A LITTLE BIT WICKED
By MICHAEL RIEDEL
When I first picked up Kristin Chenoweth's memoir, I thought: "Well, this is perfect fodder for 'Celebrity Autobiography.' " That's the popular Off-Broadway revue at the Triad in which actors read, perfectly straight, excerpts from celebrity memoirs. The unbridled narcissism, the bromides about "life lessons" and the awful writing found in such books give "Celebrity Autobiography" its razor-sharp teeth, and it chomps down on its famous victims the way Jaws does midnight swimmers. Chenoweth, I feared, would soon find herself applying a tourniquet alongside Vanna White ("Vanna Speaks"), Kenny Loggins ("The Unimaginable Life: Lessons Learned on the Path to Love") and David Cassidy ("Could It Be Forever?"). As it turns out, "A Little Bit Wicked" will likely be spared the shame, because Chenoweth's in on the joke. Just when you think she's pouring too much syrup on her waffle, she cuts it with some vinegar, usually in the form of a self-deprecating crack. Her flop sitcom "Kristin"? "Huge hit. Yak-dropping huge. Terribly misunderstood," she writes. Meeting NBC chief Jeff Zucker, who axed her show after a few episodes, she tells him: "Hey! Thanks for canceling my show, you party-pooper." Shortly before posing nude for FHM magazine, a gay friend notices she's put on weight. "I guess I'm retaining a little water," she allows. "Like Hoover Dam retains a little water?" he replies. Chenoweth skips through her life in bright and breezy fashion, and on the whole she's had a pretty good time. Adopted by a kind and loving couple, she grew up comfortably in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Foreshadowing her show queen appeal, she reports that her high school boyfriend had "model good looks," liked to shop and helped design her prom dress (one suspects he went on to other crushes -- Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Hugh Jackman). She was on the beauty pageant circuit for awhile, but never nabbed a crown. Asked by a judge for her opinion of "60 Minutes," she replied: "I think . . . that's about the right amount of time." Blessed with an operatic voice, she gave up a classical music to pursue a career on Broadway. She appeared in a revival of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and while the show was a flop, Chenoweth, who played Charlie Brown's sharp-tongued little sister Sally, walked away with "A Star Is Born"-type reviews. Soon she was in Hollywood, appearing most notably as media consultant Annabeth Schott on "The West Wing." Chenoweth has had an on-again-off-again romance with "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin. He makes a cameo appearance in the book, writing a funny and charming chapter about his state of mind on the eve of their first date. "I'd moved from the Four Seasons into a rental in the Hollywood Hillsthat had once been owned by one of the Mamas and the Papas and then Sam Kinison," he writes. "Exactly the right place for someone who needs to concentrate every day on not using cocaine." Chenoweth doesn't go into details about their romantic problems, and my one complaint about her memoir is that it's light on juicy showbiz gossip. She hints at tension backstage at "Wicked," the blockbuster Broadway musical in which she played the good witch Galinda, but aside from reporting that the creators stormed out of the theater one night, she doesn't serve up any bitchy stories. But as she admits: "When I'm a grand old dame of the stage, I might get around to writing a proper 'tell-all' autobiography. Right now, I'm offering this completely biased 'tell-a-little' slice of life." "A Little Bit Wicked" is aimed at the hordes of teenage girls who flock to see "Wicked" around the world. But when she gets around to writing that "grand old dame" memoir, she might want to channel Elaine Stritch a bit more and Galinda a bit less. Michael Riedel is The Post's Broadway columnist. A Little Bit Wicked Life, Love and Faith in Stages by Kirstin Chenoweth Touchstone
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