How To Make a Star

"Rent" alumna Idina Menzel is cooking up a new sound for her debut rock album.

Harper's Bazaar
July 1998
By Marisa Fox

Indgredients

1 27-year-old woman with a man of cascading black curls, a big pout and a great set of pipes

1 hit Broadway musical

1 record contract

Lots of heat

Preparation

1. Pluck a young wedding-band singer from the relative obscurity of Long Island, NY.

2. Cast her as Maureen, the sapphic siren in the rock opera Rent. Watch her stop the show every night and receive a Tony nomination.

3. Get her a record contract with Hollywood Records.

4. Hire Milton Davis, one of Dionne Farris' producers, to cowrite her direct album Still Can't Be Still.

5. Bake until August. And hope the buzz is right.