Idina Menzel
Born Name: Idina Kim Mentzel
Date of Birth: May 30, 1971
Place of Birth: New York, New York, United States
Alma mater: Tisch School of Arts
Occupation: Actress, singer-songwriter
Spouse(s): Taye Diggs ​(m. 2003; div. 2014)​, Aaron Lohr ​(m. 2017)​
Children: 1
Musical career
Genres: Broadway, pop, musical theatre
Instruments: Vocals
Labels: Hollywood Records, Warner Records, Verve Records
Website: idinamenzel.com
Idina Kim Menzel (born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. Nominated for three Tony Awards, of which she has won one, Menzel is known for her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and signature belting technique. Having achieved success in stage, film, television and music, Menzel is regarded as one of the most prolific Broadway performers of her generation.

Menzel first rose to prominence as a stage actress when she originated the role of Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent, her Broadway debut. Her performance got her nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. After appearing in several smaller-scale stage and Off-Broadway productions, Menzel originated the role of Elphaba Thropp in the Broadway musical Wicked in 2003, a performance for which she garnered critical acclaim and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The popularity of Menzel's character earned her renown and a devoted following among theatre enthusiasts. She would reprise the role in West End productions of the musical until 2006. Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the 2014 musical If/Then, which earned her a third Tony Award nomination.

In the early 2000s, Menzel began successfully transitioning to television and film roles, including reprising her role as Maureen in Rent's 2005 film adaptation. Menzel is known for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical dramedy TV series Glee from 2010 to 2013, and a non-singing role as Nancy Tremaine in the musical fantasy film Enchanted. She also voiced Queen Elsa in Disney's 2013 animated film Frozen, in which she sang the Oscar- and Grammy Award-winning song "Let It Go". The song reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making Menzel the first Tony Award-winning actress to reach the top 10. In 2019, Menzel reprised her voice role as Elsa in Frozen II. Her album Holiday Wishes was released in 2014 and reached number 6 on the Billboard 200.

Early life
Idina Kim Mentzel was born on May 30, 1971, in Manhattan, New York City.[n 1] She grew up in New Jersey until about age 3, when her family moved to Syosset, New York, on Long Island. Her parents are Helene Goldberg, a therapist, and Stuart Mentzel, a pajama salesman. She has a younger sister named Cara. Menzel is Jewish, and her grandparents emigrated from Russia. Menzel attended J. Irving Baylis Elementary School in Plainview, New York, and then Syosset's H.B. Thompson Middle School and Syosset High School.

When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced, and she began working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer, a job that she continued throughout her time at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama in 1992.

Idina changed the spelling of her surname to "Menzel" to better reflect the pronunciation that the Mentzel family had adopted in the United States. She was friends with actor Adam Pascal before they worked together in Rent.

In 2017, during an interview with Irish New York–based songwriter Jimmy Walsh, he revealed that, in 1992, Menzel recorded a demo for him of the song "In Your Eyes", which went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 for Irish singer Niamh Kavanagh. Menzel was paid $75 for the recording.

Career
Theater career
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.

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.

Wicked to If/Then (2003 - 2018)
Starting on October 8, 2003, Menzel starred alongside Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway in Wicked, a musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman based upon Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995). Menzel's performance as Elphaba, the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West, garnered critical acclaim from audiences, for which she won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Menzel's character also earned her a devoted fanbase, particularly among young girls. During her penultimate performance of Wicked on January 8, 2005, she fell through a trap door during the melting scene and cracked a lower rib. The 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 massive standing ovation. Menzel was replaced by Elphaba standby Shoshana Bean. In 2010, Broadway.com readers voted Menzel their favourite Elphaba performer out of the then-eleven actresses who had played the character on Broadway.

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. 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. Menzel finished her West End run on December 30, 2006. She was succeeded by Elphaba standby Kerry Ellis.

Menzel played the role of Florence in the 21st-anniversary concert of Chess at the Royal Albert Hall, London, from May 12 to 13, 2008, alongside Kerry Ellis, Adam Pascal, and Josh Groban.

In 2008, Menzel 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. 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. For her performance, Menzel was nominated for her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, losing to Jessie Mueller for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. 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 National Tour of If/Then from October 2015-January 2016. She departed the show (along with LaChanze and Snyder) on the last day in Costa Mesa, California, 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. In 2018 she participated in a workshop for Jagged Little Pill.

