A Big Voice Making Itself Heard

Over lunch in the starchy dining room of a Hollywood hotel, Kristin Chenoweth is talking about her upcoming NBC series. Now and again, in her excitement, she speaks just the teensiest bit too loud, prompting her to quickly look over her shoulder to make sure she isn’t disturbing other diners.

The gesture speaks volumes about the 32-year-old singer-actress. She has wowed the New York theater crowd and is now turning heads in Hollywood, yet the lessons she learned in the Tulsa, Okla., suburb of Broken Arrow are never far away. Ever polite, ever grateful, she explains how humbled she is by her rapidly accelerating career--how it’s all been a gift from God.

“I’ve had a lot of little miracles in my life,” she says. “I have proof that he exists.”

Sometimes, the blessings have been mixed. Although Chenoweth received rave reviews for her Broadway performances in “Steel Pier,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and “Epic Proportions,” the shows themselves drew tepid notices and closed within a few months.

But then Hollywood took notice of her 1999 supporting actress Tony Award for “Charlie Brown,” as well as her role as Rooster’s flashy floozy in the ABC version of “Annie.”

She made the rounds of Hollywood meetings, thinking it might be nice if she could land a supporting role somewhere, but “never imagining for a minute” that she would end up heading her own sitcom. When Paramount Network Television and NBC lined up to showcase her, “my head nearly fell off my body,” she says, excitement bubbling in her voice. “I just couldn’t even conceive of it.”

“Kristin” is expected to debut in early March, with its time slot and starting date to be announced shortly. Coinciding with it, Chenoweth’s first solo album, “Let Yourself Go,” on the Sony Classical label, will arrive in stores Feb. 20.

Meanwhile, Chenoweth will sing selections from the album at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa Thursday through next Sunday and at Pepperdine University in Malibu Jan. 26. These will be her first live performances in the Southland, outside of singing a song for the crowd at the Hollywood Christmas Parade.

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Chenoweth speaks in a voice as petite as her 4-foot-11 1/2-inch frame. It’s been called a “Marilyn Monroe voice, Jessica Rabbit voice, Betty Boop voice,” she volunteers. Yet when she’s singing, it blooms into a coloratura soprano with a four-octave range.

On her album and in concert, Chenoweth turns that voice to Broadway standards from the 1930s and ‘40s, as well as to new songs written in that style. The selections underscore her affinity for shows set in the past, such as “Steel Pier” or “Epic Proportions,” or genuine oldies, such as “Babes in Arms” or “Strike Up the Band.”

“I feel like I am from another time. I am not a ‘Rent’ chick,” she says, referring to the 1996 rock musical about boundary-testing bohemians. “I’m more of a ‘Bells Are Ringing’ type of performer. I fit that type of comedy and innocence and sexiness.”

The album’s title song--by Irving Berlin--holds particular relevance. “For me, this whole year has been about just letting go and seeing what’s gonna happen,” she says. “I’m a perfectionist and I really like to be in control. But there’s something to be said for abandon.”

She clings to that thought each time she realizes she’s about to enter NBC’s prestigious comedy stable in a show that carries her name. “I walk in and see the chairs with my name on the back, and I’m like, ‘No. Stop the madness.’ But I’ve kind of embraced it now.”

The entertainment business is filled with actresses who can rival Chenoweth’s wholesome blond looks, yet something about her inspires directors and producers to want to devise roles for her.

To best utilize her talents in his 1999 Broadway revival of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” director Michael Mayer created the all-new role of Sally Brown. “She is completely unique,” he says in a telephone interview. “She’s got an unusual combination of beauty, an incredible vocal instrument, crackerjack comic timing, and what I like to think of as a kind of absolutely ruthless, fierce determination.”

A similarly charmed John Markus, a guiding force behind “The Cosby Show,” created “Kristin.” He sees in her a “star quality--that flicker that is a hard thing to give words to.”

“There’s an optimism,” he says, “a vulnerability, a ferocity, a feminine quality, a gentleness and a humor”--all adding up to “a performer the likes of whom we haven’t seen in 20 years.”

The sitcom’s title character, Kristin Yancey, is modeled after Chenoweth. Both are quietly religious; both moved from Oklahoma to New York to pursue a performing career.

