stage Archives - Idina Menzel

REDWOOD, book by Tina Landau, Music by Kate Diaz, Lyrics by Kate Diaz & Tina Landau, with additional contributions by Idina Menzel, directed by Tina Landau, Feb-Mar 2024, lajollaplayhouse.org

Idina to return to stage in REDWOOD

January 12, 2023

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.

Tickets for the Playhouse’s 2023/2024 season are currently available through a subscription purchase, available at LaJollaPlayhouse.org or by calling (858) 550-1010. Single tickets will be on sale at a later date.

Idina to perform ‘WILD’ In Concert December 2021

June 8, 2021

stage, wild

December 2021, American Repertory Theater near Boston will present WILD In Concert [formerly known as The Circle of Becoming], a new musical fable about a single mother struggling to hold on to her family farm and connect with her teenage daughter, whose determination to save the planet endows her and her friends with powers they never knew they had.

Created by Tony and Obie Award-winning playwright V (formerly Eve Ensler, O.P.C., In the Body of the World, The Vagina Monologues), Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated songwriter Justin Tranter (Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons) and songwriter Caroline Pennell (Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez) and directed by Diane Paulus, this concert presentation features Tony Award-winning performer and songwriter Idina Menzel (Rent, Wicked, Frozen) as a parent confronting what it means for her family and her community to survive in a world facing mass extinction.

Tickets will first be available as part of subscription packages with American Repertory Theater in July, with individual tickets available at a later date. Visit AmericanRepertoryTheater.org for more information.

WILD In Concert
World Premiere
Book by V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Music by Justin Tranter and Caroline Pennell
Lyrics by Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell, and V
With contributions by Idina Menzel
Directed by Diane Paulus
December 2021 at the Loeb Drama Center

Photo of Idina Menzel having her hair and makeup done for Skintight's marketing campaign

Idina Returning to “Skintight” in Los Angeles!

July 15, 2019

skintight, stage

Following its successful 2018 run in New York City, Joshua Harmon’s play Skintight is heading to Los Angeles’s Geffen Playhouse’s 2019-2020 season.

Idina will reprise her lead role as Jodi Isaac. Joining Idina in the cast are Will Brittain, Eli Gelb, Harry Groener, Kimberly Jürgen, and Jeff Skowron. Daniel Aukin directs.

“Hanging on by a thread after her ex-husband gets engaged to a much younger woman, Jodi (Tony Award winner Idina Menzel, Rent, Wicked) retreats to her dad’s swanky Manhattan townhouse. But rather than the comforts of home, she instead finds her aging father’s new live-in boyfriend, Trey—who is 20. In his new comedy, Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Significant Other) brings neurotic family drama to the forefront as father and daughter contend with the age-old questions of how to age gracefully in a world obsessed with youth and where love fits into it all.”

Performances begin September 3 at the Gil Cates Theater.

Pre-sale tickets are available to Idina’s fans now at GeffenPlayhouse.org with code IDINA.

Single tickets go on sale to the public on July 22 at 12:00 pm PST.

A Stage Return in “Skintight”!

November 17, 2017

skintight, stage

Idina will be returning to the New York City stage this spring in Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Skintight!

Skintight is new scorching examination of beauty, youth and sex from writer Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Significant Other) and director Daniel Aukin (Bad Jews). Menzel stars as Jodi Isaac, a woman reeling from her ex-husband’s engagement to a much younger woman. She turns to her famous fashion-designer dad for support, to find him wrapped up in his West Village townhouse with Trey. Who’s 20. And not necessarily gay. But probably an adult film star. At least, according to Jodi’s son. Who’s also 20. And definitely gay. Skintight assays the nature of love, the power of attraction, and the ways in which a superficial culture persists in teaching its children that all that matters is what’s on the inside.

Performances begin May 31, 2018 at the Laura Pels Theatre in New York City. Tickets are available now with codeword IDINA.