Redwood
Opening Night: February 13, 2025
Theater: Nederlander Theatre
Website: www.redwoodmusical.com
Jesse (Menzel) seems to have it all — a successful career and devoted family — until a life-altering event drives her far from everyone and everything she knows. When she finds herself at the foot of the redwoods in Northern California, a chance encounter and a leap of faith will change her life forever. Redwood explores the lengths — and heights — one travels to find strength, resilience and healing.
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February 13, 2025
The musical ‘Redwood’ features two great stars. One is an awe-inspiring force of nature. The other is a tree.
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February 14, 2025
It makes for an intimate and vulnerable performance, even as an expensive curtain of LED screens (video design by Hana S. Kim, scenic design by Jason Ardizzone-West) bathes the stage action, transforming the Nederlander Theatre into starscapes and forests like a theatricalized Artechouse.
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February 13, 2025
There are a few musical gems, as well as eye-popping visual effects and even some supporting performances that rival Menzel’s. But the show itself hangs from a story that’s as thin as a reed, making for a sometimes-lumbering musical that tends to sag under the weight of its nearly two-hour runtime.
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February 13, 2025
Redwood doesn’t feel like a disaster, nor did it have to be. There’s enough genuine passion in Menzel’s commitment, to the role and the overall project, to power a solid show. But none of its ideas or characters are given space to coalesce into anything meaningful, with blandly inspirational songs crowding out an ecosystem that would better thrive on more organic soil.
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February 13, 2025
Redwood, though, ultimately is just a shade too thin in its storytelling imagination, hitting the familiar dramatic beats we’ve come to expect through countless grief and recovery stories. Still, it’s not hard to focus your attention on the successful aspects — Menzel, that set, the sky dancing, and across-the-board fine performances from the rest of the cast.
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February 13, 2025
It’s a show tailor-made to the star’s strengths as an actress, a vocalist, and a defier of gravity as here she scales, swings and sings from the heights.
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February 13, 2025
Beyond the word “adventurous,” one might also throw out “indulgent” to describe “Redwood.”
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
“Redwood” certainly means well, and with the renewed bout of “Wicked” hysteria, audiences will likely flock to see Menzel’s much-ballyhooed return to her theatrical roots. But for a musical that should soar, it most often feels dreadfully earthbound.
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February 13, 2025
As in 2018’s unfortunate King Kong, the colossal title character of Redwood (which Jesse christens Stella) is the best thing about this musical, even though—or maybe because—it doesn’t sing. But arboreal splendor can’t compensate for the blandness that surrounds it. The show is all bark and no bite.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
You want to leave shivering with the majesty of nature; instead, it feels like 110 minutes staring at a potted plant.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
Redwood broaches many potentially compelling topics, but, like the redwood tree, as we learn, its roots remain shallow
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
“Redwood” is not a wholly satisfying Broadway musical, despite those striking visuals, as well some unusual vertical choreography and the glorious voices of the five talented cast members, who make the most of Broadway newcomer Kate Diaz’s 19 mostly serviceable musical numbers.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
Menzel does get to do some gravity-defying climbing—the Bay Area–based troupe Bandaloop provided the show’s “vertical choreography”—and show off her impressive, rangey voice. But all the vocal pyrotechnics on Broadway can’t help this Redwood grow.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
The performer sings and acts her heart out, but you still leave the theater humming the projections.
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February 13, 2025
Yet what’s so puzzling about “Redwood” is that it’s a textbook tearjerker — a mom in mourning rediscovering herself midair, weighty speeches about losing everything — that leaves your eyes totally dry.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
There was a palpable feeling of deflation after the first number, a sense of trepidation that did not ease for the remainder of the show.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 13, 2025
The stagecraft, performances, and the visuals will last and no doubt offer a roadmap for future projection-heavy productions. It’s a dazzling vehicle for Menzel, a staunch reminder of how powerful her voice is (even when she’s dangling from a harness), as well as a memorable feature for the rest of its five-person cast, especially since they manage to make an impression with a powerhouse like Menzel standing inches away.
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