There might not be an Oklahoma hero as universally beloved as Tony- and Emmy-Award winner Kristin Chenoweth. Born in Broken Arrow with an early flair for performance and larger-than-life stage presence, she went on to originate the gravity-defying role of Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked and later became bubbly, lovesick Olive Snook in cult favorite Pushing Daisies.
She has since gone on to other popular roles in film, TV and stage productions — but one reason so many here in the state hold her close is her willingness, even excitement, to come back home, and often.
I caught her on the phone as she exited a yoga class, part of her extensive prep for an upcoming musical in which she plays the part of Jackie Siegel, the self-proclaimed billionaire “Queen of Versailles.” (Siegel was made famous by a documentary of the same name about a sprawling, unfinished mansion she and her husband built in Florida. But we’ll get to that.)
“I do about 8,000 steps each show,” Chenoweth told me.
Suffice it to say, she’s got quite a lot going on right now, with an upcoming Broadway run of the production, a new Netflix holiday movie about to hit streaming — not to mention the film adaptation of Wicked that will soon premiere, with Ariana Grande taking on Glinda’s crown this time — and a trip back to Oklahoma in the works.
That trip will include “An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth” at Oklahoma Contemporary on Dec. 10. The fundraising event will feature a cocktail reception, followed by a cabaret performance from Chenoweth.
“Everybody that knows me knows I’m a proud Okie,” Chenoweth said. “I will never be that girl that’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m from there. But that’s it.’ That’s just a huge part of my DNA, who I am.”
Broadway Bootcamp
Part of her enduring connection to Oklahoma is rooted in the Kristin Chenoweth Arts & Education Fund, which supports her Broadway Bootcamp. The camp and the educational programs of Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center are the beneficiaries of the event.
Chenoweth said she wants to bring additional attention to the importance of the arts and her camp through the Contemporary event.
“It feels like I’ve done a poor job at letting the state of Oklahoma really know what success we’re having, how we’re having kids go out and be professionals and making their Broadway debuts, making their film and TV debuts,” Chenoweth said. “And this has been going on for 10 years. I’m always surprised when I meet people and they’re like, ‘Oh, you have a camp?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh! That’s all I care about!’”
The two-week intensive camp draws applications from all over the world. Auditions begin every March. Chenoweth invites interested young performers to send in their tapes via the online form on the boot camp’s website. She wants to mentor both experienced kids and those with undeveloped potential, so everyone can benefit from an arts education from an array of Broadway professionals.
“[The camp] was created for kids like me growing up in Oklahoma that hadn’t found their tribe, so to speak, yet of musical theater and acting and dance and the arts,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a secret, and this isn’t a put-down to schools everywhere, but that’s just not a priority, especially in our state. It’s all about sports. And I love sports.”
She said sports are actually connected to the arts in that both are team endeavors.
“It takes a team to create a show. It takes a team of people to be involved in anything artistic. I love that sports teaches us that,” she said, “but arts have the power to change lives, and that’s what the event is really about.”
She also hopes to share more about what the boot camp has accomplished through the years and how its students have succeeded.
“It’s expanding and expanding and expanding,” she said. “I have offers to take different kids on cruise lines and do the camp there, do the camp in New York. But the point is it’s coming home. It’s got to be at my theater because that’s how it started. And the whole idea is born and bred with me, and I’m an Oklahoma girl, and that’s where my theater is.”
Again, her desire to return to Oklahoma is tied to her sense of community and service.
“I hope that I’m mentoring these kids to understand that no matter what kind of success you have, it’s always important to give back,” she said. “It sounds so easy. Like, ‘Okay. Give back to your community.’ Really and truly, the giving back is a gift to oneself. I didn’t know that when I started this thing. I didn’t know how blessed I was going to be. I didn’t understand that these kids, I’m investing in them now.”
One performer who came out of the camp is Tatum Grace Hopkins, who went on to feature in a concert with Chenoweth (2019’s Kristin Chenoweth: For the Girls) and now is having her professional debut alongside her in The Queen of Versailles as Jonquil.
Hopkins auditioned like anyone else, Chenoweth said.
“I just put her in front of the people that needed to see her and said nothing. I didn’t tell them she was a camper. I didn’t tell her that I knew her,” she said. “I wanted it to be organic and real if she got the part, and she did.”
Chenoweth promises an “intimate” evening at Oklahoma Contemporary with her pianist, Broadway conductor Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
“We’re going to do a little bit of everything: some of what people want and some of what people have never heard me do,” she said.
And because Chenoweth seems to be endlessly busy, she’ll be performing in Broken Arrow just before then.
“During COVID, I didn’t get to do my Christmas concert,” she said. “So I’m going to do that, make that concert up, which will be an amazing night as well for me, just getting to go home and perform in my hometown.”
The Queen of Versailles
Our conversation turned to The Queen of Versailles, fresh off its preview run in Boston in preparation for New York.