Music career
Menzel performed at the 1998 Lilith Fair summer concert festival and continues to write and perform original music. She has toured extensively and frequently performs in various venues throughout New York City. She produced and released her debut album, Still I Can't Be Still, for Hollywood Records in 1998. One single from the album, "Minuet," made the Radio & Records CHR/Pop Tracks chart at number 48 in October 1998. Following the album release, she embarked on her Still I Can't Be Still Tour, but after selling fewer than 10,000 copies in the US and missing the Billboard 200, Menzel's label put the album out of print, and she was dropped from the label. However, the album was re-released once she began to rise to greater fame with her Tony-winning performance in Wicked.

Her second album, Here, was released independently by Zel Records in 2004. Menzel contributed to the soundtrack of Desperate Housewives in 2005. She also appears on Ray Charles's album Genius and Friends, which was also released in 2005, on the track "I Will Be There." In 2007, she appeared on the Beowulf soundtrack singing the end credits song, "A Hero Comes Home." Also, in 2007, Menzel's powerful singing voice led her to be asked to accompany the baritone British X Factor runner-up, Rhydian Roberts, on his debut album, duetting on the song "What If".

Her third solo album, I Stand, was released on January 29, 2008. It includes many new songs, including the lead single, "Brave", the title track "I Stand," and a song released on EP, "Gorgeous." The album debuted at number 58 on the Billboard 200, making it the first solo album by Menzel to make the charts. There are five versions of this album: the original version, the special limited edition, the iTunes version, the Barnes & Noble edition, and the Borders edition. Menzel wrote many of the songs on her album.

On April 1, 2008, Menzel kicked off her 2008–2009 I Stand tour in support of her new album performing four sold-out legs. The concert at Rose Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City was filmed for the PBS television series Soundstage. Menzel was joined by special guests, superstar Josh Groban and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane.

On November 11, 2008, Menzel released "Hope," written by Paul Hampton, benefiting Stand Up to Cancer. On November 27, 2008, she performed "I Stand" on the M&M's Chocolate float as part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

On July 19, 2010, Menzel performed "Defying Gravity" and "What I Did For Love" in front of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House. The concert aired on PBS on October 20, 2010.

In April 2010, Menzel returned to the concert stage embarking on her "Barefoot at the Symphony Tour" in which she was accompanied by major symphony orchestras. Her performances included collaborations with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony, and featured symphonic arrangements by New York composer and producer Rob Mounsey. In October 2011, Menzel returned to London to perform a one-night-only concert in the United Kingdom at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Marvin Hamlisch conducting. Menzel's concert stop in Toronto was filmed at The Royal Conservatory of Music on November 17 and 18, 2011, for her second PBS special. She was accompanied by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony with Marvin Hamlisch conducting and special guest Taye Diggs, Menzel's husband. Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony was released as a live CD and DVD and aired on PBS in March 2012, with Musical Director Rob Mounsey producing.

Menzel announced she would continue live performances in 2012. The first date she announced was July 8, 2012, at Ravinia Festival near Chicago, Illinois. She made her Carnegie Hall solo debut (originally on October 29, 2012). However, due to Hurricane Sandy's impact on New York City, it was postponed until January 13, 2013.

Menzel toured Australia in June 2013 with shows in South Australia, Melbourne, Brisbane, and two at the Sydney Opera House.

On June 17, 2014, during a concert at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, Menzel confirmed that she was working on a Christmas album that would contain original material to be released later that same year. In that concert, she performed one of the original tunes from the album, "December Prayer". The album, Holiday Wishes, was released on October 14, 2014. The album has so far peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting album as a solo lead artist. Holiday Wishes also marked the first that a woman had three different albums (the cast recording to Frozen and If/Then) peak within the top 20 within ten months of the release date. Holiday Wishes also become the second-ever Christmas album to chart before Halloween during the SoundScan Era after Garth Brooks's 1992 album Beyond the Season. On November 26, 2014, Menzel announced through her Facebook page that she would be touring during the summer of 2015, making it her first global tour and first time playing shows in Europe and Asia.

