Kristin Chenoweth

"Stage center" is something like home to Kristin Chenoweth. She was born to be there. Broadway audiences know it well, from her show-stealing, Tony-winning performance in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1999, to her triumphant star turn last year as Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked. She made her solo recording debut on Sony Classical in 2001 with a high-spirited, Broadway-flavored disc entitled Let Yourself Go. TV fans are getting to know her as smart-as-a-whip Annabeth Schott on The West Wing, and moviegoers will soon see her in everything from a feature film adaptation of Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman, to a new edition of The Pink Panther with Steve Martin and Kevin Kline. The first "stage center" she ever knew was in the Southern Baptist church in which she was raised in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where she discovered her love of singing and performing. The budding, diminutive singer/actress was so impressive that, when she was 12, she sang for the entire Southern Baptist Convention. The song was "I'm Four Foot Eleven and I'm Going to Heaven."
For all the head-turning success she has enjoyed in the last seven years, Kristin Chenoweth remains, in many ways, that talented little girl in church back in Oklahoma. She is a rising star in mainstream American show business, with all the bells and whistles, but she freely embraces the vigorous and inclusive faith with which she grew up. That has inspired As I Am, her latest recording for Sony Classical/Integrity, bringing together a rich and deeply felt collection of songs that range from classic hymns to contemporary pop hits - songs that are all about faith, all about love in its most spiritual and renewing sense.
As I Am combines favorite songs made famous by Faith Hill ("It Will Be Me"), Trisha Yearwood ("The Song Remembers When") and Amy Grant ("There Will Never Be Another") with contemporary Christian anthems ("Upon This Rock" and "Word of God Speak") and traditional favorites such as "Poor Wayfaring Stranger," "Just As I Am Without One Plea" and the Beethoven-inspired "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." For her fans, Chenoweth includes as a hidden bonus track "Taylor the Latte Boy," the charming love song to a Starbucks barista that has become an audience favorite in her live performances. The album is a recording she has wanted to make for some time - at first, in response to 9/11 - and it has emerged as exactly the inspiring, broad-ranging collection she first imagined.
The songs Chenoweth has chosen for As I Am - exuberant and uplifting, with a big heart and a positive outlook anchored in rock-solid faith and conviction - reflect what is constant in a woman whose personal journey has taken her from singing in a Baptist church to one-for-the-books Broadway stardom. In many ways, this music defines her, from the contemporary Christian pop she sang in high school and college to the Nashville-flavored sound for which she has always had an affinity. The conviction with which she sings carries the audience along with her, just as it does in her live performances. Even in more reflective or meditative songs, she sings on a surge of joy and hope - not platitudes and attitudes, but the real things. They can't be faked. And they are hard to resist.
"I think the songs reflect the way I feel, what I believe," Chenoweth says. "'There Will Never Be Another,' for instance, is an Amy Grant song I've always liked because it's about having all the things you've hoped for, and realizing that the most important thing you've got is faith. 'Word of God Speak' is exactly how I feel when I'm alone or in a crowd. It's about being by yourself, and really listening, realizing you don't need anything else."
"There had to be a Sandi Patti song on the record - there just had to be," she adds, referring to the beloved contemporary Christian diva with a powerful, soaring voice. "She was probably my greatest inspiration as a singer, and so I'm really happy that we've included 'Upon This Rock.' "
The release of As I Am comes just as Chenoweth's career is diversifying at a dizzying pace. In the spring of 2004, as she was wrapping up her run in Wicked and rehearsing the Pink Panther film, she realized a long-held dream by singing the role of Cunegonde in the New York Philharmonic's critically acclaimed, "dream cast" concert version of Leonard Bernstein's Candide. (Cunegonde's rollicking coloratura aria "Glitter and Be Gay" has become a staple in Chenoweth's repertoire.) The performance was taped for broadcast on PBS's Great Performances in January. Last fall, she joined the cast of the Emmy-winning series The West Wing, and she returns to New York in May in a tour de force portrayal of all three heroines in the City Center Encores! revival of the musical The Apple Tree. The Encores! series helped launch Chenoweth's musical theater career, and she won rave reviews for her performance in the series' production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.
Acclaimed for her distinctive comedic gifts as well as her wide-ranging musical abilities, Chenoweth made her Broadway debut in a production of Moliere's Scapin starring Bill Irwin, followed in the spring of 1997 by the Kander and Ebb musical Steel Pier, for which she won a Theatre World award. The next season, she appeared in the Encores! production of Strike Up the Band and the Lincoln Center Theater production of A New Brain. During the 1998-99 season, she created the role of Sally in the first Broadway production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, sweeping the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards as the season's Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Next, she starred in the Broadway comedy Epic Proportions, followed by acclaimed appearances in the ABC television adaptation of the musical Annie (as Lily St. Regis) and in the Encores! On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. In ABC's 2003 TV version of Meredith Willson's The Music Man, she starred as Marian the Librarian opposite Matthew Broderick in the title role. Chenoweth has also appeared on Sesame Street as Ms. Noodle and in Elmo's video/DVD "Elmo's World: Happy Holidays!", the first-ever Elmo's World holiday special. In the fall of 2003, she returned to Broadway a full-fledged star in Wicked, the biggest hit of the 2003-04 New York season, winning love-letter reviews from the critics as well as Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for her performance.
She has also performed leading roles at the Goodspeed Opera House and the Guthrie Theatre, and she was chosen by the late Jerome Robbins as the guest soloist in his West Side Story Suite of Dances at New York City Ballet. On television, Chenoweth also starred in her own series Kristin for NBC.
She has won rave reviews for her eagerly awaited concerts for Lincoln Center's 5th American Songbook, in which she performed selections from her first Sony Classical album, and she also received critical acclaim for her performance in City Center Encores! 10th Anniversary Bash. She made her London debut in Divas at Donmar, directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes, which opened to rave reviews, and appeared at the highly anticipated Actor's Fund Benefit Concert of the musical Funny Girl in New York City. She also appeared at the Village Theater in New York, in a one-night-only presentation of Earth Girls Are Easy, a new musical based on the original film script by Julie Brown, Charlie Coffey and Terrence E. McNally for the Lark Theater Company.
In 2003, Chenoweth was a part of ABC's An American Celebration at Ford's Theater with Kelsey Grammer, NBC's Salute to the Olympic Winners, The Kennedy Center Gala honoring Julie Andrews, an episode of Frasier on NBC, and A Capitol Fourth, her second appearance at the annual concert broadcast from the Mall in Washington, D.C., on July 4. As if she is not busy enough, Chenoweth continues to tour the country with her acclaimed concerts, singing both with symphony orchestras and with her combo.
A native of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Kristin Chenoweth studied at Oklahoma City University, earning a bachelor's degree in musical theater and a master's degree in opera performance, performing a number of roles in the lyric coloratura category. She performed in the stage revue at Opryland and won a "most talented up-and-coming singer" award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, which resulted in a full scholarship to Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts. En route to Philadelphia, she auditioned for an Off-Broadway show and got the part. She decided to forgo her scholarship to pursue a career on Broadway; a short time later, she was accepting a Tony Award.