November 12, 2019 • 14 mins
With me today on LOVE SOMEONE with Delilah, is Emmy and Tony Award winner singer, actor, educator, and downright beauty, inside and out, Ms. Kristin Chenoweth. I became a fan of Kristin's after watching her perform on Broadway in Wicked. In fact, I saw her in that role at least three times!
Kristin has a new album out, "For the Girls," a celebration of music’s most passionate women from one of Broadway’s most vibrant stars. It includes songs such as “The Way We Were,” (Streisand) “When I Fall in Love” (Garland) and - my favorite - "Desperado" (Ronstadt). If you're lucky, you can catch Kristin this November at one of only 8 performances on Broadway as she premiers the songs from this new hit album.
In addition to her singing and acting career, Kristin's heart is in coaching and supporting the arts through the Kristin Chenoweth Arts and Education Foundation. This started after the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center, in her home town of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, named a theater after her. Kristin felt a responsibility to uphold the honor they had placed in her and started teaching a yearly master class to a few high school and college students. That evolved into the Kristin Chenoweth Broadway Bootcamp, supporting 50 students from all over the nation. She's now in the process of building a creative arts center that will cater to the underserved youth of Oklahoma providing training in Crafts, Drawing, Design, and Writing - as well as serving dinner to it's enrollees!
Kristin is doing her part, to make the world a better place one heart at a time and I am so happy that we were given this time to get to know her better! ~ Delilah
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome, my friend. Welcome to another episode of Love Someone
with Delilah, my podcast that I am so so proud of. Uh.
This podcast is dedicated to sharing stories, to sharing conversations
with people who are doing their part to impact our
(00:27):
world for the better. And don't we need that now
more than ever to impact the world for good. There
is a lot to love about my guest today. She's
a great singer. She's a dancer and actress, a beauty queen.
Speaking of beauty, she is beautiful inside and out. Her
(00:49):
soul is beautiful. She's been in a multitude of plays,
including some of my favorites. She's been in Phantom of
the Opera. She's been in The King and I and
my all time favorite. I know her best for the
role she made famous in the play Wicked. She played
Linda with a guy. Yeah, I'm talking about actress singer
(01:11):
Kristen Chinewith. Kristen is an operatically trained singer. She has
one of the broadest ranges of any recording artist today.
She's produced several albums, singing everything from opera to country
to gospel. She's able to hit a note the F six,
(01:32):
also known as the F above High Sea I have
like a three note range. So the fact that she's
able to hit a note that there's not even like
an actual key for because it's above I see. As
you'll see in a moment. Her speaking voice is adorable,
brings a richness to the character she plays on stage
(01:54):
as well as on TV and in movies. We actually
appeared in a movie together last year's Christmas Sensation, the
animated movie The star Kristen was Gabby the Mouse. She
has a new album out that is dedicated to all
the female singers that have inspired her both past and present.
(02:18):
But before we start this conversation with the adorable Kristen Chinnewith,
I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor,
the Home Depot. You may be the early holiday shopper.
I hope you are. People tell me it removes some
of the stress of the holiday hustle and bustle. If
there's a tool lover on your holiday list, you know
(02:40):
the place to go is the Home Depot, right the
number one retailer of power tools. Home Depot is that indeed,
that means more selection and more savings for you. The
big names and tools are in plentiful supply. There d
walt Ryo be Mikita Milwaukee Husky. You're going to do
(03:04):
the gift wrapping, and just think of the smile when
that gift is opened. This holiday season, the home Depot,
more saving, more doing with me. On this episode of Love,
someone is the lovely, beautiful and also talented Kristin Chinewith. Hi, Honey,
how are you? Is this really you? Kristen? Yes, I
(03:28):
am so honored and so thrilled to be talking to
somebody that is in in my life, in my heart,
such a legend. I'm so happy to be talking to
you because you're quite the inspiration. Ma'am so pretty cool
to be talking to you as well. Thank you, thank you,
thank you. You know, I can't hear your voice without
(03:52):
like wanting to say something like, you know, a line
from Wicked. That's all right. I'm glad that that, uh
my voice is distinctive and makes people remember certain parts
and stuff. I think that's cool. Do you know how
many times I came to see you and Wicked? No,
(04:14):
tell me, I think I saw you in it three times.
I've seen it three or four more times since, but
I think you were You were in it the first
three times I saw Oh, Mike, I'm so glad. Did
you love it? Do you think I will tell you something?
