Kristin Chenoweth - Im No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us

I ve never written a foreword before, but if theres anything I just might be equipped for, its talking about how much I love Kristin Chenoweth. The first time I saw Kristin perform live was at a concert in my hometown, Boca Raton, Florida, singing with the Florida Sunshine Pops. I remember seeing for the first time all the things that I loved embodied in one tiny human: stunning high notes, effortless funny, and so much heartheart bigger than her physical entirety, but perhaps not her heels. Shortly after this, I was cast at the Little Palm Family Theatre in a production of Youre a Good Man, Charlie Brown as Sally BrownKristins Tony Awardwinning role. Between seeing her in concert and studying her beloved and iconic performance as Sally, she very quickly became one of my idols.

The first time I met Kristin, I was ten years old. My mom took me to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre, and I won a backstage pass during a Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS live auction after the show. My mom couldnt have stopped me from bidding on this backstage pass if she had duct-taped my hands to the bottom of the seat. I anxiously waited in the hallway lined with dressing room doors. And then Kristins opened up! Fresh-faced in a T-shirt and jeans, kinder and bubblier and warmer than one could hope or imagine. She welcomed my family and me into her dressing room. Her dog peed on the couch, and I helped her clean it up (a life highlight). She asked me questions and listened carefully when I responded (as if ten-year-old me had anything truly magnificent to say); she filled my arms with gifts (a small wand and a glittery shower gel that I savored, using tiny drops every day for a few years to follow); and then she sent me on my way.

As I floated home, something became very clear to me. Kristin Chenoweth is unimaginably just as impressive, if not even more so, as a human being than she is as an artist. This became truer and clearer to me as time went on and our paths crossed again. I had the incredible honor of working alongside her in Hairspray Live! on NBC in 2016, watching her pitch endless new bits, reinterpret jokes, and ask a question that changed my life: Does this add value? She applied this test to every inch of the material.

I had assumed we already knew Miss Baltimore Crabs, and we did. Just not Kristins Miss Baltimore Crabs. She made choices that were courageous and smart, as always. She came up with endless new bits that she knew were brilliantly funny but delivered them honestly and landed them with ease, as always. Watching her entirely rewrite this role in real time was a master class, and I had never been so grateful to be the student.

Its not often that we get to befriend our idols, but thats what happened for me. We worked together. We checked on each other often. We grew to be true friends. She makes me feel cared for, the same way I felt in her dressing room when I was ten years old. She has held my hand through some of the very hardest times of my life and has taught me by example how to survive as a heartful woman in an often heartless industry and how to transform the heaviness into light.

There is much more to say and to share, but I know you are probably just as excited to begin reading this book as I am, so I suppose I just wanted to confirm for you that however brilliant and kind you think she is, she really is. A million times more over. Unconditionally. As an artist, as a human.

I hope this book allows you to feel even more of the magic that is Kristin the human. She truly is the goodliest witch there is.

Ariana Grande
Los Angeles, California
2022