Menzel was honored with the Breakthrough Artist award at the 2014 Billboard Women in Music awards ceremony.

Menzel sang "The Star Spangled Banner" a capella at Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015. Menzel's rendition earned mixed reviews from critics, who praised the quality of her voice but questioned some of her stylistic choices, namely tempo and volume. In a complementary review, Markos Papadatos of The Digital Journal felt Menzel redeemed her reputation as a strong vocalist after pundits had criticized her live performance of "Let it Go" at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve the previous year.

On August 5, 2016, Menzel announced she would release her eponymous fifth album, on September 23. Of the release, Menzel stated: "I poured my heart out and used my music as a place to kind of figure some things out. It's a really personal album." Marking it as her first original Pop studio album in 8 years since I Stand, the album debuted at # 29 on the US Billboard 200. With the success of the album, Menzel embarked on a World Tour in 2017 that traveled to Asia, Europe, and North America. Menzel's concert stop in Las Vegas was recorded for her second live album entitled idina Live and released on October 12, 2008.

On March 12, 2018, it was announced that Menzel would join Josh Groban for his Bridges Tour. For this tour, she served as Groban's Opening act before joining him later during his set for 2 duets of Lullaby and Falling Slowly. Menzel only performed with Groban on the 1st leg of North America in various cities including Atlanta, Nashville, Dallas. Phoenix, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, and a sold out performance at New York's famed Madison Square Garden. The New York City show (entitled Bridges Live From Madison Square Garden) was also filmed and released in Movie Theaters & later a Live CD & DVD release with an airing on PBS.

On October 18, 2019, Menzel released her second holiday album entitled Christmas: A Season of Love from School Boy and Decca Records on October 18, 2019. It debut at # 2 on Billboard's US Top Holiday Albums. In support of it, Menzel embarked on a three-city concert tour in the east coast including a sold out return to New York's Carnegie Hall.

Film and television career
After minor roles in Kissing Jessica Stein and Just a Kiss, Menzel had supporting roles in The Tollbooth and Water in 2004. Her first major role in a major film was in 2005 when she reprised her role as Maureen Johnson in the film adaptation of Rent. She was nominated for several critics circle awards for the part. In 2007, Menzel appeared in the musical romantic comedy film Enchanted as Nancy Tremaine, the fiancée of Patrick Dempsey's character Robert and Giselle's (Amy Adams) romantic rival. Despite being a musical, Menzel famously does not sing in the film; a duet songwriters Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz had written for her character was ultimately not used. Menzel was offered the role without auditioning and was flattered that Disney cast her based solely on her acting abilities. Menzel explained that having her character sing "wouldn't have made sense" narrative-wise, due to Nancy belonging to the reality-based New York world as opposed to the film's more fantastical characters. She opted to portray her with vulnerability as opposed to "a typical mean girlfriend that everyone's going to hate." Enchanted was a critical and commercial success, but The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt accused the film of wasting Menzel's talent, while Jim Lane of the Sacramento News & Review felt the actress was underused. However, Screen Rant's Mel Hall found Menzel's performance compelling.

Menzel had a recurring guest star role in the television series Glee playing Shelby Corcoran, the coach of the rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline. When the series first premiered, Glee fans (known collectively as 'Gleeks') had noted a strong physical resemblance between Menzel and Lea Michele, who portrays the character of Rachel Berry. According to her then-husband, actor Taye Diggs, Menzel had expressed interest in possibly guest-starring as the biological mother of Rachel. The character was introduced in the episode "Hell-O". Lea Michele and Idina Menzel sing together "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables and "Poker Face" originally by Lady Gaga. Menzel returned to Glee in season 3 episode "I Am Unicorn", her role this time as a teacher causing trouble for Rachel, Quinn, Puck, and former flame Will Schuster.

In 2013, Menzel starred as Elsa in the animated musical film Frozen. Menzel's performance received praise from film critics. The film became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Menzel gained particular notice for her song "Let It Go", which won an Academy Award and a Grammy Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She is also featured in the song "For the First Time in Forever" and its reprise. She has since reprised her role of Elsa in most of her appearances including video games such as the Disney Infinity series and Kingdom Hearts III, the 2015 short film Frozen Fever, the 2017 featurette short film Olaf's Frozen Adventure, the 2018 film Ralph Breaks the Internet, and for the 2019 sequel Frozen II.