A little? Bertie told me that, um, you snuck in
some really nice fancy popcorn to Wicked and got caught
(04:37):
and popped away and pretended to go to a car
that doesn't exist in front of the other You go
put your popcorn away, and then came back and still
sew it in and brought it in again, and then
you both started chopping because you were hungry. And um,
I just want to say that at my show, I
welcome the popcorn. Bring it. Did they tell you that?
(05:00):
In order to get in, I found a really handsome
man and I went and looped my arm through his
so I could hide the bag, and his girlfriend or
his wife that was on the other side did not
appreciate that. Actually, that part of the story was left out.
But my favorite is that your friend when you said, okay,
i'll take it out, I'll take it to the car,
and you both neither one of you brought your car,
(05:21):
and you went, we don't have the car. I'm like,
shut up, you shutting up. Go with me, here, go
with me. I think it's hilarious that she also when
you were eating it in the show. She was couldn't
help herself and had to eat it too. I think
that's funny. I'm sorry, that's one of my favorite theater stories.
(05:42):
I'm going to kill her. I'm so going to kill her.
I wasn't going to let you get away with it, baby,
I was not going to let you get away with it.
All right, we'll have popcorn together. It was the Caramelly corn. Uh.
Oh my gosh, it was so good. When I see you,
I will bring you some, you know what, Bring it
to me and get it tim me while on the stage.
I think that'd be a really big hit. Don't dare me, Christen,
(06:06):
because I will. I dare you friend along, I love it. Okay, Well,
we'll be there with bells on. Okay, good, good, good,
Kristen Chinn and withhold that thought. We need to hear
from a sponsor and we'll be right back with me
on this episode of love. Someone is the lovely, beautiful
(06:26):
and also talented Kristen Chinnewyth. First up, Well, I have
to say here the new album is for the girls,
and we're going to be playing some of the songs
for the girls, but also for the guys. Who are
listening because they could be an honorary girl. All they
have to do is get in touch with their sappy side.
That's right, and they love us, so you know, so
(06:47):
there you go. It works. I want to know how
you how you chose the particular songs that that you
chose the way we were Oh my gosh, that was
the theme of our high school prom, by the way
it was. It was our senior high school prom. Uh.
(07:09):
And we decorated with evergreens all over the gymnasium. Yeah.
I think that's super cool. It was super cool. Our
problems were not like you spend five thousand dollars to
have a limo and a corsage and sit down dinner.
We'd go get pizza and pizza rays and then go
to the grade school gymnasium and dance. Yeah same here.
(07:32):
Um yeah. But I especially, I especially want you to
share the story of Desperado because that is my dedication
to somebody I love dearly. So tell me about that, women,
it makes it makes me so happy. Well, I was
a little kid. I remember hearing this beautiful woman's voice
sing in this song Desperado. I went, I understand that,
(07:54):
and I just get it because when I heard it
and Linda sang it, I thought, well, yeah, I feel
like that sometimes, believe it or not. And this is
a little known fact about me. Um. I can be
kind of a loner. And sometimes our friends are like, uh,
(08:16):
she's going there, she's going to in my a, she's
going in my a. It's just I can get like
scared commitment and I can be alone and I can
battle those kinds of feelings and not that I'm like, oh,
I'm such a I'm such a recruit, but I do
have to be with music, and I do have to
be the art, doing the art of it and understanding
(08:39):
the voice always and understanding the changes of my voice
and the death's the deepening that's happening. And I have
to I have to learn music all the time, and
if I don't, I'm just not myself. And and some
may call that selfish. I call that being true to
to living out your truth. You are living out your
(09:00):
truth and you're doing it beautifully and you you get
more beautiful every day. Lovely, Thank you, Jelilah, thank you.
You know, as women we age and we go oh
look at that there, sat wrinkle. Oh, no, things are falling.
But here's the thing, don't you. Don't you feel that
that as you grow, as you mature, as you learn
(09:24):
to accept yourself. I feel, at least for myself, I
feel more beautiful than I did when I was modeling
in Wade, fifty pounds less in my twenties. Oh yeah,
I feel more confident. Um, I feel like I care
more about what I think of myself than I do
about what others. Amen. Well, thank you for spending all
(09:47):
this time with us and for sharing your heart. I
want to talk about your before we go your charity because, um,
the whole reason I do love someone with the Lilah
this podcast is to encourage people, even if they're Broadway stars,
even if they haven't been in TV shows, even if
they weren't nominated for Tony's and Grammys and and and awards,
(10:08):
even if they haven't had the level of success that
that you have enjoyed. Everybody can change the world for good.
That's right. And I know you have an organization, a
foundation that changes the world for good so that other
people who were gifted with the talents and the passions
to be in the arts can pursue that. Tell me
(10:29):
a little bit about that and how people can find
out more. UM, first off, thank you for what you do.
