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January 06, 2005
From film to Broadway to Pops to TV
By Rick Bird
Cincinnati Post
She may be the hardest working gal in show biz. Here's how Kristin Chenoweth described her last nine months in a recent interview rattling off her projects in a stream of conscious list:
"I was filming the 'Pink Panther' (movie) and doing 'Candide' during the day and 'Wicked' at night. That was last spring. 'Wicked' went until July -- Then I recorded my album, did Carnegie Hall -- that was my own concert -- then I got 'The West Wing.' I was doing 'West Wing' and 'Bewitched' (another film) at the same time. It was double duty. And now I'm talking to you. But I don't know how to do one thing. I have to pile it all on."
And she sings with the Cincinnati Pops the next two Sundays.
The Tony Award winner and veteran Broadway singer, dancer and actress neglected to mention she also performed at the Capitol Fourth celebration in Washington, D.C., last July. Pops music director Erich Kunzel conducts the annual program.
"That's how we met," she said. "I had such a good time and he was so fabulous. He was like, 'We got to get you out there.' I really wanted to come. I have never been to Cincinnati."
Chenoweth will sing show tunes, standards and other favorites with the orchestra in a show that she has taken around the country for a couple years. It became the basis for her first-ever solo appearance at Carnegie Hall last September.
Chenoweth starred in the Tony-winning "Wicked" last year on Broadway. She was nominated for a Tony playing good witch Glinda. She previously won a Tony for her role in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." She just finished a new CD and filming two movies to be released later this year: the "Pink Panther" with Steve Martin and "Bewitched" with Nicole Kidman, a film adaptation of the old TV series.
But TV viewers will best know Chenoweth these days as one of the great new characters this season on "The West Wing" as she plays savvy White House media consultant Annabeth Schott, apparently in line to be the new press secretary replacing C.J. Creg (Allison Janney), who became chief of staff.
"I am loving it," Chenoweth said about the juicy role and confirmed she is a series regular signed for all 22 episodes.
"They are all so good," Chenoweth said about working with perhaps the most celebrated cast on TV. "You either step up to the plate or you don't. I ask all the time, 'Are there actors that come on here and are overwhelmed?' They say there have been actors who end up not doing the show because it's so difficult."
Chenoweth said she did have a little twinge about how her character was being written when in her first scene she was referred to as "the little pixie from media relations."
The 4-foot-11-inch actress has fought sort of height discrimination her whole life, stereotyped with such adjectives as "perky," a "little pistol," "spark plug" and yes, "pixie." She has called herself "sort of a Barbie doll with an attitude" and that's why she ended up enjoying the West Wing character.
"Yes 'The pixie,' She groaned. "At first it was, 'Please don't do this to me.' Then the way they were writing her to be so clever, I thought it was a good setup. She is the smartest one in the room. I love that."
The Oklahoma native acknowledges she is fairly apolitical and never imagined herself doing the famous "West Wing" walk-and-talk going on about politics. "I'm not what you would call a political performer. I vote and I'm a good citizen, but I'm hardly the Michael Moore of performers."
Despite a solid film career, Chenoweth says she'll never leave her true love -- the stage. "Concert work is my favorite. You aren't hidden behind the role. You can be yourself. You can pick the material and it's very rewarding. I'm just a stage person. That's what I do."
Publication Date: 01-06-2005
Posted by Jo at January 6, 2005 09:56 PM