Idina Menzel Will Lead World Premiere Musical REDWOOD at La Jolla Playhouse Next Year

La Jolla Playhouse has 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.

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.

In addition to Redwood, the Playhouse's 2023/2024 season will feature five other world premieres, including Love All by writer/actor Anna Deavere Smith (Twilight Los Angeles, 1992), directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Story); Is It Thursday Yet?, created, choreographed and performed by Jenn Freeman, created, choreographed and directed by Sonya Tayeh (Broadway's Moulin Rouge, Playhouse's Hundred Days), composed and performed by Holland Andrews; The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, music and lyrics by Joe Iconis; book by Joe Iconis and Gregory S. Moss, directed by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley (Come From Away); SUMO, by Lisa Sanaye Dring, directed by Ralph B. Peña, in a co-production with Ma-Yi Theater Company; and Babbitt, by Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro (Memphis), adapted from the novel by Sinclair Lewis, directed by Christopher Ashley, and featuring acclaimed stage and screen star Matthew Broderick (The Producers, Playhouse-born revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying).

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.

Kate Diaz

is an LA-based composer-songwriter-producer. Kate has scored animated series, feature documentaries and docu-series, and she also composes music for trailers and commercials. Her pop/rock songs have been placed in multiple tv shows, and she recently co-wrote and produced an end credits song for an upcoming documentary. A multi-instrumentalist, she self-produces her scores and songs.

Tina Landau

is a writer and director whose Broadway credits include The Spongebob Musical (also conceiver; Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle winner Best Direction and Best Musical, 12 Tony noms), Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts, and the revival of Bells Are Ringing (Tony noms). Tina has written and directed productions including the musicals Floyd Collins (with composer Adam Guettel, Playwrights Horizons) and Dream True (with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, The Vineyard), as well as Ms. Blakk for President (with Tarell McCraney, Steppenwolf Theatre), Space (Steppenwolf, The Taper, The Public), Beauty (La Jolla Playhouse), and Stonewall: Night Variations (En Garde Arts.) Her Off-Broadway productions include Bill Irwin and David Shiner's Old Hats, Chuck Mee's Big Love and Iphigenia 2.0 (all Signature), Paula Vogel's A Civil War Christmas (NYTW), and many works by Tarell McCraney including Head of Passes, In the Red and Brown Water (both at the Public) and Wig Out! (Vineyard). Tina is an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, where her over 20 productions also include McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays, The Wheel (with Joan Allen), The Doppelganger (with Rainn Wilson), and The Time of Your Life (also Seattle Rep, ACT). Tina's work has been recognized by the Tonys, Drama Desks, Drama League, Outer Critics, Lucille Lortel, Obies, and many more, and she's a recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship, Princess Grace Statuette, NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship, and Rockefeller and Pew grants. She's the author, with Anne Bogart, of The Viewpoints Book, and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Little Island in NYC. Her next musical production will be A Transparent Musical, which opens at Center Theater Group in LA in the Spring of 2023.

Idina Menzel

is a powerhouse multi-hyphenate: a singer, an actress in film and TV, a songwriter, a Broadway star, and a philanthropist. She rose to fame for her role as Maureen in the popular Broadway musical Rent, and her career took off when she won a Tony Award for her role as Elphaba in the smash musical Wicked. Her voice can be heard as Elsa in Disney's Oscar® winning Frozen, the second highest grossing animated film of all time. The film's song "Let It Go", voiced by Menzel, became an instant international phenomenon, winning the Oscar® for Best Original Song - where Menzel performed it at the ceremony - and the Grammy® Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. She reprised her role as Elsa in Disney's Frozen 2, which broke records to become the highest grossing animated movie of all time. She joined Adam Sandler in the Safdie Brothers' Film Independent Spirit Award-winning A24 film Uncut Gems. Menzel can currently be seen in the Disney+ documentary Idina Menzel, Which Way to the Stage?, Disney's Enchanted sequel, Enchanted 2: Disenchanted, alongside Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, and Susan Sarandon; as well as Amazon Studios' Cinderella, for which she wrote and sang the song "Dream Girl." Menzel's prolific recording career includes multiple cast albums and the solo albums: Still I Can't Be Still, Here, I Stand, idina, and her latest album, Christmas: A Season of Love. Her first Christmas album, Holiday Wishes, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Holiday Albums chart. Menzel received the Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award at Billboard's annual Women in Music event in 2014 and performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLIX. Additional screen credits include Lifetime's remake of Beaches, Disney's Enchanted, Maureen in Chris Columbus' film version of Rent, as well as the recurring role of Shelby Corcoran on Fox's Glee. Menzel was previously seen on stage in If/Then, for which she earned her third Tony Award nomination, Broadway's Aida and the Encores! production of Hair. Menzel also premiered Wicked in the West End, receiving the Theatregoers Choice Award. She and her sister Cara Mentzel recently released a children's picture book, "Loud Mouse," which centers on self-acceptance and being true to yourself. Menzel co-founded the A BroaderWay Foundation in 2010, dedicated to offering girls from underserved communities an outlet for self-expression and creativity through arts-centered programs.