I want to do the same. Ten years ago in
my hometown of Broken Arrow, they opened a theater. We
never had anything like a performing arts center, and we
have the state of the art theater. And they contacted
me and told me that they were going to name
(10:50):
the theater the Christian Channel with theater and I almost
had a heart attack because I thought, I'm not old
enough to have anything named after me, and they think
you are. I have people send me pictures of their
pet pigs named after me, so you know, I would
take a theater, but I'm happy with the little pet pigs. Absolutely, absolutely.
And then when I finally got over myself, I was like, hmm,
(11:12):
what am I going to do with that name on
that building something. I'm not going to just let it
sit there. I'm gonna back it. I'm gonna do something.
So it started out with I gave a yearly masterclass
to high school and college students. UM that would I
would pick five each and I would give master classes.
And then it evolved into the Christian Channel with Broadway
(11:34):
boot Camp and UM many kids all over the nation.
UH audition and I can only choose fifty, but happens
every year. We just had our fifth year Broadway boot
Camp at the Tony Awards week. We watched the Tony's
on television with pizza in my theater. We bring down
the big screen, we watch it, and then we the
(11:56):
next day we start a very intensive singing, acting, dancing,
and craw writing UM week with these kids, with teachers
that I bring in that are much much more datasant
that I am. A lot of them famous, a lot
of them uh the cohorts of mine. And they then
at the end of the week we put on a show.
(12:16):
And what I love more than anything is this week
out of the whole year, because I see these kids bond,
I see them find each other, I see them grow.
I see that I have lots of time for them
to bond as well. We have lots of advance parties.
We have Karaoke Night, we have Dressed as your favorite
Broadway Star night. And what's happening now is it's going
(12:38):
so big that eventually and this is happening sooner rather
than later. I'm currently fundraising for it. UM. I would
like to have a school. UM. We're building a building
next to it, which will be a creative art center
for um the kids in the state of Oklahoma, which
will be able to learn arts and crafts, draw, graphic design, writing,
(13:02):
and it will be obviously geared towards kids in my
home state that can't afford it, and that will also
be fed um dinner. So that is something that is
a sidebar to the foundation, the Christians Channel with Arts
and Education Foundation, which I encourage people to look up.
You can also look up the Broken Era Performing Arts Center.
(13:24):
You can look up christ and Child at Broadway boot Camp,
and you can find all the information on my website
as well. And if there's anybody out there listening that
I as a child or a relative that wants to audition,
auditions are in February and they can be done in
person and Broken Era, Oklahoma, or they can be done
by video. And I promise, I swear that they will
(13:47):
leave life having haven't had a life changing experience. Christian,
thank you for spending time with us today. Thank you
for loving and blessing kids who have a dream to
pursue the arts. Thank you for all you're doing to
make that possible. That you are pouring your your talent,
(14:07):
your time, your energy into young people who have that gift,
that passion for the stage. I wish you the very
best this holiday season, and I am so blessed, so
grateful to get to know you.
Welcome, my friend. Welcome to another episode of Love Someone
with Delilah, my podcast that I am so so proud of. Uh.
This podcast is dedicated to sharing stories, to sharing conversations
with people who are doing their part to impact our
(00:27):
world for the better. And don't we need that now
more than ever to impact the world for good. There
is a lot to love about my guest today. She's
a great singer. She's a dancer and actress, a beauty queen.
Speaking of beauty, she is beautiful inside and out. Her
(00:49):
soul is beautiful. She's been in a multitude of plays,
including some of my favorites. She's been in Phantom of
the Opera. She's been in The King and I and
my all time favorite. I know her best for the
role she made famous in the play Wicked. She played
Linda with a guy. Yeah, I'm talking about actress singer
(01:11):
Kristen Chinewith. Kristen is an operatically trained singer. She has
one of the broadest ranges of any recording artist today.
She's produced several albums, singing everything from opera to country
to gospel. She's able to hit a note the F six,
(01:32):
also known as the F above High Sea I have
like a three note range. So the fact that she's
able to hit a note that there's not even like
an actual key for because it's above I see. As
you'll see in a moment. Her speaking voice is adorable,
brings a richness to the character she plays on stage
(01:54):
as well as on TV and in movies. We actually
appeared in a movie together last year's Christmas Sensation, the
animated movie The star Kristen was Gabby the Mouse. She
has a new album out that is dedicated to all
the female singers that have inspired her both past and present.
(02:18):
But before we start this conversation with the adorable Kristen Chinnewith,
I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor,
the Home Depot. You may be the early holiday shopper.
