Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway Beauty Tips, and ‘Wicked: For Good’

A Zoom meeting with Broadway legend Kristin Chenoweth fulfills all my expectations and then some. When she first appears on my computer screen, she’s enveloped in a fluffy pink robe (something her Wicked character, Glinda, would undoubtedly wear) and sitting comfortably on a large couch. A ribbon microphone is propped up behind her, and a grand piano looms in the background.

At first I mistake this area as a rehearsal space. It’s actually Chenoweth’s living room. “Oh, it’s my home, and that’s my piano,” Chenoweth explains. “I had to decide between having a big old dining room table or a grand piano. I chose the piano, always.”

For Chenoweth, music is simply a part of everyday life, as natural as eating and breathing. Case in point: She just wrapped up a preview performance for her latest Broadway show, The Queen of Versailles, debuting this fall, and has another one slated for tonight. Hence the cozy robe. “I just wanted to be comfortable,” she says.

But the Tony Award winner has also found time away from the stage to take on another new role: chief mature officer of makeup brand Laura Geller. In celebration of National Mature Women’s Day, on April 9, Chenoweth is celebrating beauty for all ages. A fan of the brand for years, Chenoweth first discovered Laura Geller products when she moved to New York from Oklahoma in the 1990s.

“I lived on the Upper West Side, and there was a little store, and at the very back it had this cool makeup,” Chenoweth says. “The sales associate was trying to describe it to me as, ‘It’s very easy to apply.’ I was not making any money at the time, so I didn’t get to buy it. But then a year and a half ago, I received some products and fell in love with it again.”

In fact, Chenoweth wore Laura Geller for today’s performance, adding that the products never irritate her sensitive skin. The brand is also aligned with her current beauty ethos—looking “even and clean” instead of going full glam.

But most impressive of all for Chenoweth is seeing how the brand has grown. “Us women, especially looking back at my own life, we have to remember where we came from, and she started out in this podunk little store, and look at her now,” says Chenoweth. “And so I’m excited to be doing this with her. It’s also easy to talk about something that you love.”

Ahead, Kristin Chenoweth opens up about beauty tips she picked up from Broadway, creating Glinda’s glittery makeup, her thoughts on Wicked: For Good, and more.

How has your relationship with beauty evolved over the years?

Kristin Chenoweth: You’d think you’d get more obsessed and determined as you get older, but when I was younger, I always felt like I had to look perfect. I’m from the South, so we leave home looking great. But then you move to New York, and you realize that’s not really going to happen. For so many years, there’d be times that I’ve run into people in New York and I look like I was from The Shining. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that for me, less is more. Less space, less stuff on your face. Chapstick, a little of the Laura Geller powder, just even out your skin.