The musical, as mentioned, follows real-life Jackie Siegel, whose extravagant antics charmed audiences in the 2012 documentary. At the time, Jackie and her husband, David Siegel, were building their version of a French palace in Florida just as the Great Recession hit in 2008. Faced with potential financial ruin, the house was left unfinished.
Composer Stephen Schwartz of Wicked fame has been trying to reconnect with his Glinda for years, and he wrote the musical as a star vehicle for Chenoweth. The book is by Lindsey Ferrentino. F. Murray Abraham stars as David Siegel. Nina White plays Victoria Siegel.
The story of U.S. billionaires floundering in a housing crisis might not immediately sound like material ripe for a musical adaptation, and I struggled a bit to explain the backstory to my parents when they told me they had tickets to one of the Boston previews. But the show (and Chenoweth’s performance) have already been getting rave reviews. Plus, my mom loved it.
“What?!” Chenoweth said with a laugh. “She did? Oh my gosh! Tell her thank you for coming!”
She also wanted me to explain to my mom that these “out-of-town tryouts” exist to iron out any wrinkles in the show, such as scenes that don’t land or lines that can be cut. Previews are important to any production, including Wicked years before.
“That Boston run was just a huge, huge help to us to make changes,” she said. “We were running very long at first. We made the appropriate cuts. We are actually meeting again in March to go over some more changes that we want to make. We’re about 92% there. I’m going to do the very best I can to make this show the very best of what it can be.”
The show has apparently tapped into something deeply American about wealth and poverty, and the disaster that can happen to anyone when worlds come crashing down during an economic crisis.
“It’s about entitlement. It’s about loss,” Chenoweth said of the production. “What are you going to do when you get all the money, and what are you going to do when you lose it all? It’s about social media. It’s about outward appearances. It’s about inward. It touches on so many things that we deal with today, and I am very proud of it.”
Returning home
Would it surprise you to learn that Chenoweth is also producing in cooperation with Tulsa-based Tanninger Entertainment, whom she calls her “Oklahoma boys”?
“They have been integral to my financial aspect of producership,” she said.
Further evidence, it seems, of Chenoweth’s strong ties to the state.
“I always go back home. Don’t I?” she said. “I feel like I always have my toe there. No, I have my leg there. And if I can invite producers — who are, by the way, Tony Award winners themselves with The Outsiders and have been to the barbecue, picnic and rodeo — why can’t I invite them along this journey?”
Chenoweth cautioned that fans should not expect another Wicked out of The Queen of Versailles, as the shows are entirely different in story and soundtrack.
“This is a new score by Stephen Schwartz that is probably, for me, the most demanding,” she said. “Glinda was very difficult. I sang high soprano. I belted. I sang alto. He really gave me all over the map. He’s pushing me in a new direction. … It’s all belt. There is one moment where I do get to sing an aria, but it’s a flashback.”
Although the show doesn’t have a Broadway home as of writing, Chenoweth said it’s a project that sticks with you, and she’s excited for others to see it.
“I’m really proud of it, and I hope everyone in Oklahoma will get on board and come see us.”
Happy holidays
Chenoweth said one big element in particular attracted her to her new Netflix holiday film, Our Little Secret: Lindsay Lohan.
Our Little Secret follows Lohan as Avery, who goes home with her boyfriend for the holidays. There, she has an unexpected run-in with her ex, Logan (Ian Harding), who’s dating another family member. They agree to keep their relationship a secret for the sake of familial harmony during the holidays.
Chenoweth plays the family’s snarky matriarch, Erica. It’s not her first holiday film.
“This is, what, my seventh, eighth holiday movie?” she mused. “I don’t know what it is, if I miss Christmas or what. I got the call, and before I even read the script, I thought, ‘I’ve always wanted to work with [Lohan].’ We had met a few times and sort of always loved each other from afar, and now we love each other in our lives.”
While she didn’t like being mean to Lohan, she said it was a fun experience.
“My character is very uptight. She wants her kids all dependent on her,” she said. “She’s a typical, in some cases, very typical Southern mama. She’s fun to play. The villain is always fun to play.”
Lohan, as a teen star of the aughts, had something of a rough go of it under the constant gaze of the media at the time, and Chenoweth is happy to see her acting again.
“If I think about what I was doing at OCU when I was 18, 19 and 20, I’d be in trouble,” she said with a laugh. “I was having a grand old time, and I was learning about life. And unfortunately, she had to do that in front of cameras.”
Chenoweth said she knows the film is one families can enjoy together during the holiday season, after what has been a stressful year for many.
“We need to enjoy the time we have on this planet, and that movie is going to make us happy,” she said.
As we prepared to say goodbye, Chenoweth added that she hopes audiences turn out for the new Wicked.
“Just know that it’s very special to me,” she said. “It’s another movie that we can all sit down with our families [to watch]. And even if you haven’t seen the show, it’s very, very entertaining. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are incredible.”
For more information about An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth, visit oklahomacontemporary.org.
This article appears in Queen of Oklahoma.