The new Broadway musical Redwood aims high. Literally.
Much of the show, which brings musical theater icon Idina Menzel back to Broadway for the first time in a decade, takes place hundreds of feet in the air, in the canopy of the redwood forest in Northern California. Conjuring the sense and scale of that height onstage is no small feat — and to pull it off, the production enlisted a crack team of designers all working in tandem to actualize the altitude.
Redwood follows a successful businesswoman named Jesse (played by Menzel) who suddenly leaves her life behind to find meaning — and healing — in the redwoods. “This isn’t your normal musical,” says Jason Ardizzone-West, the show’s set designer. “On the surface, it takes place in some naturalistic locations, mostly in the redwood forest and in a tree. But really it takes place in the mind of Jesse. So the design of the space is an interesting combination of abstraction and tangibility.”
Collaborating with Ardizzone-West to create a mutable, immersive space are the projection designer, Hana S. Kim; lighting designer, Scott Zielinski; and sound designer, Jonathan Deans. There’s even a “vertical choreographer,” Melecio Estrella of the airborne dance troupe BANDALOOP, who crafts a soaring movement vocabulary for a piece that sees Menzel and her costars don arborist climbing harnesses to scale the 20-foot-plus heights of the Nederlander Theatre’s proscenium stage.
The production’s deceptively simple set design centers on the 13-foot-wide trunk of a redwood tree, surrounded by an abstract and geometric space that Ardizzone-West describes as a sculptural “canvas” of LED screens. Projection designer Kim paints on that canvas, using digital video not only to create components of the environment but also to reveal individual perspectives of each character’s experience of a place.
“We need to see the forest, but also we need to see the forest how Jesse sees it,” she says. Her work is also a key component in conveying a sense of height. “For me, it’s the movement of video that’s most useful in that regard,” she explains. “We have an intro sequence when we go up in the trees, and video, with that motion of going upward, really helps show how high up in the tree we are.”
Throughout the process, Kim has worked closely with lighting designer Zielinski. “I’m trying to take the sense of really being in the forest and give it as much three-dimensionality as I can,” Zielinski says. “The lighting becomes an extension of the projections, in a way, where we use haze to create atmosphere, and then take these visual compositions that come from the projections and extend them out into the space.”
Just as Kim’s work draws on images she collected over the course of research trips to the real-life redwoods, sound designer Deans also traveled to Northern California to find inspiration for his sound palette.
The story of Redwood begins in New York City, but once Jesse arrives in the redwoods, “everything in the sound design just opens up,” Deans says. “I went and recorded stuff in the redwoods so I could understand what it’s like to be enveloped by that sound. You’re engulfed in silence a lot of the time, but when you really listen, it’s not silence. It’s the sound of the forest, and it’s this overall effect that’s more than just the critters and the wind.”
Amid all this, the show’s actors actually leave the ground to ensure the production’s sense of height is more than just abstract. Under the guidance of choreographer Estrella, the cast ascends and descends on ropes using self-locking belay devices and other arborist equipment.
That setup lends a sense of realism to the production. It also allows for movement that sometimes turns lyrical. “There are moments when we enter a space that’s more than reality, and those moments are quite dance-y,” Estrella says. A robust backstage crew helps ensure the cast’s safety, and so far the fear of heights isn’t something the production has had to contend with.
“These theater artists are incredible,” Estrella says. “They’re already so brave because their whole practice is about being seen and being vulnerable. It’s like they’ve developed courage over decades. When we think about dancing on a rope, our whole sense of space and possibility opens up, and it’s really cool to see that happening with Idina and the cast.”
In addition to all of that, audiences can expect the designers’ work to extend beyond the proscenium in order to surround theatergoers in this unique designscape. “If you want something that’s immersive, then go see this show,” Deans says.