At the center of a Broadway scene, a redwood and a woman who wants to be alone in her branches to release her sorrow.
This is the simple scenario of “Sequoia,” A new musical written and produced by Tina Landau and with Idina Menzel, famous for her roles in “Rent”, “Wicked” and “Frozen”.
It is tempting to compare who has the most imposing presence on stage: Mme Menzel with her athletic voice, who can reach high notes while she swings up a rope; Or the realistic silent tree, which she calls Stella. Its arrow heights and high -tech characteristics highlight creativity behind modern set design – and the role it plays in the transmission of a story on stage.
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When Idina Menzel is in a musical, she is one of the most spoken stars on stage. In his latest, “Redwood”, Stella, a massive tree, is in the running for the best invoicing.
“It is not your typical Broadway musical, and that's what I like,” says scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West in an interview. “'Redwood' … speaks to us in a very little musical way, in a thoughtful and complicated emotional way.”
The first 30 minutes of the show gave a dizzying rhythm. Jesse, played by Mrs. Menzel, stimulated by the death of her son, led west of New York until she finds herself in a Californian forest. Something called her there.
Recounting the story of a woman in lonely anxiety requires a complex network of ideas, artists – and even the public to give it life.
“It's spectacular,” explains Gail Trocola, a theater lover who sat near the stage during a recent performance. “I wanted to go and touch the trees.”
Scene and audience “are a space”
“Redwood” is a passionate project for Ms. Landau and Mme Menzel, an extent of their own life and interests. Ms. Menzel had long wanted to transmit the true story of Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived for 738 days in a 200 -feet High California to prevent the 1000 -year -old tree, aged something, be shot. After the death of her nephew, Ms. Landau found comfort during the pandemic looking at the dance branches in her backyard of Connecticut. She traveled with her wife to visit the Giants of California as part of her healing process.
The show is also a highly collaborative effort between Mr. Ardizzone-West and the designer of Hana S. Kim videos. A series of LED panels radiating outwards offers something new to Broadway – a set designed around fragments of light. Stella is the stoic tree colored and carved by hand in the center. But she also pivots. Its back is an curved LED screen which is part of the constantly evolving environment.
“I'm sure the redids are great in real life; I have never seen it.
During the show, on a clear set, signs are filled with city scenes, an open road, a starry night, sun wells through the forest, scintillating forest fictitious, shredded edges of the agitated psyche, and even of his google “butterfly hill. The design evokes the recent trend of immersive art exhibitions that allow viewers to walk in paintings on floors and walls.
But Mr. Ardizzone-West rejects the word “immersive”. “The whole concept is that the scene and the public are only one space. Public humans are part of the design of the room, ”explains Mr. Ardizzone-West, at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, in the design department for the scene and the cinema, where he is invited for the day. “The word I prefer is” kissing “.”
The foam seats in the theater are a good coincidence, he says. Sitting a few rows of the scene – with Stella, and a large part of the action rising above the head – gives members of the public the feeling that they are observant ground squirrels. The view of the perch mezzanine of people among branches like birds. The video representations of the forest and the movement are so realistic that they leave the wooded creatures, uh, the public, feeling Woozy during a rapid ascent.
The contrast between the presence of Stella and the constant change of video images works together to supervise the interior and external odyssey of Jesse to feel haunted to peace.
Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
“Some of my favorite moments are when we are in this very naturalistic evocation of a forest, then suddenly, we will crush in Jesse's brain for a second. … It is like a portal inside his emotional space,” explains Mr. Ardizzone-West. “We can move with the speed of light in the way memory can suddenly move on to something very scary or something tragic or beautiful.”
Roots imaging
The biggest redwoods can weigh 2.7 million tonnes and reach higher than the statue of freedom. But their roots are not deep; They reach the outside and bind with other trees. It is Mme Landau's favorite metaphor.
“The roots are the most important imagery for me in the show, how they reach space and connected. We must all find common points and keep each other,” Ms. Landau told a small audience after a recent spectacle. In the end, that's what Jesse does, while she draws the strength of her memories – forming hers heartwoodor nucleus, like a redwood – and reconnects with his wife.
Ms. Menzel wondered aloud if she could be courageous enough to climb and stay in a redwood. But also, she found herself looking at the trees as a guide.
“I fell in love with redwoods as an example of the way I want to live my life,” she said during the conversation after the show with representatives of partner organizations.
The last song, “Still”, follows a night that Jesse spends on a platform suspended from Stella while a forest fire encroached. It offers the final version of the 90 -minute trip to the summits. Mr. Ardizzone-West reflects on what the public remains.
“It is a woman in a tree, but one of the lessons is that she is not alone. And to heal, she must understand her links not only with nature, but with other people in her life, and in her memory of her son. It is a very simple story, but it is a story such universal and human.”
“Redwood”, which opened its doors in Broadway on February 13, will be played at the Nederlander Theater until July 2025.
Publisher's note: This article, initially published on March 13, was updated to correct the spelling of the surname of Jason Ardizzone-West and the first name of Gail Trocola.
