Idina Menzel will star a new stage musical Redwood!

Idina Menzel approached Tina Landau 20 years ago to work on this project

La Jolla Playhouse announced 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.

The musical is 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 changed 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.