Ballard produced and co-wrote songs for the album, which, he told The Hollywood Reporter, "goes way beyond Broadway." As Menzel told London's Evening Standard in November, "I can't be a character on this album." Ballard is perhaps best known as the writer-producer on Alanis Morissette's album "Jagged Little Pill." He also worked on Barbra Streisand's "Till I Loved You" and Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl," and played synthesizer on Michael Jackson's album "Bad." His future projects include songs for the upcoming Robert Zemeckis film "Beowulf" and a new album by Annie Lennox.

Menzel's other upcoming projects include the Disney movie musical "Enchanted," featuring a score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.

Menzel earned a Tony for her turn as Elphaba in Schwartz's Wicked, and she later returned to the role for the West End, exiting on Dec. 30, 2006. She appeared in the original cast of Rent and reprised her role for the movie version. Other credits include Aida, See What I Wanna See, The Wild Party, The Vagina Monologues and roles in the films "Kissing Jessica Stein," "Just A Kiss," "The Tollbooth" and "Ask the Dust." Her other solo albums are "Still I Can't Be Still" and "Here."