Idina Menzel, who rang in the new year performing her signature song Let It Go in Times Square, will end her current Broadway residency in March 2015 when the musical If/Then closes.
The show marked Menzel’s return to the Great White Way after an absence of almost a decade. In an interview with Playbill last month, she remarked that If/Then had been her “salvation”. “Yes, it explores a lot of intense themes that are close to my heart,” she said, “but to have the opportunity to be on the stage with the cast that I have and work through those things every day, it’s been a total gift.”
Set in New York in the recent past, If/Then explores fate and chance and tells the story of two parallel lives led by Menzel’s character. Ben Brantley, the New York Times critic, wrote that she “brings an anxious intensity to a featherweight part”.
Menzel made a name for herself when the originated the roles of Maureen Johnson in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway. She went on to appear in the TV show Glee but is perhaps now best known for voicing Elsa in Disney’s box-office smash Frozen, which has become both the highest-grossing animated film and the highest-grossing musical film ever.
If/Then was nominated for two Tony awards including best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical. The show was created by the team behind the Tony award-winning musical Next to Normal. The music is by Tom Kitt, the book and lyrics are by Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) and the director is Michael Greif (director).
If/Then’s last performance will be on 22 March. Menzel begins a concert tour of Japan, the UK and the US on 1 June.
