Rent to The Wild Party (1996–2000)

In 1995, Menzel auditioned for Rent, which became her first professional theatre job and her Broadway debut. Rent opened Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 26, 1996, but it moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre due to its popularity. For her performance as Maureen Johnson in the original cast of the musical, Menzel received a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical losing to Ann Duquesnay for Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. Her final performance in the musical was on July 1, 1997. Despite her breakout performance in Rent, Menzel did not experience the immediate success she was expecting, claiming she subsequently faded into "obscurity" for the following eight years.^[20]

Following the success of Rent, Menzel released her first solo album entitled Still I Can't Be Still on Hollywood Records. Menzel also originated the role of Dorothy in Summer of '42 at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, starred as Sheila in the New York City Center Encores! production of Hair and appeared on Broadway as Amneris in Aida. Menzel earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance as Kate in the Manhattan Theatre Club's 2000 Off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. Her other Off-Broadway credits include the pre-Broadway run of Rent and The Vagina Monologues.^[21]

Wicked, If/Then, Skintight, to WILD (2003–2021)

In 2003, Menzel starred alongside Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway in Wicked, a musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman based upon Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Shortly after a San Francisco try-out, Wicked began previews on October 8, 2003, with an official opening night on October 30. Menzel's performance as Elphaba, the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West, garnered critical acclaim, for which she won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.^[22] Menzel's character also earned her a devoted fanbase, particularly among young girls who empathized with her misunderstood character,^[22][23] as well as a gay following.^[24] She can be heard on the show's Original Broadway Cast (OBC) recording. During her penultimate performance on January 8, 2005, she fell through a trap door during the melting scene and cracked a lower rib. This injury prevented her from performing in her final show on January 9. Menzel did, however, make a special appearance, in a red tracksuit, at that performance, performed her last song, and received a five-minute standing ovation.^[25] Menzel was replaced by Elphaba standby Shoshana Bean.^[26] In 2010, Broadway.com readers voted Menzel their favourite Elphaba performer out of the then-eleven actresses who had played the character on Broadway.^[27]

Following Wicked, Menzel appeared Off-Broadway in the Public Theater's production of See What I Wanna See, a Michael John LaChiusa-penned musical whose run ended in December 2005, for which she received Drama Desk Award and Drama League Award nominations. She reprised her Tony Award-winning role as Elphaba in the West End production of Wicked when it opened at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre on September 27, 2006.^[28] She starred alongside Helen Dallimore as Glinda and Adam Garcia as Fiyero. During her run, she was the highest-paid female performer in the West End at $30,000 per week.^[29] Menzel finished her West End run on December 30, 2006. She was succeeded by Elphaba standby Kerry Ellis.^[30]

Menzel played the role of Florence in the 21st-anniversary concert of the musical Chess at London's Royal Albert Hall, from May 12 to 13, 2008, alongside Kerry Ellis, Adam Pascal, and Josh Groban. In 2008, she headlined the Powerhouse Theatre's reading of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's musical Nero from July 11 to 13, performing the role of Nero's mistress, Poppea.^[31] She was joined by Glee costar Lea Michele as Claudia Octavia, Jeffrey Carleson as Nero, and Michael Arden as Octavia's brother, Brittanicus.

By February 28, 2013, Menzel was cast to star as Elizabeth in the new Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey Broadway musical If/Then. Directed by Michael Greif (whom Menzel previously worked within the original production of Rent), it had its world premiere at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., starting with previews on November 5, 2013, until November 24, 2013. Following the out-of-town tryout, the show moved to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway and began previews on March 4, 2014. It officially opened on March 30, 2014.^[32][33] For her performance, Menzel received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and performed Always Starting Over, but lost to Jessie Mueller for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.^[34] If/Then closed on Broadway on March 22, 2015, after 29 previews and 401 regular performances.

Menzel reprised the role of Elizabeth (along with original Broadway cast members Lachanze, James Snyder, and Anthony Rapp) on the first seven stops of the show's national tour from October 2015 to January 2016.^[35] She departed the show (along with LaChanze and Snyder) on the last day of the Costa Mesa, California engagement, on January 24, 2016. Her replacement was Jackie Burns (who previously served as Menzel's standby in the Broadway production) starting January 27, 2016, in Dallas, Texas.

