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Idina Menzel, Tina Landau and more on how they first met, how they shaped the musical ‘Redwood’ and more

Listen to the latest episode of “Broadway Press Day with Ruthie Fierberg,” featuring “Redwood.”

Idina Menzel in “Redwood” on Broadway, 2025 (Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for Murphy Made)

“The project started about 15 years ago when Idina and I met to talk about things we might want to do together,” said Tina Landau of her collaborator, Idina Menzel, about their new Broadway musical “Redwood.” In the most recent episode of “Broadway Press Day with Ruthie Fierberg,” Landau and Menzel share the details of how they first connected in the 1990s.

During their discussions many years ago, the two honed in on one particular idea about nature. “It turned out that she and I were obsessed with trees and, in particular, the image of a person living in a tree,” Landau continued. “Why would someone do that and what’s the backstory?”

The answers to those questions manifest in “Redwood,” which opened on Feb. 13 at the Nederlander Theatre. The story — co-conceived by Landau and Menzel, written by Landau with additional material from Menzel — tracks a woman named Jesse, who drives away from her life in New York City to escape her own grief. When she can’t drive anymore, Jesse realizes she’s landed in California’s Redwood Forest. 

While the forest is the setting and integral to the narrative, Menzel, who also stars as Jesse, was drawn to nature because of the human element. “I discovered the trees through the woman,” she shared in the episode. “I think that the idea of a woman in a tree escaping it all was very intriguing to me in the world that we’re living in right now, where maybe we all want to escape. … This idea that some of us don’t want to face the things that are painful for us in our lives. That’s what drew me in first, and then I learned about these mystical, magical redwoods and everything that they stand for.”

“There are so many things about trees that are remarkable,” added Landau, who also directs the musical and is a co-lyricist. And yet, Landau didn’t aim to replicate a forest onstage. “The way we’re dealing with trees in the Redwood Forest in the show is not literal. We’re not doing a National Geographic,” she said. “We are seeing and feeling everything through our main character Jesse’s point of view. So our visual world is more impressionistic, abstract … [except] a single tree that Jesse gets to know.”

Landau and Menzel expanded on that lone Redwood from a design and story perspective. Plus, composer and co-lyricist Kate Diaz offered insight into the score; and actors De’Adre Aziza, Michael Park, Zachary Noah Piser and Khaila Wilcoxon gave a glimpse at their characters.

Listen to the full episode here:

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