I hope you are. People tell me it removes some
of the stress of the holiday hustle and bustle. If
there's a tool lover on your holiday list, you know
(02:40):
the place to go is the Home Depot, right the
number one retailer of power tools. Home Depot is that indeed,
that means more selection and more savings for you. The
big names and tools are in plentiful supply. There d
walt Ryo be Mikita Milwaukee Husky. You're going to do
(03:04):
the gift wrapping, and just think of the smile when
that gift is opened. This holiday season, the home Depot,
more saving, more doing with me. On this episode of Love,
someone is the lovely, beautiful and also talented Kristin Chinewith. Hi, Honey,
how are you? Is this really you? Kristen? Yes, I
(03:28):
am so honored and so thrilled to be talking to
somebody that is in in my life, in my heart,
such a legend. I'm so happy to be talking to
you because you're quite the inspiration. Ma'am so pretty cool
to be talking to you as well. Thank you, thank you,
thank you. You know, I can't hear your voice without
(03:52):
like wanting to say something like, you know, a line
from Wicked. That's all right. I'm glad that that, uh
my voice is distinctive and makes people remember certain parts
and stuff. I think that's cool. Do you know how
many times I came to see you and Wicked? No,
(04:14):
tell me, I think I saw you in it three times.
I've seen it three or four more times since, but
I think you were You were in it the first
three times I saw Oh, Mike, I'm so glad. Did
you love it? Do you think I will tell you something?
A little? Bertie told me that, um, you snuck in
some really nice fancy popcorn to Wicked and got caught
(04:37):
and popped away and pretended to go to a car
that doesn't exist in front of the other You go
put your popcorn away, and then came back and still
sew it in and brought it in again, and then
you both started chopping because you were hungry. And um,
I just want to say that at my show, I
welcome the popcorn. Bring it. Did they tell you that?
(05:00):
In order to get in, I found a really handsome
man and I went and looped my arm through his
so I could hide the bag, and his girlfriend or
his wife that was on the other side did not
appreciate that. Actually, that part of the story was left out.
But my favorite is that your friend when you said, okay,
i'll take it out, I'll take it to the car,
and you both neither one of you brought your car,
(05:21):
and you went, we don't have the car. I'm like,
shut up, you shutting up. Go with me, here, go
with me. I think it's hilarious that she also when
you were eating it in the show. She was couldn't
help herself and had to eat it too. I think
that's funny. I'm sorry, that's one of my favorite theater stories.
(05:42):
I'm going to kill her. I'm so going to kill her.
I wasn't going to let you get away with it, baby,
I was not going to let you get away with it.
All right, we'll have popcorn together. It was the Caramelly corn. Uh.
Oh my gosh, it was so good. When I see you,
I will bring you some, you know what, Bring it
to me and get it tim me while on the stage.
I think that'd be a really big hit. Don't dare me, Christen,
(06:06):
because I will. I dare you friend along, I love it. Okay, Well,
we'll be there with bells on. Okay, good, good, good,
Kristen Chinn and withhold that thought. We need to hear
from a sponsor and we'll be right back with me
on this episode of love. Someone is the lovely, beautiful
(06:26):
and also talented Kristen Chinnewyth. First up, Well, I have
to say here the new album is for the girls,
and we're going to be playing some of the songs
for the girls, but also for the guys. Who are
listening because they could be an honorary girl. All they
have to do is get in touch with their sappy side.
That's right, and they love us, so you know, so
(06:47):
there you go. It works. I want to know how
you how you chose the particular songs that that you
chose the way we were Oh my gosh, that was
the theme of our high school prom, by the way
it was. It was our senior high school prom. Uh.
(07:09):
And we decorated with evergreens all over the gymnasium. Yeah.
I think that's super cool. It was super cool. Our
problems were not like you spend five thousand dollars to
have a limo and a corsage and sit down dinner.
We'd go get pizza and pizza rays and then go
to the grade school gymnasium and dance. Yeah same here.
(07:32):
Um yeah. But I especially, I especially want you to
share the story of Desperado because that is my dedication
to somebody I love dearly. So tell me about that, women,
it makes it makes me so happy. Well, I was
a little kid. I remember hearing this beautiful woman's voice
sing in this song Desperado. I went, I understand that,
(07:54):
and I just get it because when I heard it
and Linda sang it, I thought, well, yeah, I feel
like that sometimes, believe it or not. And this is
a little known fact about me. Um. I can be
kind of a loner. And sometimes our friends are like, uh,
(08:16):
she's going there, she's going to in my a, she's
going in my a. It's just I can get like
scared commitment and I can be alone and I can
battle those kinds of feelings and not that I'm like, oh,
I'm such a I'm such a recruit, but I do
have to be with music, and I do have to
be the art, doing the art of it and understanding
(08:39):
the voice always and understanding the changes of my voice
and the death's the deepening that's happening. And I have
to I have to learn music all the time, and
if I don't, I'm just not myself. And and some
may call that selfish. I call that being true to
to living out your truth. You are living out your
(09:00):
truth and you're doing it beautifully and you you get
more beautiful every day. Lovely, Thank you, Jelilah, thank you.
