first performed in it though, she said. “I often go to the well of everything I learned from Rent. ‘No Day But Today,’ not taking things for granted, staying in the moment, being present, how important community is to all of us – and artistic integrity.”

Idina will be giving back to the community this Saturday in Trafalgar Square by playing alongside some unsigned artists and singers (and this year’s Pride’s Got Talent winner Andrea Di Giovanni) at the Pride In London celebration.

Despite the fact she performs all the time, Idina knows how important this specific show will be: “I recognise what an honour it is to be up on that stage,” she said of playing Pride In London. “And I’m really thrilled to be invited.”

Her setlist will include a “lot of songs” from her upcoming album, Drama Queen, which is due to hit streaming services on August 18. “I think it’s the perfect music for the event,” she explained. “It’s a lot of really fun disco-slash-dance music with lots of empowering messages.”

“And then yeah,” she added. “I’ll play some songs that people would be mad at me if I didn’t play.”

The Pride In London parade takes place Saturday, July 1, 2023.

Rent is available to rent on Apple TV Plus now.