The long-awaited sequel to the 2007 Disney movie has locked down all four stars.
Idina Menzel and James Marsden Are Coming Back for the ‘Enchanted’ Sequel
Idina Menzel hive, assemble. Elphabas, Elsas, Maureens, and anyone who was brave enough to watch Uncut Gems, our time has come. Menzel and James Marsden have signed on to film Disenchanted, the long-awaited sequel to Disney's Enchanted, joining previously announced returning stars Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey. The movie will stream on Disney+, meaning that we can sing along without worrying about scaring children.
And most important, justice may finally be served. Menzel, one of the great musical theater vocalists in history, played a major supporting role in the smash hit 2007 film. She was so sympathetic and shiny-haired she got us to root for her character, who was basically a softened evil stepmother.
This poor woman was just trying to lock down a single guy in NYC and ends up getting dumped for a fictional character.
©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett CollectionBut while Enchanted is a movie musical with an Oscar-nominated score by Disney and Broadway legends Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, Menzel's singing voice is not included on the album. Amy Adams, whose musical theater background was in local dinner theater, sang. James Marsden, who does not have a stage musical background, sang. Even Patrick Dempsey sings a few bars, and his greatest vocal performance to date is commandingly saying, “Scalpel, please.”
But Menzel, the star of multiple blockbuster Broadway musicals, does not sing in Enchanted. Schwartz, the lyricist, actually wrote Wicked—he has watched Menzel soar 50 feet in the air and belt “Defying Gravity,” by my calculations, a minimum of 1,500 times. And still, Menzel's voice did not make it into a movie about singing princesses.
Every night for 14 years, I have woken up in a cold sweat thinking about this. I am not alone. If you search “Why didn't Idina Menzel…,” Google auto-populates, “…sing in Enchanted.” Decider has referred to the movie as “Enchanted, or the Disney Film Where Idina Menzel Didn’t Sing ‘Let It Go.’” Several film fan forums have threads where commenters gather to discuss this injustice, this crime against art and logic—why would you cast Idina Menzel in a musical and not let her sing?
“You've got to take that up with somebody else,” Menzel told SciFi when asked about the omission, back when the movie premiered. SciFi, as well as other publications, have reported that Menken and Schwartz had written a song for Menzel, but that it was cut from the final movie for various reasons.
In fact, SciFi reported that the song was originally going to be a duet between Menzel's character and Marsden's. Could their return for the sequel mean that the duet is finally going to happen at last? It definitely could! “He was made to finish her duet,” as lyrics from the original musical go.
We can't have long to wait. Dempsey said this January that he's seen the script. Adam Shankman, who directed the acclaimed Hairspray movie musical in 2007, is set to direct. We'll just have to gather our vermin friends, avoid iffy-looking apples, and cross our fingers and vocal cords that we'll hear Menzel's silvery, soaring vocals over a full orchestra again soon.
That's the reason we need lips so much, for lips are the only things that can sing power-belt musical theater anthems. See you in Andalasia.
Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter.
This story originally appeared on: Glamour - Author:Jenny Singer
