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Tavis: Kristin Chenoweth is a Tony Award-winning actress known to Broadway fans for her many roles, including Glenda, The Good Witch in the hit musical 'Wicked.' In 2004, she joined the cast of "The West Wing,' which is wrapping its seven-year run on May fourteenth. She also stars in the new film "RV,' which just happened to be the number one film in America this past weekend. Here now, a scene from 'RV.'

Kristin Chenoweth: (Laugh) You don't want my makeover, trust me.

Tavis: (Laugh) You were laughing at that clip yourself. So is it funny to you too?

Chenoweth: (Laugh) It's still funny. It never gets old.

Tavis: (Laugh) Congratulations, first of all.

Chenoweth: Thank you so much.

Tavis: Congrats on what? Congrats on Broadway hits, congrats on "The West Wing,' congrats on number one this past weekend. You gotta stop being so lazy.

Chenoweth: (Laugh) I am exhausted.

Tavis: Yeah. Gotta get you to work.

Chenoweth: Yeah, I've been really lucky this year. I've been working hard for a while, (unintelligible) New York couple. I was in there 12 years, and then I came out here to do "West Wing' last year and ended up staying, so.

Tavis: Yeah. So what do you make of 'West Wing' coming to a close?

Chenoweth: It's hard. I've only been on the show a year and a half, and they kind of just embraced me, that company. And with John Spencer's passing, it almost feels like it's okay? It's almost like the right thing to do, if you will. And we miss him so much. But we wrapped a couple weeks ago, and we had some beer and pizza to celebrate.

And what was especially touching for me was to watch the people that had been on it from the beginning, Brad and Alison and Richard and Martin, to watch them have closure. It was, it just doesn't feel like it's quite time, but on to other things.

Tavis: So beer and pizza, that fits Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Chenoweth: (Laugh) It was, I...

Tavis: That's like a real town. (Laugh) You are from a real place called Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Chenoweth: It actually exists. And pizza and beer, that's my peeps. That's what we eat.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh) Broken Arrow. So in other words, you had to do this movie.

Chenoweth: I had (unintelligible).

Tavis: I assume they have RVs in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma?

Chenoweth: My cousin Shane was a part owner of an RV, where you could go and buy RVs, and I'm proud to say that I was pretty familiar with the recreational vehicle.

Tavis: (Laugh) Is that what RV stands for?

Chenoweth: Yes.

Tavis: Wow. Recreational vehicle. Who knew?

Chenoweth: And I don't even know that we said that. We called it "the rolling turds" the whole time in the movie. So I don't know if it -

Tavis: (Laugh) So how did you - Robin Williams is one of my favorite people.

Chenoweth: Me, too.

Tavis: I don't know that I, though, could ever keep a straight face with him for, like, longer than 30 seconds. So how do you get through your lines with Robin Williams anywhere around?

Chenoweth: Most of the time I'd be, like, dead puppies. Dead puppies, dead puppies. Because I could not (laugh) pull it together. I'd be, like, Helen Keller. Blind and deaf person. Dead puppies. Cancer. (Laugh) I couldn't, you can't imagine. And then, of course, I would say dead puppies, and Cheryl Hines would start laughing.

And we just couldn't, it was a constant laugh fest the whole time. In fact, Barry Sonnenfeld got really upset with Cheryl. Our family sings a tune, and I use a tambourine, and play different parts of my body with it and yodel. One of my prouder moments, actually, ever. If this doesn't kill my voice teacher, I don't know what will.

But basically, Cheryl couldn't keep a straight face, and Robin couldn't, and Barry was, like, stop laughing. Please pull it together. But it was just the, maybe the most fun I've ever had.

Tavis: I'm curious, from your point of view, what you think about this movie makes it number one? Of all the things that are out, why did this movie hit?

Chenoweth: Tavis, I gotta say something. There's something to be said for a movie that if you're age nine or 90 you can go see it and enjoy. And a lot of my relatives live in the south, and they all went and said for once, we can go as a family and see a movie we can all enjoy. And I think there's a place for 'United 93' and 'Stick It' and all these other movies that were opening this weekend, absolutely. But this is a movie that everybody can go see and enjoy, so.

Tavis: So what is this, I've been dying to ask you this. Where does this voice come from? It's my first time meeting you, and you're, like, this big. You're, like, big as a minute here. And this voice comes from where?

Chenoweth: Well, I sometimes wonder where it does come from, and especially if it's gonna, when I have to sing, if it's gonna come out. But I don't know. I was actually adopted, and my parents are chemical engineers (laugh) and actually should never sing. They should be arrested if they sing. (Laugh) Monotone.

I'd sing in church, and my dad would be, like, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, and never even moved. (Laugh) But I don't know where it comes from. I'm a spiritual person, so I believe it came from the man upstairs. But some days, I wonder if it's gonna come out at all. (Laugh)

Tavis: Did I read about you doing some stuff coming up maybe at the Met?

Chenoweth: Yes, sir. I am gonna make my Met debut in a couple of years, doing the opera 'The Ghosts Of Versailles' by John Corigliano. And I will also be doing my own concert there next January. They have a dark week, January fifteenth, and I'll be doing my concert there, yeah. I'm pretty excited about it.

Tavis: You should be. So what does it mean to a girl from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to end up on the Met stage?

Chenoweth: I keep waiting for them to give me a street. Man, what do I gotta do? (Laugh)

Tavis: You know what? You keep making number one movies like this? This town will give you anything you want.

Chenoweth: I'm ready. Chenoweth. How hard is that to say?