You know, as women we age and we go oh
look at that there, sat wrinkle. Oh, no, things are falling.
But here's the thing, don't you. Don't you feel that
that as you grow, as you mature, as you learn
(09:24):
to accept yourself. I feel, at least for myself, I
feel more beautiful than I did when I was modeling
in Wade, fifty pounds less in my twenties. Oh yeah,
I feel more confident. Um, I feel like I care
more about what I think of myself than I do
about what others. Amen. Well, thank you for spending all
(09:47):
this time with us and for sharing your heart. I
want to talk about your before we go your charity because, um,
the whole reason I do love someone with the Lilah
this podcast is to encourage people, even if they're Broadway stars,
even if they haven't been in TV shows, even if
they weren't nominated for Tony's and Grammys and and and awards,
(10:08):
even if they haven't had the level of success that
that you have enjoyed. Everybody can change the world for good.
That's right. And I know you have an organization, a
foundation that changes the world for good so that other
people who were gifted with the talents and the passions
to be in the arts can pursue that. Tell me
(10:29):
a little bit about that and how people can find
out more. UM, first off, thank you for what you do.
I want to do the same. Ten years ago in
my hometown of Broken Arrow, they opened a theater. We
never had anything like a performing arts center, and we
have the state of the art theater. And they contacted
me and told me that they were going to name
(10:50):
the theater the Christian Channel with theater and I almost
had a heart attack because I thought, I'm not old
enough to have anything named after me, and they think
you are. I have people send me pictures of their
pet pigs named after me, so you know, I would
take a theater, but I'm happy with the little pet pigs. Absolutely, absolutely.
And then when I finally got over myself, I was like, hmm,
(11:12):
what am I going to do with that name on
that building something. I'm not going to just let it
sit there. I'm gonna back it. I'm gonna do something.
So it started out with I gave a yearly masterclass
to high school and college students. UM that would I
would pick five each and I would give master classes.
And then it evolved into the Christian Channel with Broadway
(11:34):
boot Camp and UM many kids all over the nation.
UH audition and I can only choose fifty, but happens
every year. We just had our fifth year Broadway boot
Camp at the Tony Awards week. We watched the Tony's
on television with pizza in my theater. We bring down
the big screen, we watch it, and then we the
(11:56):
next day we start a very intensive singing, acting, dancing,
and craw writing UM week with these kids, with teachers
that I bring in that are much much more datasant
that I am. A lot of them famous, a lot
of them uh the cohorts of mine. And they then
at the end of the week we put on a show.
(12:16):
And what I love more than anything is this week
out of the whole year, because I see these kids bond,
I see them find each other, I see them grow.
I see that I have lots of time for them
to bond as well. We have lots of advance parties.
We have Karaoke Night, we have Dressed as your favorite
Broadway Star night. And what's happening now is it's going
(12:38):
so big that eventually and this is happening sooner rather
than later. I'm currently fundraising for it. UM. I would
like to have a school. UM. We're building a building
next to it, which will be a creative art center
for um the kids in the state of Oklahoma, which
will be able to learn arts and crafts, draw, graphic design, writing,
(13:02):
and it will be obviously geared towards kids in my
home state that can't afford it, and that will also
be fed um dinner. So that is something that is
a sidebar to the foundation, the Christians Channel with Arts
and Education Foundation, which I encourage people to look up.
You can also look up the Broken Era Performing Arts Center.
(13:24):
You can look up christ and Child at Broadway boot Camp,
and you can find all the information on my website
as well. And if there's anybody out there listening that
I as a child or a relative that wants to audition,
auditions are in February and they can be done in
person and Broken Era, Oklahoma, or they can be done
by video. And I promise, I swear that they will
(13:47):
leave life having haven't had a life changing experience. Christian,
thank you for spending time with us today. Thank you
for loving and blessing kids who have a dream to
pursue the arts. Thank you for all you're doing to
make that possible. That you are pouring your your talent,
(14:07):
your time, your energy into young people who have that gift,
that passion for the stage. I wish you the very
best this holiday season, and I am so blessed, so
grateful to get to know you.
Host
Delilah
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