A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages

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Synopsis

You may know Kristin Chenoweth from her blockbuster Broadway performance as Glinda the Good Witch in the smash-hit musical Wicked or her Tony-winning turn as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Or you may know her from one of her television roles in shows like The West Wing, Pushing Daisies, or Sesame Street. Or you may just know her as a powerhouse vocalist. In whichever capacity you might be familiar with her work, she's also know as a big personality and a huge talent, all in a pint-size package.

Kristin grew up in the heartland of Oklahoma where she started singing and performing for audiences at a young age. In college, she studied hard to get a master's degree in classical voice while competing in beauty pageants to try to earn much-needed scholarship money. After graduating, Kristin thought she was headed for a career as a professional opera singer, but while visiting a friend in New York, she auditioned for a play on a lark and was cast, putting her on a completely different track. From there, she worked her way up to becoming a huge Broadway star and later branched out to do television and movies as well. In A Little Bit Wicked, she details how talent, hard work, her faith in God, and a positive attitude have all helped her through difficult times, while also propelling her to stardom.

Review

A Little Bit Wicked is the memoir and first published book for multi-talented performer Kristin Chenoweth, who is famous for her roles on stage and screen, as well as her phenomenal vocal skills. She was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1968 to an unwed mother who gave her up for adoption. She was adopted by loving parents who always did their best to foster her dreams, which was a good thing since she started exhibiting a love for performing at a young age. Throughout her years growing up, she regularly sang in church, but also showed an aptitude for other performance arts, like ballet dancing and acting. Kristin auditioned for the musical Annie, and made it to the final round, but ultimately wasn't chosen. Her parents always made sure that she was enjoying whatever she did and made the "fun factor" a necessary part of anything she chose to do, which carried over into her adult life. After graduating high school, she went to college at Oklahoma City University where she studied classical voice under a renowned professor whom she credits for much of her success. Throughout her college years, she also competed in pageants, trying to win enough scholarship money to help pay for her schooling. She usually placed highly but rarely won, probably due in large part to her short stature. After earning her master's degree and realizing that the pageant circuit likely wouldn't get her much further, she went to New York and started auditioning. Slowly she began working her way up to bigger and better things, eventually getting starring roles in Broadway plays such as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which earned her a Tony, and Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, the role for which she's probably best known. Later Kristin branched out, taking on roles in television and movies like The West Wing, Bewitched, RV, and Pushing Daisies, and even having her own short-lived sit-com, Kristin. Throughout this time, she also cut several albums and performed in concert. In this light-hearted memoir, she recounts all the ups and downs of show business, as well as the ups and downs of her romantic relationships, and the many friends who've helped her along the way.

I've been a fan of Kristin Chenoweth since seeing her in the television shows The West Wing and Pushing Daisies, and I've also been impressed with her tremendous vocal talents. She's always struck me as a ball of effervescent energy in a pint-size package, and I'd have to say that A Little Bit Wicked only confirmed that for me. I very much enjoyed learning about her life growing up and how she got started in show business. Her outstanding acting, singing, and dancing talents took her a long way, but there were still many ups and downs as she pursued her dreams. I admit I'm not a theater person, so I've never seen any of her plays, but I've been aware of her accomplishments in Charlie Brown and Wicked for some time. I'm mostly familiar with her work on screen and her singing, both of which she's been doing a lot of for the last two decades. Being a hopeless romantic, I enjoyed learning of her romances with several different men throughout the years, including a Broadway co-star with whom she was, at one point, engaged and award-winning screen-writer Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing fame. I love how she's always kept her heart open in spite of many heartbreaks. Ms. Chenoweth has an incredible sense of humor that showed through in the book, which is very light-hearted and bubbly. I like that she can be self-deprecating, which demonstrates a confidence and ease in her own skin. She seems like she'd be an incredibly fun person to be around. The only possible small detractor for some readers of A Little Bit Wicked might be the fact that it's not told entirely linearly. The author kind of jumps around a bit in the time line, but I was having such a fun time reading it, it honestly didn't bother me at all. This book left me with a smile on my face and a better picture of who Kristin Chenoweth is and that's someone who seems like a great person.

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Kristin Chenoweth

Joni Rodgers