Idina Menzel, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Stewart and more stars took the stage at the Stand Up For Heroes benefit raising money for veterans.
Idina Menzel had this to say about her new show coming to Broadway
Idina Menzel tells USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa what it feels like to be back at the Tony Awards and announcing her new upcoming Broadway show.
NEW YORK — She’s not letting it go.
Idina Menzel capped off the Stand Up For Heroes benefit in New York City on Nov. 10 by performing a hilarious song about her reaction to the infamous 2014 Oscars incident where John Travolta mistakenly introduced her as “Adele Dazeem.”
Broadway stars and comedians alike joined together at Lincoln Center for a night of songs and laughs to raise money for veterans, service members and their families.
At the end of the evening, which is part of the New York Comedy Festival, Menzel took to the stage and channeled her Tony-winning role of Elphaba for a performance of “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked.” But before her second song, she flashed back to the Oscars in 2014, the year “Let It Go” from “Frozen” won best original song and Travolta called her “Adele Dazeem” while introducing her to sing the Disney hit live.
“It’s March 2, 2014,” Menzel recounted. “I’m at the Dolby Theatre. I’ve prepared for this moment my whole life. I’m wearing $3 million worth of diamonds. The security guards are waiting in the wings to protect the diamonds. I’ve meditated, visualized, manifested. Just remember, ‘You have eight bars before you come in, and then the whole world’s gonna know your name.'”
Jon Stewart then came out to play the role of Travolta. The “Daily Show” host dramatically introduced “the wickedly talented, one and only Adele Dazeem,” reciting Travolta’s exact words from the Oscars.
Stewart’s line set Menzel up to perform a song about how she reacted to Travolta’s slip up at the time.
“Wait, what?” she asked before she began to sing, “What did he just say? Adele Da-what? Are you freaking kidding me? I’ve worked my whole life to get to this point and he screws up my name? Adele Dazeem? Did he not rehearse? Did he have a stroke? Should we call an ambulance?”
Transitioning into a spoken monologue, the “Rent” star described how she used to greet celebrities backstage at “Wicked” while wearing green makeup, so when she met the stars at parties, they didn’t recognize her. “I would die to work with Meryl (Streep), and now she’ll have no idea who I am,” she said.
“You worked your whole career to get to the Oscars, so get your act together,” Menzel sang. “I should have peed. Now I have to pee. And that’s what you get for having a baby in your late 30s! Nothing springs back. Is he going to apologize?”
The bit concluded with Menzel telling herself to “let it go” and successfully psyching herself up to perform the “Frozen” song, which she did before ending with a rendition of “Another Day” from “Rent,” the Broadway musical she starred in as Maureen Johnson.
Travolta has blamed his “Adele Dazeem” mistake on his Oscars teleprompter being changed at the last minute to a phonetic spelling of Menzel’s name, which threw him off. The pair joked about the episode on stage at the 2015 Oscars, with Menzel introducing Travolta as “Glom Gazingo.”
Menzel was one of three stars to perform their Broadway hits during the Stand Up For Heroes benefit, which according to organizers raised more than $4.5 million for the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
Lea Michele opened the night with a rendition of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl.” Later, Leslie Odom Jr., who is currently reprising his role of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton,” performed “Wait For It” from the Tony-winning musical, followed by Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” which he sang in the movie “One Night in Miami.”
Jon Stewart jokes about Zohran Mamdani election
Stewart was joined by comics Mike Birbiglia, Alex Edelman, Jim Gaffigan and Tom Papa, who performed stand-up in between the songs. During his set, Stewart joked about blaming everything that goes wrong, including a phone going off in the crowd, on the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor and mocked residents who vowed to move out of the city if the Democrat won.
“Are you excited about Mamdani?” Stewart asked the crowd after attendees donated large sums of money in a fundraising segment earlier in the night. “You’re the ones moving out! Are you the ones leaving?”
The event took place as Americans continue to face flight cancellations amid the government shutdown, an issue that appeared to affect some guests who had planned on attending.
“Thank you to everyone in this room for making this night,” Lee Woodruff, co-founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, said on stage. “We have some longtime donors who had their flights canceled. Some people couldn’t get here. You might see a few empty seats.”
