Idina Menzel has real guts. After starring in the megahits “Rent” and “Wicked,” most divas on Broadway would appear in a sure-fire revival to burnish their box office status further. Or they might headline a musical based on everyone’s favorite movie. Menzel, instead, appeared in “If/Then,” an original musical from 2014, which offered two sliding-door scenarios of what happens to a recent divorcee when she moves back to New York City.
Menzel’s latest Broadway venture, another original musical, is even more adventurous. In “Redwood,” which opened Thursday at the Nederland Theatre, her character Jesse climbs a tree to escape the traumatic memories of her adult son’s death. As the title makes clear, it’s not just any old tree but a majestic redwood that grows in northern California, and, before the show is over, Stella — Jesse names the tree Stella — is threatened by wild fire.
Beyond the word “adventurous,” one might also throw out “indulgent” to describe “Redwood.”
Tina Landau directs “Redwood” and also wrote the book. She did the same for Adam Guettel’s “Floyd Collins.” (Later this season, Lincoln Center Theater presents the first Broadway revival of that 1996 musical.) In some respects, the two musicals are similar. While Jesse takes refuge in a tree, the title character in “Floyd Collins” gets stuck in a cave. Based on a true story, Collins’ entrapment makes perfect dramatic sense. It’s easy to fall into a big hole. It can happen to anyone. Getting Jesse up that tree, on the other hand, involves such contortions of character and logic that the whole endeavor is less a flight of fancy, or even derangement, than it is hopelessly contrived.
In her quest, Jesse meets two forest rangers, Finn (Michael Park) and Becca (Khaila Wilcoxon), who take opposing views on Jesse’s whim to 1) be on what is private property, and 2) climb a redwood. If Finn and Becca didn’t disagree, “Redwood” would have no real story, but it is obvious from the get-go that Park’s free-thinking ranger is going to win out of Wilcoxon’s strident spoil sport.
And there are other problems with these keepers of the forest, who are two of the least ingratiating supporting characters ever to grace a Broadway musical. Finn is a child-man, who, suffering from TMI syndrome, complains about his being a father: “I have tried to play that part of the perfect husband dad guy – but the costume doesn’t fit me! I want to be here in the wild with my shirt off dancing in the rain, not worrying about getting home in time for dinner.”
Less sufferable is Becca, who says things like, “95% of California’s old-growth forests were cut down so generations of white cis male corporations could make their billions off indigenous land.” She also has her personal complaints, and calls the makers of safety helmets racist because their headgear doesn’t accommodate her big braids, which is why she had to shave her head. Why didn’t Princess Grace of Monaco ever think of that?
Only somewhat less scintillating are all the lectures Landau provides for Jesse’s long-suffering wife, Mel (De’Adre Aziza), who also mourns the death of the son Spencer (Zachary Noah Piser). Mel wants to try therapy. Jesse opts for tree climbing. While the one is off in the forest endangering trees, the other is pursuing her career as a photographer. Has no one ever told Mel, “Good riddance”?
At the center of all this drama, of course, is Jesse, who, frankly, is something of a cipher. She keeps thinking that she sees her son Spencer whenever she books a motel or gets a bite to eat. That’s understandable, because those characters are also played by Piser. When this actor shows up as Finn’s much-unwanted son, however, Jesse no longer recognizes him. Has she finally been cured of her hallucinations? What Jesse never recovers from is her desire to threaten the environment with her irresponsible tree-climbing.
It is a relief, sometimes, when the characters stop talking and sing. Sometimes. Kate Diaz’s score, with lyrics by her and Landau, is often affecting. Late in the show, the supporting characters played by Aziza and Piser are given luminous ballads (“Through My Lens” and “Still,” respectively) that don’t so much further the plot as expose a particular feeling or state of mind. Menzel also enjoys a quiet moment (“The Stars”) when she falls in love with the relative silence of the forest. Elsewhere, Diaz and Landau make sure that this forest is a very noisy place. They give Jesse far too many “Defying Gravity” moments, and Menzel’s signature laser high notes, which now sound very disconnected from the rest of her voice, are always delivered quadruple-f forte.
There’s a lot of rappelling up and down Stella, courtesy of set designer Jason Ardizzone-West. This aerial derring-do is far less impressive than Hana S. Kim’s video design. In “Wicked,” Elphaba ascends to sing “Defying Gravity” at the end of Act 1. Kim’s gorgeous images of trees achieve the same uplifting effect in “Redwood” without the help of hydraulics.
