redwood nederlander theater | book by: tina landau, music by: kate diaz, lyrics by: kate diaz & tina landau, conceived by: tina landau & idina menzel, additional contributions by: idina menzel, with: de’adre aziza, michael park, zachary noah piser, khaila wilcoxon, daniel brackett, bradley dean, veronica otim, jessica phillips, scenic designer: jason ardizzone-west, video designer: hana s. kim, costume designer: toni-leslie james, lighting designer: scott zielinski, sound designer: jonathan deans, directed by: tina landau, vertical movement & choreography by: melecio estrella / bandaloop, prop supervisor: claire kavanah, associate scenic designer: sean sanford, assistant scenic designer: emma antenen, studio assistants: laura valenti & mehula singh, production manager: liza luxenberg, aurora productions, general manager: carl flanigan, mep, scenic fabrication by: prg, scenic painting by: scenic art studios, produced by: eva price, caroline kaplan, et al, orginally produced by: la jolla playhouse, production photographs by: matthew murphy & evan zimmerman

reviews

new york times critics pick
“…and we meet our other star. she — for jesse not only genders her but also names her stella — is 14 feet wide and 300 feet tall and centuries if not millenniums old.. i am sure redwoods are awesome in real life; i have never seen one. but the tree that landau and her designers have put onstage is among the most beautiful and wondrous theatrical creations I can recall.. like menzel’s jesse, stella is multifarious. her trunk rotates into place like an animated richard serra sculpture (scenery by jason ardizzone-west). spectacular video by hana s. kim renders her towering swirl of branches on a series of 1,000 immersive led panels. a canopy of flickering sunlight and star shine (by scott zielinski) along with a soundscape of rustles and soughs (by jonathan deans) give her what feels like an inner life. at times she even seems to dance — and yes, she sort-of sings.”
-jesse green [full review]

variety
”the rest of the musical deals with Jesse’s healing, the interconnectivity of this forest, and her special bond with one particular giant tree. it’s this singular majestic redwood, planted centerstage, that grounds the production and gives this sapling of a story its roots. but this essential co-star is far from wooden, enlivened by an extraordinary design team: jason ardizzone-west’s towering and awe-inspiring set design; hana s. kim’s panoramic, immersive and pixel-rich projections; scott zielinski’s forestial lighting, and jonathan dean’s rich soundscape. collectively, it is perhaps the most impressive replica of natural splendor on stage since ming cho lee’s design for the play “k2.””
-frank rizzo [full review]

playbill five reasons to see redwood on broadway
”2. the set design is stunning. in redwood, menzel's character jesse runs away from her cosmopolitan life following a family tragedy. she then lands in a redwood forest and the show follows her attempts to work her way through her grief with the help of nature. the set of redwood (from designer jason ardizzone-west) is truly transportive, seamlessly taking you from jesse's tumultuous home life to the redwood forests of california. and what a forest it is. there is a particular moment, with the help of hana s. kim's projection design, where it feels like you as the audience are flying through a redwood forest and up into the canopy of the trees. it helps that the stage and the box seats are covered in floor-to-rafters screens, allowing the forest to completely cover the audience's vision. the pièce de résistance of the design is a recreation of a redwood trunk, which is named stella and may be this writer's new favorite plant on broadway (regrets to maybe happy ending's hwaboon). stella is textured and magnificent—when menzel hugs her, she can only reach a small portion. when the show's actors climb up and down stella on ropes, the tree is never overshadowed. there's a moment in the show where stella might be in danger, and I was sitting there hoping she'd be okay, a testament to her impact on the characters and the audience.”
-diep tran [full review]

deadline
”hana s. kim’s video projections, jason ardizzone-west’s scenic designs, scott zielinski’s lighting and jonathan deans’ sound are so potent they come close to vertigo-inducing. as the actors fly on their ropes, the massive projected forest begins to move, soaring and taking the audience with it. It’s a wonderful effect, so powerful in its execution that at moments the entire theater seems to be rising.”
-greg evans [full review]

new york theater
”but a star can work wonders. In this case, I don’t mean menzel, as welcome as she is. I mean the tree. “redwood,” which opened tonight at the nederlander, features a tree that’s extraordinary in two different ways. through the set, projections, light and sound, the designers envelope us in the tree’s majesty, a work of stunning stagecraft that for a few moments even elicits something close to the sort of ineffable feeling of awe one gets in actual nature. that awesome and fascinating tree turns “redwood” into a kind of poetry…”
-jonathan mandell [full review]

entertainment weekly
”throughout, scenic designer jason ardizzone-west and media designer hana s. kim combine their talents to immersive effect, bringing the colors and textures of the forest to life, dissolving the bounds of the theater as we join jesse in nature.”
-shania russell [full review]

blogcritics
”the production’s vitality and excellence lie in its performances, its technical splendors, its moments of soaring, lyrical music and its unique presentation. tina landau has outdone herself pulling all the creatives’ vision together in a startling production.”
-carole di tosti [full review]

press

vogue how the creative team behind redwood set idina menzel aloft (again)
“a lot of people use the word ‘immersive’ to try to describe what we’re doing,” says ardizzone-west. “i think what we were focused on is making the space and the story embrace the audience…rather than immersing the audience.”
-luna adler [full article]

the christian science monitor idina menzel’s new broadway show has a towering co-star: stella the tree
“some of my favorite moments are when we’re in this very naturalistic evocation of a forest, and then all of a sudden we’ll crash into jesse’s brain for a second. ... It’s like a portal to the inside of her emotional space,” says mr. ardizzone-west. “we can move with the speed of light in the way that memory can very suddenly switch to something very scary or something tragic, or beautiful.”
-kendra nordin beato [full article]

live design redwood: a fresh new musical, embarks on broadway
”ardizzone-west collaborated closely with kim on the production design. “we knew that video would be a very strong component, and it was exciting to create physical space that functioned as canvases for hana’s work. but really, we all shared this notion of approaching the design sculpturally and conceptually, rather than as a series of screens,” said ardizzone-west.”
-adrienne gurman [full article]

broadway direct how redwood hits new heights on broadway with an innovative design
”the production’s deceptively simple set design centers on the 13-foot-wide trunk of a redwood tree, surrounded by an abstract and geometric space that ardizzone-west describes as a sculptural “canvas” of led screens. projection designer kim paints on that canvas, using digital video not only to create components of the environment but also to reveal individual perspectives of each character’s experience of a place”
-gordon cox [full article].

broadway news creating a cutting-edge musical with redwood
“the goal was never to reproduce the redwood forest onstage,” ardizzone-west explained, “but rather to let the audience understand jesse’s perspective — what her experience of the redwood forest was or her experience of grieving and memory. so the spatial, lighting and media design were all working together to try to achieve that goal of bringing the audience into her head.”
-ruthie fierberg [full article]

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