Tavis: They'll give you whatever you want. Daunting, though, this Met? Is it scary?

Chenoweth: Yeah, I played Carnegie Hall, and I've done Disney Hall, and places all over the world, really. But even though I was, I got my Master's degree in opera performance, I didn't go that route. I still train that way, and I've done operatic roles, but I've never gone that route. So for me to be able to walk out on the stage and know the women who've been there before me, it's daunting.

But I try not to think about it right before I go out, just the same as when I did Carnegie Hall. I go, there was Bernadette, there was Barbra, there was Judy, there was Julie, and now there's me. And I'm like, I try just not to, I do have a trashcan available, though, right before I go on. In case I get sick.

Tavis: (Laugh) How did you decide to chart the course in the way that you did? To your earlier point, you've been trained operatically, but you did not go that route. And now, after Broadway and after Hollywood and after the small screen, now you finally end up where you should have been all along, or could have been, certainly, all along, on the Met stage. Why this route to the Met?

Chenoweth: That's a great question, and I grew up singing in church, gospel music. I grew up singing country music, because I'm from Broken Arrow, and that's what we do. But I went to college, and my dad was a real advocate of getting my education. He said, I don't care if you get a degree in basket weaving, just get a degree.

And it was there that my voice teacher really opened up my voice. And I discovered that I had this operatic sound, as well. and I started succeeding at competitions and basically won an award for the Met auditions when I was 22. It's not a contest to get in the Met; they just give a cash scholarship.

Tavis: That's all that matters, anyway, at that point.

Chenoweth: (Laugh) Yeah, and right there in college, you're like give me whatever (unintelligible).

Tavis: Exactly. (Laugh)

Paulison: But basically what happened is I was accepted to Academy Of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, one of our top schools in the country for opera. And decided to go to New York with my best friend Denny to see what it was like. Two weeks before the program started I went to New York for the first time, auditioned for a show, and got it.

And the director, to his credit, said who's your agent? And I said, well, I guess my dad. I don't really have one. (Laugh) And he said, "You need to think about what you're doing." I know you say you wanna go do an, be an opera star, but he's the one that kind of convinced me to do Broadway, and my dad did negotiate my contract.

And he was, like, apparently there's a union you can join. (Laugh) Thanks, Dad. So, he did really good. So Dad, thanks, if you're watching. Thank you so much for that. And to make it full circle, I did 'Candide' last year, two years ago, with the New York Philharmonic. And I just did an operetta with Placido Domingo a month ago at DC opera. So it just goes to show you that if you keep training and keep working, things come around the way they're supposed to. So I guess there was another plan

Tavis: Not bad for a girl from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Chenoweth: (Laugh) Thank you.

Tavis: You've referenced now, at least three times by my count, your voice coach, your voice teacher. Let me ask you a real stupid question. You have this gift, you have this talent. And you spend time with this person who is coaching you, teaching you. What did Kristin - I can't ask you what anybody else does - what did you get, what does one learn from a voice coach? How much better are you now as a result of having somebody coach you with this thing that is internal?

Chenoweth: Well, that's a great question. When I first went to college, I thought I was the best from my town, and I thought she was, and I remember getting up and singing 'New York, New York' and 'Matchmaker' from 'Fiddler,' a song that I'm really right for. What was I thinking? (Laugh) And she said, "I can't wait to teach you how to sing." And of course, I was devastated.

Tavis: (Laugh) I'm sure you were, yeah.

Chenoweth: But what she meant was, not only vocally, technically. But also from the heart. She, Florence Birdwell from Oklahoma City University, who I still call and get tips over the phone, I have teachers now in L.A. and New York that have picked up where she left off, but I'm a lot, she opened my voice. I was, grew up belting out songs and singing Sandy Patty and Amy Grant and Judy Garland.

And she's the one that said, you actually have a gift that goes beyond what you've, and she taught me basically how to sing. And more importantly, about life and how to apply a song to really mean it. Lyrics are so important, and people, if I may, a lot of songwriters today don't, you miss a lot of the lyrics.

This woman taught me when you're standing up to sing, your job is to not only be vocally correct, but to get it across to the people so that they will be touched. That's your job. And that's what she taught me.

Tavis: I just wanna put you on the spot right quick here in a minute and 20 seconds left. Give me one, two, three, you pick, one, two, three songs that lyrically just move you. Every time you perform them, every time you hear them, just on the lyrics. You love the lyrics of this particular song.

Chenoweth: I think Rogers And Hart wrote 'My Funny Valentine,' and I often wonder what went on in their lives to make them be able to write that song? Is your figure less than Greek? Is your mouth a little weak? When you open it to speak, are you smart? Still, just love me for who I am, basically, and let me be your funny Valentine.

It's the most beautiful lyric. I also am a big fan of Jerome Kern. This is the man that wrote 'Showboat,' but he, and changed American musical theater, because it brought up the issues of racism for the first time, ever. And there's a song he wrote 'He's Just My Bill.' It's a song about one man, and it repeats the name Bill over and over, but it's he can't golf, he can't sing, he can't row a boat, but he's mine.

Tavis: He's your man.

Chenoweth: Yeah.

Tavis: Well, on that note, (laugh) Kristin Chenoweth stars in the new number one box office hit, "RV,' as if you didn't know that. It is an honor to have you on the program, and when you do that Met thing, you gotta come back and see us.

Chenoweth: You better, you bet I will. I'll be back.

Tavis: I'll be waiting on you. Nice to see you.

Chenoweth: You too, honey.

Tavis: Nice to meet you. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.