Theatre News

Idina Menzel returns to UK with solo concert tour

Tony and Whatsonstage.com Award-winning star Idina Menzel – of Wicked and Rent fame – will perform concert dates in the West End as well as Edinburgh and Manchester in October 2012.

One year on from her concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Menzel will play the Apollo Theatre for one week only from Monday 8 to Sunday 14 October, followed by Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Tuesday 16, and Manchester’s Palace Theatre on Wednesday 17.

Backed by a 25-piece orchestra, Menzel will sing songs from her musical theatre and pop repertoire, including a few personal favourites and some new material. Menzel arrives in the UK following a US tour.

Menzel won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for creating the role of Elphaba in Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked on Broadway. She reprised the role when the musical transferred to the West End’s Apollo Victoria Theatre, winning the Whatsonstage.com Award for her performance in 2007.

The star received a Tony nomination for her 1996 Broadway debut as Maureen in Rent. Her other theatre credits include See What I Wanna See at the Public Theater, the 2001 Encores! production Hair, Broadway’s Aida and the 2002 Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues. Menzel also recently appeared in Glee, playing the coach of rival Glee club Vocal Adrenaline.

As a singer/songwriter, Menzel writes and performs her own music, and has undertaken tours promoting her solo albums. She most recently released her first live concert album and DVD, Idina Menzel LIVE: Barefoot at the Symphony, recorded in Toronto on her symphony tour.

– Rosie Bannister