Kristin Chenowith at Gay and Lesbian Center

Just came back from seeing Kristin get interviewed by Stephen Holden of the NY Times. Kristin won the entire room over, and proved she is indeed a Star, and a class act! She addressed the 700 Club controversy right away, explaining that she does indeed make mistakes, and that she learns from them. She was honest, genuine, and so damn funny! She is a master at timing, and had us all in the palm of her hand. Afterwards she signed copies of her CD, and spent way too long with each person, myself included, but she wanted to spend that time with her fans. She really proved herself to be at the top of her game. Her CD, by the way, is amazing. Country, hymns, and even "Taylor the Latte Boy". Treat yourself to it! Double Foam.

wasn't midtown supposed to rip her a new one when he saw her there, I believe his quote, was "his turf".

It was very interesting. A PACKED house, with mostly men (though a cute Mother and young daughter combo in the front row were wearing matching pink and yellow dresses that looked like the SWEET CHARITY website).

First off, Kristin apologized. She addressed the 700 Club controversy head on, took full responsibility for her actions, and said that she really had no idea that Pat Robinson was so crazy. She said she wanted to state that there are Christians who don't preach hate and she wanted to set an example for people. She also mentioned that she was pro-choice and had chosen "AIDS awareness" as one of her subjects in her Beauty-Queen competition days.

She looked great and was very funny and sparklingly charismatic. She talked about growing up in Broken Arrow, how her mom covered her ears during the 'Tits and Ass' number when they attended a CHORUS LINE tour that went past there (when she later did the show in school, the number was re-titled 'Boobs and Butt'), her appearing as 'Maria' in a scool production of WEST SIDE STORY in a black wig and dark makeup, her trying out for CHARLIE BROWN and speaking to and getty 'Sally' strips from Charles M. Schulz on the phone, improvising with Roger Bart and learning how to 'land' funny lines without telescoping the idea that YOU think they are funny. Of course, she talked about WICKED (but not MILLIE) and its phenominal attraction to young girls. She mentioned the ALICE IN WONDERLAND Opera and that she would be doing THE MERRY WIDOW with Placido Domingo, and talked about other operatic roles she did in school (the Queen of the Night, amazingly enough, in THE MAGIC FLUTE). She was surprisingly sharp-tongued on the subject of pop divas Britney & Lindsey Lohan and contemporary R&B, and mentioned that she loved the OBC of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE. She mentioned the Dusty Springfield bio-pic and that even though Dolly Parton wanted her to do HER bio-pic, Kristin felt more attracted to Dusty because of its dramatic potential.

The most intersting tidbit was that she was doing an unspecified something with Jason Robert Brown (I think that is who she mentioned) and Jenine Tesori on two new Broadway musical projects: "I can't talk about that yet". She mentioned that she did not think LEGALLY BLONDE would work as a musical (so that ends THAT), and that she might love to do a MY FAIR LADY revival, but she thought that Broadway needed more NEW musicals (and she emphatically was NOT a fan of jukebox shows).

Kristin is adorable, Kristin is a star, Kristin is VERY funny and very smart about her career. But the the two qualities about Kristin I noted most were - her drive and ambition are astounding - and - don't let the sweetness fool you - underneath that sweet little impish Barbie doll exterior is ONE TOUGH COOKIE. (Thats an observaton, not a criticism)

I'm back to liking her.

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Thank you, Master.

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That is all I and many others here have been suggesting she do. Kristin simply made a bad choice and needed to express regrets over offending so many people. I hope that this incident will serve as a lesson to those posters who blindly accepted, excused and enabled Kristin's original bad judgement. History shows that it is always best to simply admit a mistake, express your regrets and move along.

Thanks for that. I'm also glad she called it a mistake and I'm looking forward to seeing her in The Apple Tree next month.

HOWEVER...not to be churlish BUT...it would be even better if she said something to that effect to Pat Robertson or on the 700 Club. That said, would any of us would be able to sacrifice a burgeoning career for principle? Life is complicated.

I'm back to liking her too.

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She was a REAL mensch. She said also "In this business we call show, I'm still learning, I really, honestly had NO idea that Pat Robertson is...crazy!" Her expression was priceless: she bugged her eyes out and spun her finger around her temple. The audience ROARED.

She was also passionate about what it meant for her to be a Christian. She is non-denominational and left Southern Baptism because she "did not believe that if you danced, or listened to rock and roll that you were going to hell...or that your best friend who is gay is going to hell, too." She stressed her desire to try to be more Christ-like in her dealings, spreading love and not being judgemental.

She also stressed the fact dispite all her movie and TV work she was not abandoning Broadway "at all."

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Well, kudos to her for this appearance. How it can escape anyone at this point in America that Pat Robertson is a raving lunatic is beyond comprehension. I am left with some suspicion that she operated (and continues to operate to some degree) with a careerist agenda--trying to be an object of universal appeal. I think it would have been helpful for her to have expressed some of her more liberal-Christian views to an audience such as 700 club...Lord knows those folks needs to hear from someone that their Savior wasn't a bash-thy-neighbor kind of guy. That she preaches tolerance to the choir at GLBT functions while avoiding the topic before conservative Christian audiences remains troubling. I don't begrudge her the need to self-promote, but her "message" comes off as equivocal.

Master, your recap was so great, I don't think anyone needed to actually be there. I think it's very interesting that she thinks "Legally blonde is a bad idea for a musical". Could it be because she knows she's too long in the tooth to play Elle woods and will never get the role, so now she's thumbing her nose at the project? I think I recently said what a shark I think she is and how astounding her blind and furious ambition is. I'm glad you agree.

She is driven and very career oriented, but it's a short window of opportunity and she's making the most of it. And if she's getting the opportunity to break out of being typecast, more power to her.
She's one of the few people that can lay claim to theater, tv, movies, opera and recording contracts. And still be considered "hot"

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Since she has now apologized... it would seem that if Kristin had to do it all over again she would have never agreed to appear on The 700 Club in the first place.

I must admit I feel somewhat validated, because when I and others on this board were angry about it... many other people, also on this board, couldn't understand why this would be an issue for so many people. Well now I guess you can see that even Kristin realizes that it was not the best move.

Updated On: 4/27/05 at 03:15 PM

I just wanted to say that I am a fairly conservative Christian and I never knew anything about Pat Robertson before I followed the uproar on this board. Being Christian doesn't mean that you know or support Pat Roberston any more than being gay means you dress well and worship Barbra Streisand.
I'm just saying it's very feasable that Ms. Chenowith didn't know. Perhaps she should have researched - I think I would want to know what show I was going on - but I doubt she's lying.

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I wish I had been there! Again, it lays to rest my original feeling which was that Kristin was trying to get across to a whole different demographic that not all Christians are gay-hating, anti-rock, no-dance fanatics. A true Christian does push the Christ-like message of love. I love it! It's wonderful to see someone like Kristin, advocating for those, like myself who are often shunned or pre-judged by stating that they are Christian...assuming that Christians are judgemental and promote hate and prejudices. It's nice to be heard.
On the flip side, I'm not a Pat Robertson fan, but again...I will defend his right, and any other Religious leader, to speak out against what he believes is wrong (based on HIS interpretation of the Bible). I may not like it, but he has a right...and if you preach love and acceptance (no matter your religious beliefs) you gotta extend the courtesy to him, though I myself have a difficult time with doing that. I know I'll be blasted for saying it, but I just had too! LOL