Redwood
Though Redwood features information and photographic wonders of glorious redwood forests with amazing LED stagecraft and video design, the heart of the musical starring Idina Menzel reveals a mother’s inconsolable grief at the loss of her son. Does a parent ever reconcile burying a child, even one of 23? Redwood wrestles with this question and others, yielding memorable high points, all the while exploring the majesty of the tallest, oldest trees on earth as a metaphor of human strength and resilience.
Redwood‘s creators, Tina Landau (book), Kate Diaz (music), Diaz and Tina Landau (lyrics), worked with prodigious effort to present this highly stylized, mystical musical which may not be everyone’s “cup of tea.” It was conceived by Tina Landau and Menzel, and Menzel made additional contributions. They premiered Redwood at La Jolla Playhouse last year. Its New York premiere at the Nederlander Theatre has Menzel powerfully reprising the role of Jesse. For her especially, this labor of love requires the full range of her talents as she inhabits a conflicted, deeply wounded character.
At times Jesse teeters on the brink of death. Desperate, irrational, self-victimizing, her last thread of hope toward life seeks a conclusion or respite for her self-inflicted soul annihilation. Through much of the musical the audience must follow Jesse’s outward expressions of her inner life and the responses of others who communicate with and understand her on an intuitive or ethereal level. One of these “others” is the redwood tree, “Stella.” If one finds this weird, much might be lost in how you view director Landau’s manifestation of these other-worldly communications to emphasize the beauty and surrealism of the unseen, intangible realm. Cleverly, Hana S. Kim’s video design, Scott Zielinski’s lighting design and Jason Ardizzone-West’s scenic design suggest these mystical elements.
Menzel Performs the Heavy Lifting
However, the bulk of the heavy lifting begins and ends with Menzel’s interpretation of the soul-sick, erratic, unpredictable Jesse. Of the 17 numbers in the musical (mostly ballads), Menzel powers through 13 of them, with seven solos. Challenging herself with music that’s sometimes repetitive, Menzel belts out her character’s emotional grist and torment. This requires sustained power. Sometimes pushing and reaching for emotion, Menzel wavers on the fringes of tonal infelicities. As these are acceptable and emblematic of Jesse’s searing pain, we can overlook them.
Otherwise, Menzel’s performance in a difficult role, which requires her singing upside-down at one point, astutely aligns with the interpretation of her character. In one astounding scene that stretches audience credulity, Menzel’s elated Jesse sings while performing Melecio Estrella’s vertical choreography with her canopy arborist friends Finn (Michael Park) and Becca (Kalia Wilcoxon). Their bouncing, whirling, gyrating action on the rigging of ropes, ascenders, carabiners and buckles impresses. The performers bring these amazing climbing moments to memorable life. Landau’s manifestation of their world in the redwood canopy is one of the high points that coalesces around the themes. One of these themes is nature’s healing joy.
Blindly Driving Toward Her Own Oblivion
However, to get to this point in the story, the road has been winding and bumpy with glitches of contrivance here and opaque, sometimes confusing narrative flashbacks there. The musical opens actively in panic mode as Jesse impulsively drives cross-country to get over herself and escape to emotional oblivion without telling her partner Mel (De’Adre Aziza). Though the flashing lights and videos of her road journey hint that Jesse is fleeing in turmoil, the “what” she flees from isn’t clarified until much later when she meets the canopy arborists.
Perhaps to strengthen Jesse’s transformation, the reason for her cross-country panic flight (“Drive”) could have been delivered in a prologue at the outset. This might have revealed her emotional connection with partner Mel and son Spencer (Zachary Noah Piser) to set up our identification with her loss and desperation to both escape her struggle and confront it. Why Jesse ends up where she does (a redwood forest) appears contrived and disconnected from her life as a New York City gallery owner.
Happening upon the Redwoods
Thus, “coincidentally,” she finds herself on a logging road at the end of a private redwood forest. There, she stops. The peace, calm, fresh air and absolute splendor of the towering redwoods soothe her emotions. Technically, the awesome LED panels extend past the proscenium right and left into the upper level, as the beautiful video design simulates the forests’ waving leaves and mysticism in a unique world above ground. Central audience seats best convey an immersive, full-bore theatrical experience.
