Idina Menzel’s 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, the must-see musical of 2025. Menzel’s eagerly awaited star turn, with De’Adre 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.
Credited as a co-conceiver of Redwood, 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, “I felt a kinship with the idea of a woman making the decision to shut out the world and leave everything behind,” the Tony Award–winning actress says. “I also fell in love with the redwoods, and I thought they could inspire a beautiful, unconventional musical. I wasn’t sure how to do it, but I felt a desire to pursue it deep in my heart.”
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 (set to be revived on Broadway in April under her direction) and last season’s hit drama Mother Play to her colorful, Tony-nominated musical adaptation of SpongeBob SquarePants. “We didn’t really have a story at first,” Landau admits, “just the singular image of a women in a tree. Why would someone do that, and what might she be looking for?”
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. “I was spending time meditating on the natural world,” she says, “and that led me to think about how I might share some of what I was learning — how being in nature helps us deal with loss and go on to live rich, full lives.”
Landau’s 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. “It was a great blessing knowing I was writing this character for and with Idina,” Landau says. “My goal was to tap into her strengths and also the unexplored territory of her talent to create a fully rounded woman.” For her part, Menzel says, “I’m drawn to women who overcome the odds — powerful women who are also vulnerable and wrestle with finding that balance.”
Beyond its multilayered heroine, Redwood stuns audiences with groundbreaking production design, eye-popping aerial choreography, and an enveloping production in Landau’s vision, in which the redwood forest is experienced from Jesse’s point of view. “When I think about the show being ‘immersive,’ I don’t mean we are taking audiences into a National Geographic–comes-to-life version of the forest,” she says. “The brilliant original work of our media designer, Hana Kim, is almost two hours of nonstop imagery that’s connected to the action and carries the story further.”
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–inflected songs tailor-made for Menzel’s distinctive voice, and ethereal underscoring reflecting the majesty of 1,000-year-old trees.
“The music is very much inspired by the redwoods,” says Diaz, whose orchestral film scores attracted Landau’s attention online. “The trees are pure and simple and silent, so the score plays with scale: There are intimate moments and also epic, soaring moments.” The fact that Diaz, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, had never worked in the theater didn’t faze her director or star. Explains Landau, “I found Kate’s melodies so catchy and moving and her approach so original, I decided to take a gamble, and it definitely paid off.” Adds Menzel, “Because we have these incredible projections, we needed Kate’s earthy, organic music, as well as her cinematic score. She inspires me to use parts of my voice that maybe audiences haven’t heard. The music reflects the emotions of the character.”
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 “vertical dance” company BANDALOOP, which has performed atop skyscrapers, bridges, and mountains around the world. “If someone is going to go up a tree and stay there, we had to find a way to show what that feels like,” Landau says. Menzel affirms with a laugh, “I’m not being hoisted by some guy — I’m using my arms and legs and core to climb our tree and do aerial work, and I find it exhilarating and liberating. I’m 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’s a unique peacefulness up there.”
Redwood’s revolutionary marriage of music, media, and movement comes together to create a Broadway musical greater than the sum of its impressive parts. “There’s something in the heart of this show that is magical and powerful and surprising,” Landau says. “It goes deep, but it’s also joyful and entertaining and inspiring.” Echoes Diaz, “The show is transportive and beautiful, and it’s been so fulfilling to be a part of telling this story. The first time I saw it all come together, I was speechless.”
Savoring her return to the New York stage, “my happy place,” after a decade, Menzel declares, “I don’t think anyone has ever seen anything like this show. It’s an intimate musical, and yet it’s quite the event as well.” Watching Jesse’s story unfold, “I want people to feel like their own life experience is seen and heard,” she says. “I want them to become immersed in this world and leave with the feeling of community and hope and healing.”