With memories of MTW, Kristin Chenoweth returning to Century II with Wichita Symphony

Kristin Chenoweth was at a crossroads in the summer of 1991.

A graduate student at Oklahoma City University, getting her BA in musical theater and on her way to an advanced degree in opera performance, she was part of the Miss Oklahoma pageant system.

But she was also entertaining a summer internship with Music Theatre Wichita.

“I didn’t know if they were going to take me, because if I had won, I wouldn’t have come,” she recalled. “If I didn’t, would there be a part for me, even a chorus part? When it didn’t happen in the Miss Oklahoma pageant (she was runner-up), Wayne (Bryan, artistic director) says ‘I have something special for you this year.’”

That something special included the roles of Tuptim in “The King & I,” one of the “Two Ladies” in “Cabaret” and a role in the ensemble of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

“Did I learn a lot or what? And with some of the best actors and best singers,” Chenoweth recalls. “And with Wayne and Mark (Madama, who directed “King” and “Cabaret”) running the show, it was amazing.”

And she loved the community, still having friends here.

“I loved Wichita. It was close enough to Oklahoma it felt like home,” the Broken Arrow native said.

Chenoweth called Bryan and Madama “two of the greatest directors of all time.”

In an interview with the Eagle in 2020, Bryan said the feeling was mutual. “She was already a most amazing presence onstage, and that voice was quite glorious,” he said.

Back in Wichita

Chenoweth returns to the Century II stage next weekend for a performance with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. Because of the pandemic, it was delayed from its original date in May 2020.

The 54-year-old Tony (“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”) and Emmy (“Pushing Daisies”) winner is basing the symphony concert off her 2019 album “For the Girls,” which pays tribute to female singers and includes collaborations with Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande.

She was two weeks into touring to promote the album when COVID shut down the venues and the tour in March 2020.

“What Wichita will see is some of that as well,” she said, “because I didn’t get to do it.”

The symphony show, she said, is not just her on vocals all night. Two of her backup singers will have solos, and she will feature Justin Echols, a retired police officer from Oklahoma City who has second life as a jazz musician.

What she wished the concert would include is “My Lord and Master,” Tuptim’s song from “The King & I,” but the idea was rejected. In a phone interview from her Nashville home, Chenoweth said she would have sung the song as herself and not as the character, who is from Thailand.

“Now, in where we are in our world it is totally incorrect,” she said. “But I was 19 and I did not know better. Wayne and Mark did not know better.

“I love that song so much,” Chenoweth added, “but it’s for the correct people to sing that score.”

Chenoweth’s symphony concert is one of four shows – including with solo piano, a five-piece band and two backup singers, and a piano and guitar and two singers – that she takes on the road.

“That’s what keeps this mind, which is a ping-pong brain, going,” she said. “People who’ve seen me in concert before know they’ve never seen the same show twice. I also feel like it’s a responsibility of a live artist.”

Best known for originating the role of Glinda the Good Witch in the “Wizard of Oz” musical prequel “Wicked,” Chenoweth said the concert includes songs that fans of that show are expecting as well.

Whatever it takes

Chenoweth entered Oklahoma City University thinking she would be an opera performer, when a voice teacher “really opened up my voice” and stoked her interest in musicals.

“I didn’t know musical theater very well then,” she said.

Before she began school for an opera degree from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, she went with a friend to auditions at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and ended up trying out and being offered a role, never attending the academy.

Chenoweth had a series of regional theater roles and some setbacks but kept going, primarily through the inspiration of her father.

“I believe it was a miracle I grew up in the house I grew up,” said Chenoweth, who was adopted at five days old. “It wasn’t always perfect, but it was my family. You work hard and you play hard. That’s how it works. That was my dad’s mantra, ‘work hard-play hard.’”

Her father was in the construction business, she said, which had its own highs and lows.

“I’ve seen him with and without money — there I’ve said it,” she said. “I’ve seen him work his butt off to get back where he needs to be. I’ve seen it all because of the love of his family and pride for himself. That taught me that if I have to move to New York and live with four people in bunk beds in one room, I will do it. I will do whatever it takes to do what I love.”

Fulfillment in teaching

Chenoweth’s father also provided inspiration for one of her most fulfilling endeavors, she said.

The Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center opened the Kristin Chenoweth Theatre in 2012.

“When the Kristin Chenoweth name went up on the theater, my dad said, ‘What are you going to do with that?’”

She responded that she thought she’d perform there a few times a year and call in friends to do the same

“He said, ‘Think bigger.’”

The result is the Broadway Bootcamp, started a few years later, that has worked with youth from 33 states and 22 countries, and receives 4,000 applications a year.

“I think it’s a game-changer. I love teaching, that’s why I’ll come in and teach before concerts, and I charge a minimal fee that goes into each camp fund,” she said. “It’s becoming about that.”

Chenoweth will conduct a master class the day before her concert with 10 musical theater students from Friends University.

A limited number of seats are available for the 4-6 p.m. master class. They are open to current high school juniors and seniors involved in musical theater and any student in a two-year college music of theater program. More information is available at friends.edu/broadway.

“What’s happening here is I’m learning more as a mentor than I am as a student,” said Chenoweth, who still takes voice lessons. “It’s a circle and I’ll continue to do it as long as I love it.”

This year’s Broadway Bootcamp was recorded for a documentary series, “1,300 Miles to Broadway,” directed by Kenny Ortega, best known for directing the “High School Musical” franchise and choreographing “Dirty Dancing” and “Newsies.”

“I just want people to see what we’re doing not just in Oklahoma, but in the flyover states, the people who aren’t taken so seriously,” Chenoweth said. “It’s not just football and basketball, there’s so much more.”

What’s next

Chenoweth’s near future also includes reviving her opera performances as Anne Hutchinson and Anita Bryant in “I Am Harvey Milk” in January. She’ll return for the second season of the musical parody “Schmigadoon!,” this time called “Schmicago,” next year.

She also has in the works a tribute album to Karen Carpenter, half of the 1970s duo The Carpenters.

“I always thought I’d never been able to sing her music because she sang too low,” she said, now able to reach “Karen’s G.” “She changed the voice of pop music for women, and I’d really like to pay homage to her.”

Chenoweth also will be promoting a Christmas album she recorded during COVID, which was released last year, including performing on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

She lives in Nashville with her fiancé, guitarist Josh Bryant. She rents out her Los Angeles home, she said, but will “always have a home in New York.”

Chenoweth said she never anticipated such a multifacted career, which also includes writing a children’s book, but had long discernment when she was starting out.

“I spent a lot of time in prayer about it and I just knew,” she said. “What was so wonderful was if you believe in the Holy Spirit, which I do, He spoke to me and said, ‘You’re going to be doing all of this.’”

Through all the endeavors, she said, nothing tops performing in person.

“There’s nothing in my life that makes me happier than a live audience,” she said. “Wichita, get your butts in the seats. I’ve been waiting two years to do this.”

KRISTIN CHENOWETH WITH WICHITA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8

Where: Century II, 225 W. Douglas

Tickets: $70-$175, from wichitasymphony.org, 267-7658 or the WSO ticket office on the second floor of Century II