Tony Award-winning Jewish actress and singer to headline St. Louis Pridefest 2023

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content Officer
Published May 31, 2023

Idina Menzel, one of the most iconic vocal performers of her time, has been announced as a headliner for this year’s St. Louis PrideFest 2023.

The festival runs June 24 from 11 a.m.–6 p.m. and June 25 from 12–6 p.m. across from City Hall in downtown St. Louis. This year’s theme is “Diversity Creates Community.”

Kat Graham and Betty Who will be on stage on Saturday. CeCe Peniston will kick off the entertainment on Sunday, followed by
Menzel who will close out the festival.

“Pride St. Louis is super excited to have Idina Menzel headline our McDonald’s Main Stage on Sunday June 25th.  Her music reaches so many people no matter if you’re young at heart or the youngest festival goer at Pride,” said Marty Zuniga, President of Pride St. Louis Inc.  “We look forward to her showcasing her talents and celebrating pride with us in St. Louis.”

For a full schedule and more information, visit pridestl.com.

Idina Menzel

Menzel is known for her breakout roles in Broadway shows such as “Rent” and “Wicked” and for voicing Queen Elsa in “Frozen.” She got her start singing as a teenager on the wedding and b’nai mitzvah circuit near where she grew up on Long Island and other parts of the New York area.

“It was everything to me, formatively,” Menzel told JTA in an interview, of her early singing experiences. “I believe… that that had a lot to do with my education in music and genres, but also as a performer. I was so young when I did it… I would lie about my age, I would be 15 or 16 years old, and I’d dress all mature and go in high heels. I would usually be the only woman in a group of six guys.”

In another interview with JTA, the actress offered a bit of a confession of Jewish assimilation, saying, “I must come clean, so the real spelling of my name is M-E-N-T-Z-E-L. Which everyone would say ‘Ment-zel’ and I had a lot of self-hatred about that for some reason. And then I wanted this cool-sounding name, so I took the ‘t’ out, which didn’t help anybody say it right.”