Idina Menzel will makes her La Jolla Playhouse debut in the world premiere of the brand new musical, REDWOOD, a one-of-a-kind theatrical event about one woman’s journey into the precious and precarious world of the redwoods.
REDWOOD will be the final production of the California theatre’s 2023/2024 season and will open at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre in February 2024.
This immersive and cinematic new work has book and direction by Tina Landau, music by Kate Diaz, lyrics by Kate Diaz and Tina Landau, with additional contributions by Idina Menzel.
Idina plays Jesse, a successful businesswoman, mother and wife, who seems to have it all, but inside, her heart is broken. Finding herself at a turning point, Jesse leaves everyone and everything behind, gets in her car and drives. Thousands of miles later, she hits the ancient forests of Northern California, where a chance meeting and a leap of faith change her life forever. In the presence of the magnificent, towering redwoods, Jesse finds strange
and powerful connections, an unexpected sense of community, and a chance at healing.
Acclaimed writer and director Tina Landau brings this immersive and cinematic new work to life with lush visuals and a soaring score by Kate Diaz. Travel with Jesse to an intoxicating environment of dense greenery, fractured light and dizzying heights – a place where Nature can help us heal, if only we don’t destroy her first.
An exhilarating new musical featuring one of Broadway’s greatest stars, REDWOOD will awaken your sense of adventure and lift you higher than the treetops.
California’s La Jolla Playhouse is a place where artists and audiences come together to create what’s new and next in the American theatre. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new works, including mounting 108 world premieres, commissioning 60 new works, and sending 33 productions to Broadway, garnering a total of 38 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
