Idina Menzel is a good luck charm for Broadway cast recordings. The original cast album for “If/Then,” her current show, debuts at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 today.
That makes it the highest debut for a Broadway cast album since 1996 when “Rent,” which also starred Menzel, debuted at No. 19, according to Billboard. “If/Then” sold 15,000 copies in its first week, as opposed to “Rent”s” 43,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Only four original Broadway cast albums have hit the Top 20 in the last 30 years: the other two didn”t star Menzel: “The Book of Mormon,” and “Dreamgirls.”
As much success Menzel has on Broadway, her greatest success has come in movie soundtracks: Her Oscar-winning song “Let It Go,” from “Frozen,” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while the “Frozen” soundtrack stayed No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for more than a dozen weeks. It is this year”s top-selling album of 2014 so far, having sold 2.6 million copies since Jan. 1 (2.9 million total).