This season sees a wave of heavy hitters arriving on Broadway. Former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger gets ready for her close-up in Sunset Boulevard. Audra McDonald tackles the motherload in Gypsy. And now Idina Menzel — swinging from a tree.
Menzel’s Broadway breakthrough came in 1996 in Rent, followed by a Tony-winning turn as the original Elphaba in Wicked, so she knows how to captivate an audience and, when required, fly. But while that fantastical riff on The Wizard of Oz from the witches’ perspectives took flight, Redwood lands with a thud.
Menzel was inspired by the real-life story of environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, who spent 738 days in a redwood tree to “help make the world aware of the plight of ancient forests.” Creative license finds Menzel’s character, Jesse, ascending the trunk as a healing mechanism for a family tragedy.
Menzel and director/collaborator Tina Landau conducted a national search to identify a new composer to give the work a fresh sound. Unfortunately, Kate Diaz, who has scored film and TV, delivers a mostly hollow composition that fails to defy gravity. It’s only in the musical’s final moments that Zachary Noah Piser, as Jesse’s son, emerges barefoot to sing “Still,” a stirring anthem about what’s left to hold onto despite the pain of unbearable loss.
Hana S. Kim’s video design is presumably meant to support, as the script describes, “an immersive adrenaline rush” into Jesse’s world. It feels more like a ride at the soon-to-open Universal Epic Universe, with vertical movement choreography less interesting than a walk by your local climbing gym and PTSD-inducing for anyone who had to sit through Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Menzel is known beyond her theater career as the singing voice of Elsa in Frozen and the diamond-certified (whatever that means) hit “Let It Go.” A redwood can live upwards of 2,000 years. A natural diamond takes two billion years to form. In either case, a lot longer than a Broadway musical struggling to find its footing.
IMC Takeaway
RENTheads will appreciate that Menzel is back at the Nederlander Theatre, where she originated the role of Maureen. Despite Redwood’s shortcomings, Menzel’s star power still shines bright—if only she were climbing up a different tree.
Still in”tree”ged? Read my interview with Zachary Noah Piser on Queerty.
