Chenoweth Takes 'Wing' - article

[aspenland]

Posted: 1/8/05 at 2:25pm

From Zap2it:

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|92546|1|,00.html

Chenoweth Takes 'Wing'
(Saturday, January 08 12:06 AM)
By John Crook
Rising star Kristin Chenoweth is learning that it's possible for a performer to be just a little too much in demand by her peers.
The Tony-winning actress, who sings the demanding role of Cunegonde in a PBS "Great Performances" presentation of "Candide" Wednesday, Jan. 12 (check local listings), recently spent a lonely Thanksgiving tucked into bed with her Maltese, Maddie.

"I was heading to Texas to see my parents, but I came down with bronchitis and didn't get to go," Chenoweth says, her voice still a little hoarse. "I was so mad. Fortunately, I'll get to see everyone over the holidays.


"I'm just so tired. Everything is fun and great right now, but I'm definitely having to learn to multitask."
That's because producers and directors are lining up to work with the sunny Oklahoma native in the wake of her critically acclaimed run in the Broadway musical "Wicked." Even critics who had misgivings about this revisionist look at "The Wizard of Oz" found themselves reaching for new superlatives to describe Chenoweth's dazzling turn as Glinda, a performance that snagged her a second Tony nomination.

It was during a short break from that musical last spring that the actress taped "Candide," a semistaged concert version of Leonard Bernstein's sprawling 1956 operetta. Her fiendishly demanding role, which Chenoweth first tackled during her college years, requires a rare blend of coloratura vocal fireworks, innate vulnerability and split-second comic timing.

"It was awesome to revisit this part, which I love, because I felt as if I have grown so much, as both a singer and an actress," Chenoweth says. "Also, when you're doing it with the New York Philharmonic, it's a little different than doing it with a college orchestra. Just sitting there onstage and listening to that overture was thrilling."

Chenoweth left "Wicked" in June, but not before John Wells, executive producer of "The West Wing," caught her performance, leading to an invitation to join the NBC political drama as perky but shrewd media adviser Annabeth Schott, a change-of-pace role Chenoweth calls "a blessing."

"'The West Wing' has changed my life," she says. "They love that I can be a little funny, while I love that they are writing Annabeth to be very, very smart. The character already has evolved to the point where the other characters really rely on her. With my height and the way I look, it's easy for people to cast me as silly characters no one pays attention to, but not here."

She declines to comment on rumors that Annabeth eventually will become the full-time White House press secretary, succeeding Allison Janney's phenomenally popular C.J. Cregg. "They're grooming me for something big, but they're making me keep my mouth shut," Chenoweth says, adding that her biggest challenge is educating herself about current political events.

"This job certainly has awakened me to the here and the now, to what's happening, but I am constantly asking people to explain things about the script because I'm not by nature a political person," she confesses. "Allison said, 'Oh, you should have seen me my first year; I had no idea what I was doing or saying.' As long as I understand what Annabeth is talking about, I have no trouble doing the walk-and-talks," those rapid-fire and dialogue-heavy scenes for which the show is noted.

While "West Wing" is getting center focus from Chenoweth these days, she also has several other irons in the fire. This month, sandwiched into her "Wing" production schedule, she'll start recording her voice part in "Rapunzel Unbraided," an animated Disney musical in which she shares top billing with Reese Witherspoon.

"I play Rapunzel, who is a squirrel who falls in love with a basset hound," Chenoweth says, before bursting into laughter at the concept. "I can't even really describe it to you without sounding like a crazy person. Maybe it's these antibiotics I've been on."

Although that film won't hit theaters until 2006 or 2007, moviegoers will see her before then in Steve Martin's remake of "The Pink Panther" ("I play a French tart who witnesses a murder") and the big-screen adaptation of television's "Bewitched," directed by Nora Ephron, in which Chenoweth co-stars with Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell and Michael Caine.

"That was another role that came out of 'Wicked,' because Nora had seen the show and I knew last spring she wanted me to do it," Chenoweth says. "This movie has turned out to be the most sheer fun I've ever had on any production."

In May, Chenoweth returns to her Broadway roots for a short New York run in a concert staging of the musical "The Apple Tree," giving up what would have been a rare month of rest and relaxation.

"My manager told me, 'You will have exactly one month free, just finishing 'West Wing,' and I do not suggest that you do this,' but I said, 'Oh, I'm doin' it.' "I've always wanted to sing that piece."

Soon after that, she starts work with Parker Posey in an offbeat movie musical called "Asphalt Beach," which Chenoweth describes as "a cult piece, the kind of movie that will probably play Sundance, and it's pretty dark, definitely a different role for me."

Yet another departure of sorts is due in March with the release of Chenoweth's still-untitled second solo recording.

"It's getting back to my roots," she says. "I don't want to call it a 'Jesus album,' but it's inspirational in nature and includes a new Diane Warren song plus a couple of things I grew up singing."