Later, in 2018, Menzel was cast as Jodi in Roundabout Theatre Company's World Premiere production of Joshua Harmon's new play Skintight. The show premiered Off Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. It began previews on May 31, 2018, opened on June 21, 2018, and ran for strictly limited engagement till August 26, 2018. The play earned Menzel rave reviews and marking it her first major New York Theater non-musical role. A year later, she reprised her performance in Skintight marking its debut on the West Coast. The production played the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, California running from September 3 – October 6, 2019.

While appearing in Skintight, Menzel read for the role of Mary Jane in a workshop for the Broadway rock musical Jagged Little Pill.

In late 2019, Menzel revealed on Twitter that she was working on "a mystery project" with Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell and Eve Ensler (later known as V).^[36] In mid-2021, it was announced that this project is Wild: A Musical Becoming, set to perform at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA from December 3, 2021, to January 21, 2022 (she was only scheduled to perform through December 23). It was later announced that she would star as Bea, with contributions to the lyrics.^[37] On December 17, due to COVID, it was announced that the show on that day was cancelled;^[38] it was later announced that the performance on the following two days and eventually all the following productions were cancelled,^[39] making December 16 her last performance.

Early screen appearances (2001–2010)

Menzel's feature film debut was the 2001 romantic comedy Kissing Jessica Stein in which she had a minor role as a bridesmaid,^[68] followed by an uncredited appearance as Linda in the dark comedy Just a Kiss (2002).^[69][70] While starring in Wicked, she appeared in the coming-of-age dramedy The Tollbooth (2004), playing main character Sarabeth's (Marla Sokoloff) pregnant sister, Raquel Cohen-Flaxman.^[69]

Menzel starred in her first major film venture in 2005 when she reprised the role of Maureen Johnson in the film adaptation of Rent, directed by Chris Columbus.^[71] Menzel was one of six original Broadway cast members who returned for the film,^[71][72] including then-husband Taye Diggs.^[23] Although rumors of a Rent movie had persisted for several years before it was green-lit, Menzel did not consider herself eligible because she assumed A-list Hollywood actors would be preferred if a film version ever materialized, until Columbus approached her directly.^[23] However, Menzel was the musical's only main female cast member not replaced by a younger actress,^[72] despite all actors being several years older than their characters by the time the film was released.^[71] Menzel felt the film's chemistry benefited from retaining most of the show's original cast.^[23] Rent was released to mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office,^[73][74] but critics complimented Menzel's performance. Entertainment Weekly film critic Owen Gleiberman called Menzel's duet with actress Tracie Thoms (as girlfriend Joanne Jefferson) a highlight.^[75] IGN's Eric Goldman described Menzel as "incredibly charismatic and fun", although her performance failed to interest him in performance art.^[76] The following year, Menzel and her castmates were nominated for Best Acting Ensemble at the 11th Critics' Choice Awards.^[77]

In 2006, she played Vera Rivkin in Robert Towne's Ask the Dust, a romantic drama starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek.^[78] Menzel's character, a mysterious Jewish woman, harbors unrequited feelings for struggling writer Arturo, played by Farrell.^[78][79] Despite her limited screen time, she considers Vera one of her favorite film roles, citing her character's lack of singing and difficulty overcoming difficult situations as essential to demonstrating her versatility.^[80] Ask the Dusk was poorly received by film critics.^[81] However, Kim Newman of Empire cautioned audiences to remember Menzel's name, writing, "the film comes to life when she barges in and finds it hard to keep it together after she's gone".^[82] The San Francisco Chronicle's Ruthe Stein said Menzel enlivens the material by sharing more chemistry with Farrell during their brief scenes together than Hayek does throughout the entire film.^[83]

In 2007, Menzel appeared in the musical fantasy film Enchanted as Nancy Tremaine: the fiancée of Patrick Dempsey's character Robert and Giselle's (Amy Adams) romantic rival.^[84] Despite being a musical, Menzel famously does not sing in the film;^[85] several songs composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz had written for her character were ultimately omitted from the final version.^[86][87] Menzel was offered the role without auditioning, and was flattered that Disney would cast her solely based on her acting.^[87][88] Menzel explained that singing would have been out of character for Nancy, who is a New York native unlike the film's more fantastical characters.^[87] She opted to portray Nancy with vulnerability as opposed to "a typical mean girlfriend that everyone's going to hate".^[88] Enchanted was a critical and commercial success,^[89] but The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt and Jim Lane of the Sacramento News & Review felt the film underused Menzel's talents.^[90][91] Some critics and fans also expressed disappointment over Menzel's lack of musical numbers.^[86][92]

