It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Kristin

There are few performers in the world capable of shining in Hollywood, on Broadway, and on the stage of Metropolitan Opera — and even fewer who could do all that within 60 days. But as anyone who has encountered Kristin Chenoweth in her decade-long career knows, this petite Tony Award-winning star is clearly like nobody else.

Chenoweth has already been visible on the big screen this fall in small roles in Running With Scissors and Stranger than Fiction; but she’s front and center in the holiday comedy Deck the Halls, which opens on Wednesday, November 22. She plays Tia Hall, the good-natured wife of loudmouth car salesman Buddy (the equally diminutive Danny DeVito) and the mother of surprisingly tall 15-year-old twin girls.

“When we started the film, the crew kept thinking I was playing the girls’ sister, not their mother,” she says. “They were very confused. But when I saw the movie, it worked. I really seemed like their mother.” Indeed, Tia is in many ways the heart of the film. “What I love about her is that she’s someone who looks beyond the outside to see what’s inside,” Cenoweth comments. The film reunites her with Matthew Broderick, her Music Man co-star, who plays the Halls’ beleaguered, straight-arrow neighbor Steve. “I’ve known Matthew for a long time and he made me laugh just by being the straight man, which isn’t an easy thing to do. I’m really proud of him.”

At the end of Deck the Halls, Chenoweth finally gets to sing, leading a slew of extras in the beloved carol “O, Holy Night.” She recalls, “It was awesome to do that, but I worked very specifically with the film’s director, John Whitesell, on that moment. If Tia could really sing like me, you would wonder why she married someone like Danny’s character. So we made it lower and more natural. As it happened, the night before we filmed that scene, my grandmother died, so I hadn’t had a lot of a sleep.”

To hear Chenoweth’s voice in all its glory, one can head to Studio 54 starting on November 28, where she will be starring in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical The Apple Tree. She’ll be playing the roles made famous by Barbara Harris in the original Broadway production, although she’s bringing along her own high note (in the song “Gorgeous”) that she says Harris couldn’t reach.

It’s not a new gig for Chenoweth; she did the show at City Center Encores! in 2004 to enormous acclaim. “There was talk of moving it then,” she says, “but I couldn’t do it because I was in L.A. working on The West Wing. My co-star, the late John Spencer, saw me in the show and he always said to me, ‘If you ever get another chance to do it, you have to do it! It’s your show.’ Then, a couple of months ago, the Roundabout had a play fall through, and Todd Haimes [the company’s artistic director] called and asked if I wanted to do it. I thought, ‘Okay, John, this one’s for you.'”

For the Roundabout production, her Encores! co-stars Malcolm Gets and Michael Cerveris have been replaced, respectively, by Brian d’Arcy James and Marc Kudisch, who happens to be Chenoweth’s ex-fiancé. “We’re coming full circle,” she says. “Marc plays the Snake who tempts Eve, and let’s say our pairing makes that a whole new relationship. I’m loving Marc all over again.”

Asked which of her four roles is her favorite, Chenoweth pauses before answering: “I love Eve because she was the first woman, and she proves that women have always been more sophisticated than men. Barbára — or Barbarella, as I call her — is fun because she gets to show women’s ugly side, especially the jealousy. Passionella, the movie star, is great, and I can’t believe the gown I get to wear; I want to keep it. But my favorite is Ella, the charwoman, because she really allows me to do character work and lets me connect with my inner nerd.”

Chenoweth will take a one-night break from The Apple Tree on Friday, January 19 and head over to Lincoln Center to perform a solo concert titled Kristin Chenoweth: Live at the Met. “Peter Gelb [the Met’s general manager] called and asked me to take a meeting,” she relates. “When I got there, I realized it wasn’t a meeting; it was an audition. He made me sing on the stage while he and [conductor] James Levine sat at the back of the house. All they really cared about was whether I could be heard back there, and it turned out I can.”

She’s still putting together the repertoire for the evening, which will be directed by Kathleen Marshall. “I’ll probably do a couple of arias, some contemporary songs by Ricky Ian Gordon and Adam Guettel, and some stuff you want to hear from me. For example, I couldn’t imagine being on that stage and not doing ‘Glitter and Be Gay.’ I’ll also have a special guest, and all I will tell you is that the person is not much taller than I am.”

The concert won’t be her last appearance on the Met’s stage; Chenoweth is scheduled to sing the role of Samira in the the company’s March 2010 revival of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles. It’s not, she admits, a conventional choice for her Met debut: “It would’ve been more obvious for me to do Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment, but John agreed to rewrite my part as a coloratura soprano. Even though I study voice all the time, I’ll have to work even harder for that role. I am my own worst critic.”

Chenoweth has some more immediate plans on the horizons, most notably the Broadway musical version of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, which is rumored to be opening next fall. She’ll play the part of Elizabeth, immortalized on film by Madeline Kahn. “I thought I’d have to give up my firstborn to get this part, but then I remembered I don’t have a boyfriend or kids,” she says. “Mel has been telling me about this project for years, and I’ve been telling him to hurry up and finish it. I was the only kid in my high school who loved Blazing Saddles. And what could be more fun than to sing ‘Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life’ on stage?”

Her admiration for Brooks knows little bounds: “What’s amazing about Mel is that he knows how to integrate music into the plot better than anyone. I’ve seen The Producers eight times, and as much as I love it, this show is even better.” Chenoweth is also thrilled to be able to work with a cast that is planned to include her current Apple Tree co-star d’Arcy James as Elizabeth’s love interest, Victor; her fellow Tony winners Sutton Foster and Shuler Hensley; and Oscar winner Cloris Leachman, who will be recreating her film role of Frau Blucher.

On top of all that, Chenoweth is plotting her return to series television; she’s developing a sitcom with fellow Broadway great Nathan Lane. While she won’t divulge the premise, she says that she and Lane have a unique working relationship: “We’re both type A personalities, so I probably get on his nerves a little. And he is a little crazy. But I love him. I hope he has more power than I think he has, so we can have the series shot in New York. I love a lot about living in Los Angeles — the weather, my house, my car — but New York is my home. I could never abandon New York, because it would be like abandoning me.”

Because of her Apple Tree schedule, she’ll be in the Big Apple for Christmas, rather than spending it with her family. “My mom has this tradition where we have this Christmas tree full of candles, and everyone has take one and say what we’re most grateful for this year,” she says. “Well, I’m going to get a small tree for my apartment and invite my close friends and do the same thing with them. I have so much to be grateful for.”