Congratulations to Kristin Chenoweth. Kristin made the guest list for the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace Tuesday evening. Then, President and Mrs. Obama asked Kristin to entertain Her Majesty the Queen of England at a dinner they held last night in the Queen’s honor at the Ambassador’s official residence, Winfield House. This dinner is protocol following the Queen’s dinner in honor of the President Tuesday at Buckingham Palace.
Kristin sang some of the Queen’s favorite show tunes that included “People Will Say We’re In Love” (OKLAHOMA), “Till There Was You” (THE MUSIC MAN) and “I Could Have Danced All Night” (MY FAIR LADY) amongst others. She also sang some of her own songs. It has been reported that Kristin received a standing ovation for her performance.
Chenoweth was born and raised in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Adopted at birth, Kristin started singing at an early age. She earned a master’s degree in opera performance at Oklahoma City University.
In 1993, Kristin performed her first role on Broadway in a musical called Animal Crackers. Since then, her career has been a non-stop time of hits on Broadway, in films, and on TV.
Chenoweth won the Tony, Drama Desk, Clarence Derwent and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her role as Sally in the Broadway revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She is probably most known for her role of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in the musical Wicked.
Kristin has had great success on television. She spent two seasons as part of the award-winning cast of the West Wing. In 2007, she played Olive Snook in the series Pushing Daisies and won an Emmy Award for the role in 2009. Recently, she has had a reoccurring role in the popular series, Glee.
Kristin was raised as a Southern Baptist but now calls herself a “non-judgmental, liberal Christian and does not feel she is attached to any one denomination.
The New York Times reported that when Chenoweth announced that she supports gay rights, her Christian base was outraged. She was even dis-invited from the Women of Faith conference and where she was scheduled to sing. Kristin says about her faith:
I think it’s important to remember that Christianity was based in love and tolerance and forgiveness and acceptance. I don’t want Christianity to be a negative word anymore. I want people to understand that there is a group of Christians out there who want to be more open and understanding and tolerant and loving of all kinds of people, even the people that don’t believe in God at all.
Last year, Chenoweth responded to Ramin Setoodeh, an openly gay writer for Newsweek. In his review of Sean Hayes, her co-star in Promises, Promises, Setoodeh said that there was a credibility problem. He questioned whether an openly gay actor could portray a straight character correctly. Chenoweth called the article “horrendously homophobic” and accused Setoodeh’s view as “the same kind of bullying” that young gays face in school. Chenoweth went on to say that audiences come to the theatre to go on a journey and do not care about an actor’s sexual orientation. Most of the press and critics approved Kristin’s comments and it became a big story in the media.
Kristin and Clay Aiken have met each other often. Since they both have a lot in common, it is not surprising that they seem to enjoy each other. They had their picture taken together at the 2005 Emmy Awards. That was the evening that Clay was a part of the on-site team for The Insider.
In 2010, Clay attended a performance of Promises, Promises and went backstage after the performance to congratulate Kristin for her performance. Kristin, who is very active on Twitter said in a comment, “He’s so adorable!”
Congratulations to Kristin for the honor of singing for the Queen. She certainly is a talented lady and I am sure she represented the United States in a positive and exciting way.