**Editor's note: Chenoweth changed the date of this show after we sent the interview to the printer. We've corrected it below and are sorry for any confusion.
On March 13 April 7, singer Kristin Chenoweth will perform at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. Chenoweth, perhaps best known to many Americans as Glinda in Wicked, gave CL 15 minutes of her time to chat about everything from her Ross-and-Rachel style romance with Aaron Sorkin to her puppy. In between, we talked a little bit about her music, too.
When you did Art of Elegance, you stayed so true to the original music. Why did you decide to do them almost exactly as we've heard them before?
That's my favorite genre and I just really wanted to do it right, you know?
I wanted to be aware of taking my places to open up. Otherwise it doesn't really mean anything if it's all in the same timbre and volume.
I must be very careful not to sing everything so big, because you've got to earn those times and they cannot be earned without the smallness and the stillness, like "The Very Thought of You." That just isn't a song that needs to get huge, you know?
Tell us about Thunder Pup.
Oh my god, you know about Thunder pup! [She's] four months old. She's a poodle mix and they think Maltese is in there. She loves water; she loves hunting. I don't have the dainty little Maltese I had before. I need her not to grow to be bigger than me. She's growing like a weed.
She travels with you, but you said she hunts. Do you hunt?
No. I mean, I hunt for a good sale…
She likes to bury and she'll find, for example, my dog Maddy passed away in August and I guess hid some bones in my house and [Thunder Pup] found them.
Did you expect your type of singing, your genre, to be so conventionally popular?
Yes and no. In my world, it is. With my peers, it is popular. But it's really cool when you have people like Dove Cameron and Ariana Grande going, "I got your record and it's so good and we love the songs." Especially my young fans who listen to it and go, "Wow, I didn't know that song." These songs are the reason Adele exists, you know?
In "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" Aaron Sorkin did a very gracious job of portraying a Christian celebrity, because sometimes we tend to pigeonhole them.
Thank you. I was proud of him for writing it.
Were you together when he wrote it?
Let me tell you, we were together, we were not together, we were together… we did that thing for several years. It was one of those Ross/Rachel things where I kind of thought we were together even when we weren't. I knew he was writing and he would talk to me about it, and at first first I was like, "Wait a minute, I said that… Wait a minute, that happened to me." But then I just watched it… and he was proud of me, and I was very proud of him and what he's given the world and the way he's made his mark.
So was "honey-crusted nutbar" your phrase?
(laughs) Yes. Yes. This is fantastic. I love it so much.
What he did do, he was always constantly surprised. I like to have a good time, I like to have a drink, you know? I'm a Christian, I'm not dead. I think there's always a connotation [that] we don't want to feel sexy or pretty. The humanity of a Christian is always kind of hidden. I'm so glad that it's out there that way. It hasn't always been easy; there are Christian people that have certainly judged me for some decisions I've made in the business, or for whatever reason. My thing is, I really don't want to be judged. I don't judge others for what their beliefs are, how they make their decisions. I don't want that done to me. Thank you very much for bringing that up; that needs to be talked about more. I've wondered about even talking about it more, but then I think, "Well, just live your life, girl, and live by example. Let people see that you stumble and fall and you have a relationship with the Lord and you can be forgiven."
Thank you.
Thank you for being so cool. Thank you, baby.
More info via local.cltampa.com.
This article appears in Mar 2-9, 2017.