A Little Bit Wicked

January 12, 2009
Currently seen as waitress Olive Snook in ABC's Pushing Daisies
, the Tony Award–winning singer-actress Chenoweth looks back at her multifaceted career, which has encompassed recordings (As I Am
), films (Four Christmases
), television (The West Wing
), Broadway (Wicked
), solo concerts, animation (Tinker Bell
), opera and Opryland. Beginning with the intriguing speculation that her unknown birth mother could be watching her career rise, she recalls her Oklahoma childhood and vocal training when she learned “he music didn't come from notes and lyrics; it came from life and mileage.” Personal revelations, such as her experiences with Ménière's disease, are balanced with bubbling backstage anecdotes. A chapter about her on-and-off relationship with writer-producer Aaron Sorkin includes a section written by Sorkin himself. With digressions, detours and words like “whack-a-noodle,” the book is busy with show-biz flip quips and writing reminiscent of Julia Phillips's You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again
(minus the drugs and invective). Chenoweth has a frenzied, free-associative style; it's as if she's speaking breathlessly into a tape recorder between sitcom scenes. To use her phrase, this book is “a hoot and a holler”—a fast-paced frolic that her fans will appreciate.