Yancey doesn’t have Chenoweth’s good fortune in show biz, however. So she accepts a job as personal assistant to playboy real-estate tycoon Tommy Ballantine (played by Jon Tenney, currently on view in the film “You Can Count on Me”). Sexual and philosophical tensions ensue from this meeting of Middle American virtue and big-city appetite.

The show wasn’t designed to showcase Chenoweth’s musical talents, but in the 13 episodes ordered and already filmed, she has a couple of opportunities to sing or dance.

Chenoweth admits to sharing about 60% of Yancey’s traits. “I would like to think that I’m a little more liberal,” she says. “I’ve experienced more in life. I’m just a little bit more savvy--but she’s getting there.”

Of her own beliefs, Chenoweth--who was raised a Southern Baptist but now prefers nondenominational churches--says one of her most fundamental rules is “not to judge people for what they do or how they live. That’s not my job.

“My job is to keep myself in line,” she adds, a sly smile blooming on her face, “which I can barely do.”

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Adopted at birth, Chenoweth grew up as the oddball artist in “a family of intellects.” Her father owned a construction company specializing in commercial projects; her mother was a homemaker who had trained as a nurse; and her older brother was considerably smarter at algebra.

She began singing in church, where, from about age 7 on, she was frequently called upon to be a soloist. She studied ballet and, at school, acted in plays and sang in the choir. Drawn to the strong vocal music department at Oklahoma City University, she studied musical theater and opera, earning undergraduate and master’s degrees, and paying her way, in part, with beauty contest winnings.

She also entered vocal competitions and in 1993 was designated most promising non-finalist at the Tulsa district level of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

She was two weeks from entering the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia later that year when she set off to help a friend move to New York. While there, she decided to attend an audition, figuring the experience would be useful. To her surprise, she was offered the female ingenue part in a Paper Mill Playhouse production of “Animal Crackers.” She was inclined to say no, then realized destiny was staring her in the face.

In the seven years since, she has segued from show to show, with hardly any breathing room in between.

She began to attract attention in New York as delicate Princess Hyacinth in the Bill Irwin adaptation of “Scapin” at the Roundabout in early 1997, and shortly thereafter as the ruthless Precious McGuire in “Steel Pier,” John Kander and Fred Ebb’s short-lived Broadway musical about 1930s marathon dancers.

Her big break came in early 1999, when her world-weary Sally Brown--sister to the title character in “Charlie Brown”--became the talk of New York’s theater crowd. She earned a supporting actress Tony, but the show, which had drawn mixed notices, failed to capture the award for best revival and immediately closed.

Later that year, Chenoweth returned to Broadway in the farce “Epic Proportions.” This time, she had the lead, as an assistant movie director who faces romantic complications while on location with a ‘30s biblical epic. Once again, critics loved her but dismissed the show.

“Steel Pier” had struggled along for just two months, “Charlie Brown” for four. “Epic Proportions” lasted 2 1/2 months.

Linking up with “Charlie Brown” director Mayer again, Chenoweth portrayed the title character in a workshop of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” By the time the musical was ready for a tryout last summer at the La Jolla Playhouse, however, Chenoweth was already at work on her sitcom. Her TV work clouds her future with “Millie,” which is being steered toward Broadway. But Mayer says he remains hopeful that someday, somewhere, she will portray Millie.

Meanwhile, she maintains a tie of sorts: The “Kristin” theme song was written by “Millie” lyricist Dick Scanlan and composer Jeanine Tesori.

Chenoweth’s history with quick-closing shows makes her understandably nervous about the state of musical theater. “So much of it is commercial now,” she says. “I worry that unless a chandelier falls or a helicopter can land on the stage, people don’t want to come.”

But she says she would have explored her options in television even if Broadway had sustained her. “This was an opportunity not to be missed and another way for me, as an actress, to grow,” she says, simply.

Still, she promises she won’t stray far, nor stay away for long. “Theater is my roots,” she says. “Any time there is an audience, that’s me.”

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Kristin Chenoweth in concert at Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Thursday-Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. $45 and $49. (213) 365-3500 or (714) 740-7878. Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Jan. 26, 8 p.m. $30. (310) 456-4522 or (213) 365-3500.