redwood

La Jolla Playhouse announces its final production for the 2023/2024 season: the world-premiere musical Redwood (February/March 2024), book and direction by Tina Landau (Playhouse’s Beauty), music by Kate Diaz, lyrics by Kate Diaz and Tina Landau, with additional contributions by the acclaimed Tony Award-winning performer Idina Menzel (Wicked, Frozen), who will star in the production.

Broadway icon Idina Menzel makes her La Jolla Playhouse debut in the world premiere of Redwood, a one-of-a-kind theatrical event about one woman’s journey into the precious and precarious world of the redwoods. 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.

“What a thrill to cap off our 2023/2024 season with this riveting new musical that overflows with invention, inspiration and empathy. The Playhouse has been developing this piece since we reopened our doors, working with the dynamo team of Tina Landau, Kate Diaz and Idina Menzel – each a visionary artist in her own right – to create an extraordinary work that reaches for the sky and touches the soul,” said Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.