Menzel was invited to perform "Let It Go" at the 86th Academy Awards in March 2014, where the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. When John Travolta announced her before she sang the song, he incorrectly introduced her as "Adele Dazeem". The slip-up became a popular Internet meme. According to a source for E!, Menzel was not upset about the mishap. In response to the misnaming, she reportedly printed up satirical playbills that promoted her name as Adele Dazeem, noting her past work in Nert (Rent), Wicked-ly (Wicked) and Farfignugen (a play on the word Fahrvergnügen, referring to Frozen). Three days after the ceremony, Travolta publicly apologized to Menzel for mispronouncing her name. At the 87th Academy Awards, Menzel presented the award for Best Original Song alongside Travolta where she jokingly introduced him as Glom Gazingo. Travolta then finally pronounced her name correctly when he appeared on stage.

Menzel starred as C.C. in the Lifetime TV movie remake of the film Beaches, which aired on January 21, 2017.

She was announced to star on the Ellen DeGeneres-produced sitcom Happy Time, but, as of October 15, 2019, this project appears to have been shelved.

In November 2019, Menzel and Kristen Bell, who play sisters in Disney's Frozen franchise, received neighboring stars—Menzel's was the 2682nd and Bell's was the 2681st—on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She starred alongside Adam Sandler playing his wife Dinah Ratner in the 2019 crime film Uncut Gems.

She is set to co-star opposite Camila Cabello in Kay Cannon's upcoming new film adaptation of Cinderella playing Vivian, the wicked stepmother. The film is expecting to be released February 5, 2021 from Columbia Pictures.

Artistry and legacy
Menzel is usually classified as a mezzo-soprano. For the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sharon Eberson wrote "Possessing a voice that could be categorized as coquettish to flat-out belter and everything in between—and with a stage presence to match—she usually is labeled a mezzo-soprano. But why pigeonhole someone so intriguingly offbeat?" Eberson continued that the singer "interprets songs as much as an actress as a singer, and therein lies her connection to the music and her fans." Describing Menzel as a loud, "full-volume soprano" similar to Broadway actress Ethel Merman, Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote "The sound she creates when she belts in her high soprano register is a primal cry embedded in her being that insists that we listen and pay attention." Holden continued, "Depending on the song, [her voice] can sound babyish and demanding, or it can sound grand and imperial."

Menzel is known for her signature high belting style; The Kennedy Center website cites Menzel and her character Elphaba as prime examples of "The Broadway Belter" employing the belting technique to their advantage. Describing Menzel as a singer with a "husky voice, which sometimes veers toward shrieking until she effortlessly reins herself in or, amazingly, kicks it up another notch," Melissa Ruggieri of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution concluded that she possesses "a superior instrument" both in-studio and live. On her own vocal technique, Menzel revealed that she avoids moving her shoulders while singing, telling The Philippine Star, "I actually try to take a smaller breath for a bigger, longer note because there's less air that will come pummeling out." Despite live performances earning consistent acclaim from both critics and audiences, Menzel's technique and signature belting have received criticism from some commentators who have deemed it "screechy". Schuyler Velasco of The Christian Science Monitor observed that, for two decades, the singer "made a career out of belting notes that would fry the vocal chords of mere mortals", but felt the emotion of her performances sometimes suffer at the hands of her vocal proficiency, citing her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XLIX as an example of Menzel opting for technique over excitement or inspiration, yet still delivering an adequate performance. Menzel addressed such criticisms during a 2014 concert, explaining that she wishes to sing loud, proud and "from the heart", likening herself to Merman and Aretha Franklin.

