By Gianna Mulvey
A few weekends ago, my sister and I traveled to the Nederlander Theatre in New York City to watch Broadway legend Idina Menzel’s triumphant return to the stage in the new musical Redwood. With themes of love, loss, grief, and healing, Menzel and the rest of the Redwood cast put on an emotional and heartwrenching performance that left theatre-goers feeling as if they, too, had seen the redwood trees’ resilience with their own eyes.
This brand-new musical follows Jesse (Idina Menzel), a woman struggling with a chasm of grief after the unexpected death of her son, Spencer (Zachary Noah Piser). Jesse’s wife, Mel (De’adre Aziza), urges Jesse and herself to seek out couples counseling after nearly a year since the passing of their son. Overwhelmed, Jesse drives from New York all the way to California, where she stumbles upon the redwood forest. From here, Jesse meets two tree botanists, Finn (Michael Park) and Becca (Khalia Wilcoxon), who teach Jesse about the trees and how to climb them.
What caught my interest about the musical (besides my love for Idina Menzel) was the creative and clever use of giant LED screens that replace physical sets. I was hesitant at first about the show revolving around the use of so much technology, especially for a musical whose focus is on nature, but I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
At the center of the stage is a massive half-cylinder that rotates around to reveal the bark of a redwood tree. Surrounding this tree are the LED screens. The screens essentially function like backdrops, as the images on them change throughout the show depending on the scene’s setting or how Jesse feels during the moment. For the opening number, for example, the screens mimic the white lines on a road, moving as if Jesse were really driving. Other times, when Jesse has a panic attack, the screens flash white, mimicking the beating of an anxious heart.
Although the use of such screens fits the novelty of the show and certainly makes it easier to elicit certain emotions from the audience, I still prefer the use of physical sets and wonder what the show could have looked like with such a set. Overall, the musical sets up an interesting dichotomy between themes of nature against a digital backdrop that had me considering what the intended effect was for the audience.
Another draw of the musical was the in-air performances. Seeing as the show is all about climbing trees, Menzel, Park, and Wilcoxon’s characters all dance in the air while suspended from the aforementioned tree sitting in the center of the stage, mimicking what climbing a tree would actually look like. They use the tree as a jumping-off point to gain some air, then utilize the harnesses they wear to spin and rotate while performing certain musical numbers. The cast performed these scenes with such freedom and nonchalance that it felt like they had been performing in the air for two years, not two months.
Going into the show, one of my biggest fears was that Idina Menzel’s character would take center stage over the other cast members and their characters, especially because the musical has been frequently marketed as “Idina Menzel Redwood.” Thankfully, this was not the case.
Idina Menzel’s performance as Jesse was, as I expected, phenomenal. I’ve listened to Menzel’s performances in other musicals, such as Wicked and Rent, countless times for countless years. Seeing her live was another experience altogether, and one I struggle to put into words. Menzel radiates such skill and mastery over her craft in a way that unapologetically demands the audience’s attention. The ease with which she can hit her highest high and lowest low notes gave me chills, not to mention how long she can hold those notes without breaking a sweat, too. Have I mentioned that she also sings while dancing in the air and suspended upside down without missing a beat or note? Menzel’s not called a Broadway legend for nothing.
Zachary Noah Piser, who plays Spencer, Jesse, and Mel’s son, haunts the show, appearing in Jesse’s memories and during some of her panic attacks. Piser, in the handful of scenes that he is in, does an excellent job of making the audience care about his character, which hurts all the more when the audience falls back into reality, where Spencer is dead. Although the youngest member of the cast, Piser pulls his weight and delivers a gutwrenching performance, allowing the audience to feel a fraction of the pain that Jesse is in.
De’adre Aziza, who plays Mel, is a foil to Menzel’s character. Where Jesse’s head is in the clouds, Mel has her feet planted firmly on the ground. Although Mel and Jesse do not appear together on stage as often as Jesse does with Finn and Becca, the scenes where Aziza does share the stage with Menzel are beautiful. Aziza effortlessly showcases how her character must grapple with the grief of losing a son and the battle she wages with Jesse to try to get her to seek help. Aziza delivers this performance with apt comedic timing and deeply emotional line delivery.
Michael Park plays Finn, one of two tree botanists who help Jesse climb the redwood trees. Park was the primary comedic relief of the show and functioned as the first realization for Jesse that there is a chance for her to heal from her grief. During one scene, Finn reveals to Jesse that he lost his twin brother in a car accident, but after finding his passion for the redwood trees, he overcame and healed from the incident. Park masterfully moves from comedy to seriousness in just a few words and skillfully embodies his character in the inflections of his dialogue and bodily movement.
Khalia Wilcoxon, who plays Becca, acts as a foil to Finn, mirroring Jesse and Mel’s relationship; Finn has his head in the clouds, and Becca is far too close to reality. For much of the musical, Becca buts heads with Jesse, as she is firmly against teaching Jesse how to climb the redwood trees (it’s against the rules). It’s not until the two characters find a moment to themselves that they can each share the pain and grief they’ve experienced in their pasts. Wilcoxon has two solos throughout the performance, and each time her voice overtook the theatre, my whole body shook. Wilcoxon has some serious vocal talent, and oftentimes, through the musical, I found myself thinking that her performance outshone Menzel’s in some cases.
What I really enjoyed about Redwood was the allegory of the redwood tree: the trees stay so strong because their roots intertwine with other redwood roots, and that’s how people learn to be strong, through their connections with others. No matter what kind of tragedy each of us endures, healing is always made possible through the love of others—a simple yet beautiful analogy told in a novel, vulnerable manner.
It takes the entirety of the musical for Jesse to realize this after nearly dying in a forest fire while stationed in the canopy of a redwood tree. The audience most likely was able to come to this conclusion fairly early on in the show, thanks to some pretty direct dialogue, but it wouldn’t be half as interesting if Jesse did, too. Although it’s a story we’ve seen a hundred times before, it’s told in a new and innovative way that kept me hanging (pun intended) in suspense to see whether or not Jesse would finally answer nature’s call and begin to heal. After over thirty years since Idina Menzel made her Broadway debut in Rent in the same theatre where Redwood is showing, I couldn’t be happier with what Menzel, the rest of the cast, and the crew have come up with. Redwood is a truly inspiring musical about the pains of grief and loss and one woman’s journey to find connection and healing where she otherwise thought impossible. If you have the chance to see this show until the end of its runtime in late August of this year, I’d highly recommend seeing it. As Jesse puts it, there’s no better escape than in the leaves.