From 2010 to 2013, Menzel had a recurring role on the musical comedy television series Glee as Shelby Corcoran: the coach of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, and the biological mother of series lead Rachel Berry (Lea Michele). Fans of the show had long observed a strong physical resemblance between Menzel and Michele, and lobbied for the former to be cast as Michele's onscreen mother.^[93] Menzel appeared in 12 episodes across the series,^[69] and covered songs such as "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables and "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga.^[94]

Frozen and worldwide recognition (2013–2016)

In 2013, Menzel voiced Elsa – a reclusive young queen struggling with her magical ability to control ice and snow – in Disney's computer-animated film Frozen.^[95] After failing to secure the lead role in Disney's animated film Tangled (2010), the studio re-discovered Menzel's audition reel while casting Frozen.^[96][97] Loosely based on the titular villain in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen", Menzel's character was re-written into a misunderstood anti-heroine for Disney's adaptation, inspired by songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez's creation of her anthem "Let It Go",^[98] which they wrote specifically for Menzel due to its demanding vocal range.^[99] Released to critical acclaim, Frozen became the highest-grossing animated film upon release, earning over $1.2 billion worldwide.^[100][101] Meanwhile, "Let It Go" became a global phenomenon,^[102] with countless fans and artists releasing their own Internet covers and parodies.^[40][101] A crossover radio hit, the song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, making Menzel the first Tony Award-winning actor to achieve a top-10 placement on the chart.^{[103][104][105]} Despite its non-commercial sound,^[106] "Let it Go" ultimately became one of the best-selling singles of 2014, selling over 10.9 million copies.^[107][108] Menzel has since reprised her role as Elsa in most tie-in media, including the Disney Infinity and Kingdom Hearts video games,^[109] the short films Frozen Fever (2015) and Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017), the film Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and the sequel Frozen II (2019).^{[110][111][112][113]}

Menzel sang "Let it Go" at the 86th Academy Awards in March 2014, where the song eventually won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. While introducing her performance, actor John Travolta mispronounced her name as "Adele Dazeem"; the mispronunciation was heavily ridiculed by fans and the media, and subsequently became a viral Internet meme.^[114] Although initially thrown off by the incident,^[115] Menzel was not upset about the mishap, and credits it with introducing her to a wider audience.^[116][115] To promote her then-current role in Broadway's If/Then, the production printed satirical playbills that credited Menzel as Adele Dazeem, and referenced her previous credits in Nert (Rent), Wicked-ly (Wicked), and Farfignugen (Frozen).^[117][118] Shortly after the ceremony, Travolta publicly apologized to Menzel.^[117] At the 87th Academy Awards the following year, Menzel presented Best Original Song with Travolta and jokingly introduced him as "Glom Gazingo", who finally pronounced her name correctly upon joining her on stage.^[119]

Although Menzel had already been well-known within the Broadway community prior to working with Disney, she was not as recognized outside of her stage credits.^[69] The success of Frozen, "Let it Go", and the Oscars incident are credited with establishing Menzel as an international superstar,^{[69][120][121]} helping bolster her film and music careers beyond musical theatre.^{[69][120][121]} She considers Travolta mispronouncing her name to be "one of the best things that happened for my career".^[115]

In 2015, Menzel was slated to star on the Ellen DeGeneres-produced sitcom Happy Time, which would have been her first television role since Glee.^[122] However, the project never came to fruition.^[122]

Established film actress (2017–present)

Following the success of Frozen, Menzel continued to pursue more prominent roles in film and television projects. She starred as CC Bloom, a role originated by one of her idols Bette Midler,^[123] in Lifetime's 2017 remake of the 1988 film Beaches.^[124][125] The melodrama follows the decades-long friendship and rivalry between a brassy singer (Menzel) and a reserved lawyer, played by Nia Long.^[126][127] Due to her typical avoidance of revivals and fondness for the original film, Menzel was initially hesitant to star in the project, but ultimately embraced the remake as an opportunity to introduce a classic story about female friendship to a younger generation.^[128] The remake was conceived around Menzel's singing career in a similar manner to how the original incorporated Midler's,^[129] whose songs she covered for the film's soundtrack.^[123] Premiering to mixed reviews,^[68][130] several critics found the remake inferior to the original, but praised Menzel's musical contributions.^[131][132] CNN's Brian Lowry said "the lure of providing Menzel an opportunity to let loose on these familiar tunes is more than enough to qualify as a win for Lifetime, even if the movie itself ... never achieves liftoff".^[133] Katie Rife of The A.V. Club, Linda Holmes of NPR, and MaryAnn Sleasman of TV Guide each found Menzel's acting adequate but lacking the conviction and humor Midler brought to the role, resulting in a less compelling version of the same character.^{[129][132][134]}