Jesse makes friends with empathetic Finn, while she remotely converses with disapproving Becca. These arborists who research the redwood canopy to assess the extent of carbon capture have sensibilities which refreshingly differ from each other (“Little Redwood,” “Big Tree Religion,” “Roots,” “Becca’s Song”). As events quickly pass, we learn about Finn’s loss of his brother and his attraction to the peace and calm of the redwoods. Jesse shares the loss of her son Spencer and her abandonment of her wife Mel back in New York City. Becca’s hard climb as a Black woman in a white man’s world is both inferred and later revealed in “Becca’s Song” which Wilcoxon hits out of the ballpark.
Redwood Information
Throughout the introductions and their growing familiarity with Jesse, the aborists explain metaphoric details about redwood forest community, structure, bark, heartwood and more. The ancient redwoods, some alive before the birth of Christ, are the Earth’s sentinels safeguarding the planet’s atmosphere along with rain forests. The information tucked within the arborists’ dialogue some might find unnecessary, though its importance for redwood preservation can’t be underestimated. Thus, Finn and Becca’s references to the mighty giants’ endangerment by logging companies that lust for their unparalleled wood makes sense and seals the musical’s climax. Park and Wilcoxon’s performances are terrific as is their singing.
Meeting Stella
As Jesse watches them climb the mammoth tree (a design feat) that they’ve labeled 237, she intrudes, infuriating Becca. Reading her desperation and inner turmoil, Finn relents and teaches her how to negotiate the rigging to climb high into the canopy. As she ingratiates herself to Finn, he throws Becca’s “cautionary protests” to the winds and allows her to stay in the canopy on a platform overnight. It is then that Jesse arrives at a turning point questioning her life’s viability. Should she jump off the platform to end her acute suffering?
At a crucial moment, she reaches out in her mind and soul toward hope. The redwood she anthropomorphizes and names “Stella” (meaning star) responds in an ethereal sighing, leaf-rustling embrace. Accepting another consciousness, Jesse receives Stella’s sustenance and energy. Jesse’s selecting that name connects with the song “Stars” she sang earlier in remembrance of a heartbreaking flashback moment with Spencer and her wife Mel.
Healing
As Stella infuses Jesse with her healing power, Jesse stays on the platform day and night for as long as Finn and Becca work. Jesse gradually confronts her feelings of guilt and remorse about Spencer. She connects exuberantly with Stella (“In the Leaves”), where she sings, flips and twirls aerially on the rigging, no longer panicked and afraid. In the meantime, Mel (“Through My Lens”) expresses what she’s experienced this year of mourning for Spencer, and living with the intractable Jesse whose abandonment upsets her. Aziza delivers a superbly emotional, identifiable moment with her song codifying the tight family relationship that’s been lost. In order for Jesse and Mel to get back together without the glue of Spencer, Jesse must go through one more trial. As it turns out, it is a trial by fire.
Trial by Fire
As a storm threatens, dry lightning ignites the forest of redwoods. Trapped, Jesse stays on the platform clinging to Stella. Meanwhile, Becca and Finn leave, though they promised to meet up with her. The fire spreads uncontrollably. Finn tries to reach her but the fire blocks him. Becca reminds him the safest place in a forest fire is in the canopy of a fire-resistant redwood. As Jesse takes comfort from Stella (“Fires”), encouraged by the knowledge of her safety as the fire rages down below, Spencer visits her in a vision. His words free her in a release toward reconciliation and self-love (“Still”). The video design of the frightening fires and the illuminating, pacific, pastel vision of Spencer contrast with power and enlightenment. What an inspiring, emotional roller-coaster of a scene!
The production’s vitality and excellence lie in its performances, its technical splendors, its moments of soaring, lyrical music and its unique presentation. Tina Landau has outdone herself pulling all the creatives’ vision together in a startling production. Kudos to creatives not already mentioned, Toni-Leslie James (costume design), Matthew Armentrout (wig design), Jonathan Deans (sound design), Tom Kitt (music supervisor) Julie McBride (music director) and Jennifer Weber (dream choreography). Additional kudos to Melecio Estrella, BANDALOOP (vertical movement/vertical choreography).
This is one you shouldn’t miss. Redwood runs 110 minutes with no intermission at the Nederlander Theatre, 208 W 41st St (between 7th & 8th Ave).
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