Idina Menzel is stepping into yet another musical era of her life.<\/p>\n
After debuting a new show in February, the Tony Award-winning actress and singer kicks off her first tour in nearly eight years with a Bay Area stop, where she plans to perform a career-spanning set list at Oakland\u2019s Fox Theater on Sunday, July 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of storytelling and songs that parallel certain times in my life,\u201d Menzel, 53, said. \u201cHopefully, you\u2019ll feel like you are in my living room, just talking, hanging out and playing music together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the songs Menzel looks forward to performing are selections from \u201cRedwood<\/a>,\u201d which is headed to Broadway next year. The musical, co-conceived by Menzel and her friend, director and playwright Tina Landau, received critical acclaim after its La Jolla Playhouse world premiere<\/a>. Menzel plays Jesse, a successful businesswoman, mother and wife who \u201cseems to have it all\u201d yet seeks escape into the Northern California forests.<\/p>\n The musical marks Menzel\u2019s return to Broadway in more than a decade, after rising to fame with her leading roles in \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chronicle recently spoke to Menzel by phone about her upcoming tour and the inspiration for \u201cRedwood.\u201d<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n Q: Your upcoming musical, \u201cRedwood,\u201d is set in Northern California. What was the inspiration behind the musical and its setting?<\/strong><\/p>\n A: <\/strong>I\u2019ve fallen in love with the redwoods and everything that they represent\u00a0\u2014 their capacity, their endurance, their ability to survive after thousands and thousands of years, their wisdom and what we can learn from them as human beings. I also learned about a woman named Julia \u201cButterfly\u201d Hill, who\u2019s a really amazing woman who lived in a tree for over 700 days in order to protest logging companies in Eureka. I fell in love with her story, and it inspired me to do a musical about a woman whose life has changed from her experience at the redwoods.<\/p>\n I was just fascinated with the idea that a woman or anyone could do this. Could I? I am always questioning what I have in me, how far could I take something, and would I be able to withstand that. \u2026 Then in researching her, I fell in love with the redwoods. I visited there time and time again. I\u2019ve learned to climb those trees.<\/p>\n