{"id":1355,"date":"2024-12-15T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2024-12-15T11:00:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T16:00:06","slug":"redwood-comes-to-life-as-groundbreaking-new-musical-starring-idina-menzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/redwood-comes-to-life-as-groundbreaking-new-musical-starring-idina-menzel\/","title":{"rendered":"Redwood Comes to Life as Groundbreaking New Musical Starring Idina Menzel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Idina Menzel\u2019s return to Broadway after 10 years in an all-new musical is the very definition of a theatrical event. Add to that a thrilling, immersive production that takes audiences inside a canopy of ancient trees, paired with a gorgeous original score and a moving story of resilience, and the result is Redwood,<\/em> the must-see musical of 2025. Menzel\u2019s eagerly awaited star turn, with De\u2019Adre Aziza, Khaila Wilcoxon, Michael Park, and Zachary Noah Piser rounding out the cast, is set to begin January 24 at the Nederlander Theatre, where she made her Broadway debut almost 30 years ago in RENT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Credited as a co-conceiver of Redwood<\/em>, Menzel was initially intrigued by the story of an environmentalist who took up residence in a California redwood for more than 700 days to protest deforestation. Though the new musical has a different storyline, \u201cI felt a kinship with the idea of a woman making the decision to shut out the world and leave everything behind,\u201d the Tony Award\u2013winning actress says. \u201cI also fell in love with the redwoods, and I thought they could inspire a beautiful, unconventional musical. I wasn\u2019t sure how to do it, but I felt a desire to pursue it deep in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menzel made an extremely smart first call: to Tina Landau, the visionary writer and director whose stage projects have ranged from the acclaimed musical Floyd Collins<\/em> (set to be revived on Broadway in April under her direction) and last season\u2019s hit drama Mother Play<\/em> to her colorful, Tony-nominated musical adaptation of SpongeBob SquarePants. <\/em>\u201cWe didn\u2019t really have a story at first,\u201d Landau admits, \u201cjust the singular image of a women in a tree. Why would someone do that, and what might she be looking for?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer came during the pandemic, when Landau suffered the loss of a beloved young nephew. With theatres shut down, she and her partner took a cross-country road trip that ended in Northern California at the redwoods. \u201cI was spending time meditating on the natural world,\u201d she says, \u201cand that led me to think about how I might share some of what I was learning \u2014 how being in nature helps us deal with loss and go on to live rich, full lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landau\u2019s experience sparked her collaboration with Menzel in creating the character of Jesse, a New York City gallery owner who makes a similar sojourn to the redwoods after experiencing a devastating loss. \u201cIt was a great blessing knowing I was writing this character for and with Idina,\u201d Landau says. \u201cMy goal was to tap into her strengths and also the unexplored territory of her talent to create a fully rounded woman.\u201d For her part, Menzel says, \u201cI\u2019m drawn to women who overcome the odds \u2014 powerful women who are also vulnerable and wrestle with finding that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond its multilayered heroine, Redwood<\/em> stuns audiences with groundbreaking production design, eye-popping aerial choreography, and an enveloping production in Landau\u2019s vision, in which the redwood forest is experienced from Jesse\u2019s point of view. \u201cWhen I think about the show being \u2018immersive,\u2019 I don\u2019t mean we are taking audiences into a National Geographic<\/em>\u2013comes-to-life version of the forest,\u201d she says. \u201cThe brilliant original work of our media designer, Hana Kim, is almost two hours of nonstop imagery that\u2019s connected to the action and carries the story further.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show includes a cinematic score written by 27-year-old songwriter, orchestrator, and arranger Kate Diaz, who cowrote the lyrics with Landau. Her music is an artful combination of pop-rock\u2013inflected songs tailor-made for Menzel\u2019s distinctive voice, and ethereal underscoring reflecting the majesty of 1,000-year-old trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music is very much inspired by the redwoods,\u201d says Diaz, whose orchestral film scores attracted Landau\u2019s attention online. \u201cThe trees are pure and simple and silent, so the score plays with scale: There are intimate moments and also epic, soaring moments.\u201d The fact that Diaz, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, had never worked in the theater didn\u2019t faze her director or star. Explains Landau, \u201cI found Kate\u2019s melodies so catchy and moving and her approach so original, I decided to take a gamble, and it definitely paid off.\u201d Adds Menzel, \u201cBecause we have these incredible projections, we needed Kate\u2019s earthy, organic music, as well as her cinematic score. She inspires me to use parts of my voice that maybe audiences haven\u2019t heard. The music reflects the emotions of the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how does Jesse get the top of a 300-foot-tall tree? On the Nederlander Theatre stage, Menzel does her own climbing, thanks to choreography by the so-called \u201cvertical dance\u201d company BANDALOOP, which has performed atop skyscrapers, bridges, and mountains around the world. \u201cIf someone is going to go up a tree and stay there, we had to find a way to show what that feels like,\u201d Landau says. Menzel affirms with a laugh, \u201cI\u2019m not being hoisted by some guy \u2014 I\u2019m using my arms and legs and core to climb our tree and do aerial work, and I find it exhilarating and liberating. I\u2019m now one of the only people in the world licensed to climb the redwoods into the canopy, which I recently did. I practiced my songs and listened to the sounds; there\u2019s a unique peacefulness up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redwood<\/em>\u2019s revolutionary marriage of music, media, and movement comes together to create a Broadway musical greater than the sum of its impressive parts. \u201cThere\u2019s something in the heart of this show that is magical and powerful and surprising,\u201d Landau says. \u201cIt goes deep, but it\u2019s also joyful and entertaining and inspiring.\u201d Echoes Diaz, \u201cThe show is transportive and beautiful, and it\u2019s been so fulfilling to be a part of telling this story. The first time I saw it all come together, I was speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savoring her return to the New York stage, \u201cmy happy place,\u201d after a decade, Menzel declares, \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone has ever seen anything like this show. It\u2019s an intimate musical, and yet it\u2019s quite the event as well.\u201d Watching Jesse\u2019s story unfold, \u201cI want people to feel like their own life experience is seen and heard,\u201d she says. \u201cI want them to become immersed in this world and leave with the feeling of community and hope and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idina Menzel\u2019s return to Broadway after 10 years in an all-new musical is the very definition of a theatrical event. Add to that a thrilling, immersive production that takes audiences inside a canopy of ancient trees, paired with a gorgeous original score and a moving story of resilience, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[80,81],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-interviews","tag-80","tag-redwood"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Broadway-Direct-Cover-Image-1-400x225-1.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-lR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}