In 2019, she starred opposite Adam Sandler in the crime thriller Uncut Gems, playing his character's estranged and frustrated wife Dinah Ratner.^[135] The role was considered a stark departure for Menzel, who longed to be involved in a project that differed from the family-friendly material she had become synonymous with.^[136] Directors Josh and Benny Safdie cast her based on her performance as a similar character in Skintight, and Menzel drew upon personal experience for the role, having grown up around confident women like Dinah in New York.^[136] She described Dinah as "the voice for how the audience feels as they're going through this roller-coaster ride" and avoided devolving her into merely a stereotype.^[137] The film and Menzel's performance drew critical acclaim.^[138][137] Writing for The Post and Courier, Jocelyn Noveck found Menzel "compelling in the rare role that doesn't make use of her famous singing voice",^[139] while Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post called her "delightfully abrasive".^[140]

In 2021, Menzel co-starred alongside Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, and James Corden in Kay Cannon's jukebox musical adaptation of the Cinderella fairy tale, playing Cinderella's (Cabello) unkind stepmother Vivian.^[141] Despite admiring actresses who had played the villainous role prior, Menzel wanted to eschew "the archetypal kind of idea of the straight-ahead evil nemesis" in order to uncover the trauma behind the character's cruel nature.^[142] In addition to performing several covers for the film,^[143] Menzel wrote and recorded an original song for her character entitled "Dream Girl",^[144] which was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.^[145] Cinderella received mixed reviews,^[146] but Menzel's performance was praised: IndieWire's Kristen Lopez said she played the character "deliciously",^[147] while Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times described Menzel as "her usual spectacular self" and "arguably the most nuanced and empathetic 'evil' stepmother in 'Cinderella' history".^[148] Michael Calleri of the Niagara Gazette said Menzel delivers the film's best performance.^[149]

In 2022, Menzel reprised her role as Nancy in the Enchanted sequel Disenchanted.^[150] Now the Queen of Anadalasia as Edward's (James Marsden) wife,^[151] Menzel's character sings for the first time,^[152][153] in addition to serving as the film's "voice of reason".^[154] A pop version of Menzel's song, "Love Power", was released as the soundtrack's lead single in November 2022. Disenchanted received mixed reviews; most critics appreciated hearing Menzel sing,^{[154][155][156]} while others found her role brief and her song unmemorable.^[157][158] Marya E. Gates of RogerEbert.com called Menzel's performance "one of the few that manages to transcend beyond the subpar trappings of" the film, lamenting that she is "relegated to only a handful of scenes".^[159] She also starred in an episode of the HGTV show Celebrity I.O.U. with the Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott.^[160] In this episode, she helped the brothers renovate a garage for her friend James.^[161][162]

In 2023, Menzel played Bree Friedman in the coming-of-age comedy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, reuniting with Sandler.^[163] Directed by Sammi Cohen,^[164] the film co-stars Menzel and Sandler as Jewish parents raising an adolescent girl as they prepare for her bat mitzvah.^[165] Menzel had previously played Sandler's wife in Uncut Gems, while Sandler's real-life wife and children also co-star in You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.^[166] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Gary Goldstein said Menzel fits in well among Sandler's own family,^[167] while Matthew Jackson of The A. V. Club said the duo make "a wonderful (and wonderfully grumpy) couple".^[168] Abhishek Srivastava of The Times of India said Menzel "comes across as extremely authentic and hits all the right notes".^[169]

She also stars in American Murderer directed by Matthew Gentile.^[170] During the ongoing time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Menzel created and launched a brand new YouTube web series for children entitled Idina's Treehouse. The series featured Menzel from her treehouse out in her Los Angeles home that originally was built for her son Walker Nathaniel Diggs. It features a full set of songs, stories, and appearances from Menzel's family and friends.^[171]