Broadway: January 2008 Archives

Well, I confess. The last thing I expected to do at the Directors Guild of America Awards over the weekend was fall in love - with a woman. But I had never met Kristin Chenoweth who, pound for pound, is hands-down the most talented woman in showbiz.

The tiny Broadway star with near-perfect pitch headlined the original production of "Wicked," and won a Tony Award for "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."

Now she's juggling television and film roles as one of the main characters in the new ABC hit "Pushing Daisies" and co-starring in the currently filming "Four Christmases" with Reese Witherspoon.

"I'm a very lucky actress right now," she said. "Not a lot of people are working and I just hope there can be a quick resolution (to the writers strike)."

When I caught up with Kristin Saturday night, I told her how blown away I was by her performance during last month's Kennedy Center Honors.

"(Gasp)Thank you! That's when I had pneumonia!" she said. "That's so very sweet."

"Daisies" was considered to be a hard-sell initially but it quickly caught on with audiences when it premiered in the fall: "I have people coming up to me at the Coffee Bean (and Tea Leaf) saying, 'Good luck with the pie maker!'" Kristin said. "They love the show and I'm really proud that we have something that people can sit down as a family and watch and both the kids and the adults can enjoy it. I like to be included in classy things and I think this is a very classy show."

Prior to "Daisies," Kristin was in another classy show, "The West Wing," as Annabeth Schott during the final two seasons and briefly had her own NBC sitcom called "Kristin."

But she still craves the stage and told me she will be appearing in June at the English National Opera in London singing an opera.

"Come on over and see me do it!" she said.

Very tempting!