Ten years after her star turn in the interesting but cluttered Sliding Doors-ish musical If/Then, Idina Menzel returns to Broadway in another original show, Redwood, this one which she co-conceived with director, book writer, and co-lyricist Tina Landau. Landau’s production is breathtakingly beautiful, with Hana S Kim’s striking video designs projected onto screens that circle the steeply raked stage area and extend out to the side boxes of the auditorium itself – creating a kind of widescreen Cinerama effect that’s not only immersive but vertigo-inducing as we join the characters in experiencing the thrill of rising above the canopy of a redwood forest or the sway of branches in a storm.
The high-tech staging thrills, as when Menzel spins upside down from her rope while belting a ballad. But the thin, repetitive story and composer/co-lyricist Kate Diaz’s score keep bringing the show back down to earth. The songs seem tailor-made for Menzel’s magnificent voice, but there’s an exhausting sameyness to these melisma-heavy pop ballads in which virtually every phrase goes up a third during the final word, like a bird that can’t quite decide where it should land. Menzel is a natural stage star, and there are moments when Redwood truly soars, but you can only defy the gravity of real life for so long.
Read my full review in the March issue of UK-based Musicals magazine. ★★☆☆☆
REDWOOD
Nederlander Theatre, Broadway
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through July 6 (Tickets from $79 to $349)
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