For the better part of two decades, Idina Menzel has gone by a lot of titles: Broadway star. Tony winner. Movie actress. Singer/songwriter. Prized television guest star.

But lately, her two favorites are wife and mommy. And those gigs have “changed everything for the better,” she says.

“It gave me the perspective I needed,” Menzel, appearing at the Kravis Center on Wednesday, says of marriage to actor Taye Diggs and mothering three-year-old son Walker Nathaniel.

“The idea that other people need me, that my life is way beyond my own little bubble is liberating to say the least. It affects the person I am when I walk out on stage. I’m not as nervous as I would have been before, because I don’t expect myself to get as much sleep, or be as perfect as I want to be. I’m torn in many directions, but I’m happy to be. It’s made performing even more enjoyable for me.”

Audiences have been enjoying Menzel’s performances since 1995, when she appeared as cheating girlfriend Maureen in the original cast of Jonathan Larson’s “Rent,” the Puccini-inspired rock musical that launched not only her career, but that of former “Law and Order” star Jesse L. Martin, Broadway stars Daphne Rubin-Vega and Adam Pascal, and current “Private Practice” star Taye Diggs, now Menzel’s husband.

Nearly a decade later, she originated (and won a Tony for) the role of Elphaba, the misunderstood green-skinned witch and future foe of Dorothy in “Wicked,” the musical adaption of author Gregory Maguire’s inspired fantasy prequel to “The Wizard of Oz.” Although “Rent“‘s AIDS-era Lower East Side and “Wicked“‘s Oz are literally worlds apart, both allowed Menzel to be a part of generation-galvanizing works.

“It’s something I don’t take lightly. I feel very grateful to have been a part of such iconic shows, that are not just hits. They are hits because they resonate with young people, which have important themes. I know how lucky I am to be able to do that. I struck gold once with ‘Rent’ and to have it again (with ‘Wicked’) is very fortuitous for me,” she says.

“Rent,” which went on to win a Pulitzer and three Tonys, “taught me so much in life, from meeting my husband, to finding a director and creative people to work with. Those roles both taught me something about my own humanity that I can’t pull apart.”

Earlier this year, Menzel released “Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot At the Symphony,” recorded in 2011 at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music and featuring the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, conductor and award-winning songwriter Marvin Hamlisch and husband Diggs. The set list included “Defying Gravity,” her inspirational show-stopper from “Wicked,” “Where Or When” and even Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” which she’d performed on FOX’s “Glee” during a recurring storyline as a music teacher and the long-lost mother of high-strung school diva Rachel Berry (Lea Michelle.)

“It’s music that I know my audience likes to hear, that’s special to me, from experiences that I’ve already had in the theater. It’s accompanied by a story that chronicles a time in my life,” she explains. “Or sometimes it’s just a song I’ve always wanted to sing. They’re there for a bunch of different reasons.”

Her performance this week keeps some things from the album and changes some up - “There are some staples that I always do when I’m touring - I’m perpetually touring - and I like to keep things spontaneous.”

For instance, Menzel’s current show includes a tribute to Hamlisch, who passed away this past August - “he was a close friend of mine and conducted many shows of mine,” she says.

Meanwhile, she’s planning to go into the studio soon and record new music, while looking for new projects. But her new life puts all of that in a new perspective.

“It makes me less desperate to have a job. My most important job is being a mom. I find that when you’re less desperate, things come to you faster,” she says, laughing. “It’s something about knowing more than just my awesomeness.”