‘Redwood’ Features Idina Menzel Returning to Broadway for Second Time Since Winning a Tony for ‘Wicked’ More Than 20 Years Ago
Our heroine is Jesse, a mother on a solo journey, and it’s this role that ultimately gives ‘Redwood,’ despite its shaky start and enduring sentimentality, an abiding poignance.
At first blush, the protagonist in the new musical “Redwood,” Jesse, suggests one of those unbecomingly girlish middle-age women who might have been played on screen by Goldie Hawn years ago, or more recently by Sarah Jessica Parker. Here she’s portrayed by Idina Menzel, returning to Broadway for only the second time since winning a Tony Award more than 20 years ago, for her performance as Elphaba in the original cast of “Wicked.”
Like that green witch, Jesse longs to rise above the earth: not by flying in this case, but by climbing a tree. Her journey into the forest is preceded by a dizzying opening number — crafted by a young composer making her Broadway bow, Kate Diaz, and a musical theater veteran, Tina Landau, who conceived the show with Ms. Mendel, wrote its book, and co-wrote the lyrics with Ms. Diaz — that gives us background on Jesse.
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