Professionally trained as a classical singer from age eight, Menzel decided to pursue other genres, specifically R&B and jazz, when she entered high school. Upon becoming a wedding singer, Menzel was eventually exposed to a wide variety of genres, ranging from jazz and rock to Motown. Her set lists tend to incorporate an eclectic combination of original songs and covers of pop, rock and musical theatre material, as well as popular stage and film songs. Jay Handelman of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune opined that Menzel's choice of songs "reinforce her own offbeat personality." Menzel often opts to perform barefoot in her solo concerts, which has become a trademark of her live performances. On her stage stage presence, The Denver Post critic Ray Mark Rinaldi wrote that Menzel delivers "the kind of self-assurance that can only come from beating out Kristen Chenoweth for a Tony. She comes out on stage, dressed like she doesn’t care, acting a little dizzy, but knowing all along she’s gonna hit the right notes." Menzel's vocal style has drawn comparisons to singer and actress Barbra Streisand, whose song "Don't Rain on My Parade" Menzel often performs and covered in tribute to her at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors. Menzel said she had long aspired to have a career as successful as Streisand to whose Jewish upbringing Menzel has also been compared, with fans deeming her "the next big Jewish icon in music". Similar comparisons have been drawn between Menzel and Bette Midler. Menzel was particularly inspired by Streisand's performance in the film A Star is Born (1976).

Menzel is considered to be among the greatest Broadway performers of her generation, possessing one of the most recognizable and sought-after voices in the industry. In 2020, Cleveland.com's Troy L. Smith named Menzel the best vocalist of 2013, writing that the year's popularity of "Let it Go" only cemented Menzel's reputation as "one of Broadway’s greatest stars of all time". Time Out ranked Menzel Broadway's 19th greatest "diva" of all-time, recognizing that the performer established a "stratospheric reputation" solely on the popularity of Rent and Wicked, having only starred in one Broadway musical since Wicked. The previous year, BroadwayWorld recognized Menzel among "10 Broadway Stars Who Ruled the Decade". Examining the endurance of "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, Vulture.com's Jackson McHenry attributes the song's popularity to Menzel’s "pneumatic lungs and the powerhouse performances of the divas that followed"; McHenry believes few singers can service the song as successfully as Menzel.

Personal life
Menzel married actor Taye Diggs on January 11, 2003. They met in 1995 during the original production of Rent, in which Diggs portrayed the role of Benjamin Coffin III, the landlord.

Menzel began dating actor Aaron Lohr and they appeared together in April 2015 at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In August 2015, Menzel and Lohr bought a home located in Encino, Los Angeles, California. They both starred in the 2005 film adaptation of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Rent, as well as the Off-Broadway musical, See What I Wanna See. On September 23, 2016, Menzel announced that she and Lohr were engaged. They were married over the weekend of September 22, 2017.

Menzel identifies as a feminist, saying, "I love that I play all of these strong women. But they're not just strong— they're women who have a really deep vulnerability and need to go through a journey in order to harness their power."

Charity
Menzel was an honorary chair of the Imperial Court of New York's Annual Charity Coronation Ball, Night of A Thousand Gowns, on March 21, 2009. Other honorary chairs for the evening's charity event included Elton John, Patti LuPone, John Cameron Mitchell, Joan Rivers, and Robin Strasser.

On May 17, 2009, Menzel performed at a special benefit concert in Atlanta, Georgia, to raise money for the Pace Academy Diversity Program in coordination with the Ron Clark Academy. The event resulted in the funding of two scholarships for Ron Clark Academy students to attend Pace Academy. The event was organized and hosted by Philip McAdoo, a former Rent cast member and current Diversity Program Director at Pace Academy.

In 2010, Menzel founded the A BroaderWay Foundation with then-husband Taye Diggs as a means of supporting young people in the arts. A BroaderWay sponsors camp programs, theater workshops, and innovative educational programming, and offers scholarships and opportunities to experience professional performances. In Summer 2011, Camp BroaderWay welcomed girls from under-served metro New York communities to a 10-day performing arts camp, run by Menzel and a team of acclaimed professional Broadway artists including Taye Diggs. During this camp, the girls collaborated with Broadway artists to write an original musical that was performed at a theatre in New York. The camp was held at Belvoir Terrace Summer Camp in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Menzel has long-championed LGBT rights by partnering with organizations like The Trevor Project, the Give A Damn Campaign (filming a public service announcement and designing a T-shirt) and the NOH8 Campaign, posing for one of their trademark duct-taped silence photos.

In April 2014, Menzel presented at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition with Bryan Cranston, Fran Drescher, and Denzel Washington, after raising donations at her Broadway show If/Then.