‘REDWOOD’: (left to right) Khaila Wilcoxon, Michael Park, Idina Menzel, Zachary Noah Piser & De’Adre Aziza. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

REDWOOD
Book by Tina Landau
Music by Kate Diaz
Lyrics by Kate Diaz and Tina Landau
Directed by Tina Landau
Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41^st Street
https://www.redwoodmusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

Idina Menzel is back on Broadway, starring in the new musical Redwood—a show that is anything but standard musical-theater fare. The story is set in the redwood forests of Northern California and revolves around a troubled woman, Jesse (Ms. Menzel).

Jesse has a career and is a wife and mother. The trouble is, she’s grieving the recent loss of her only child to a drug overdose and has left her wife Mel (De’Adre Aziza) behind back east after an argument. She has traveled to Eureka on the California coast to explore the redwoods.

Deep in the forest

Jesse meets two dendrologist scientists in the forest: Seasoned climber and aging hippie Finn (Michael Park) and his young colleague, Becca (Khaila Wilcoxon), a tough, no-nonsense young woman. Jesse also meets the real stars of the show: scenic designer Jason Ardizzonne-West’s high-tech California redwood trees, enhanced by video designer Hana S. Kim’s curved LED columns, lit by lighting designer Scott Zielinski.  The central large redwood tree is theatrical high-tech at its best.

The other main attraction here is, of course, Idina Menzel and her incredible vocals. The 105-minute one act features 17 songs, of which Ms. Menzel sings 13, and seven of hers are solos. Her voice is as pure, powerful and soaring as it was 21 years ago when she debuted as Elphaba in Wicked.

Redwood has a running theme of the importance of finding oneself, but the musical is often too heavy-handed and comes across as contrived at times. Creating a musical based on drama instead of comedy is no easy task. Although Tina Landau and Kate Diaz have constructed a thought-provoking tale and composed many solid songs, Redwood is hardly in the same league as Hamilton, Sunset Boulevard or Wicked. A musical about a woman with a troubled marriage and a recently deceased child is not exactly lighthearted material. However, Ms. Landau is a gifted musical-theater creator and director—as anyone who saw the excellent and underrated 2017 musical SpongeBob SquarePants can attest.

Extraordinary cast

Despite the show’s shortcomings, Redwood features an extraordinary cast. Standouts include Khaila Wilcoxon as Becca. Her performance is consistently intense and engrossing, and she is in fine voice. De’Adre Aziza as Jesse’s wife Mel, and Michael Park as Finn, are both great in their roles. The real surprise of the show is Zachary Noah Piser as Jesse’s late son, Spencer. Mr. Piser is touching and poignant when he sings the musical’s best song, “Still.”

Redwood will certainly thrill Idina Menzel fans simply because she has so many songs. Although not all  the songs are memorable, her voice is consistently mellifluous and exhilarating. In spite of the often-awkward premise of Redwood, Ms. Menzel truly shines whenever she’s on stage, belting her heart out.

Published February 24, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on February 20, 2025

‘REDWOOD’: Idina Menzel & Khaila Wilcoxon. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘REDWOOD’: Zachary Noah Piser & Idina Menzel. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘REDWOOD’: Idina Menzel. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘REDWOOD’: Khaila Wilcoxon & Michael Park. Photo: Matthew & Evan Zimmerman.

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‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’: Ben Platt. Photo: Matthew Murphy

DEAR EVAN HANSEN
Book by Steven Levenson
Music & lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
Directed by Michael Greif
Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.dearevanhansen.com

By David NouNou

Dear Evan Hansen is an original musical that is epic in its universality and its theme is timeless. It is a phenomenon for every parent that has a troubled child, who may be misunderstood, lonely, despondent, troubled, bullied, or even suicidal; it is a musical of our time and for generations to come.

The story centers on an anxiety-ridden teenager, Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) who has to write himself letters of affirmation to build up his confidence and be able to socialize better with fellow students. On the first day of school, his letter is confiscated and read by the bullish outsider, Connor Murphy (Mike Faist). In the letter, Evan expresses his feelings about Zoe Murphy (Laura Dreyfuss) who happens to be Connor’s sister. At the end of the letter, he signs it “me.” Three days pass, and it is revealed that Connor committed suicide and the only thing on him was the letter he confiscated from Evan. Connor’s parents, Larry and Cynthia Murphy (Michael Park and Jennifer Laura Thompson), think it is a letter to a friend and they get in touch with Evan.

At first, Evan is at a total loss of what to say and do because there was never a friendship between him and Connor; but he sees how desperate the parents are and how much they want to know things about their son. With the aid of his cousin, Jared (Will Roland), Evan and Jared start fabricating backdated emails to give the parents some closure. Thus begins the tangled web that Evan has created for himself. At first he enjoys the fact that he is being noticed, that Larry and Cynthia become almost like surrogate parents, and Zoe starts to fall for him. In comes Alana Beck (Kristolyn Lloyd,) who was in a couple of classes with Connor, but never knew him, gets caught up in the hoopla, and wants to preserve Connor’s memory by starting the Connor Project and a website. Evan has to give a speech in school, and also does an online post about Connor. Naturally it becomes a media sensation and goes viral.

Meanwhile Evan’s mother, Heidi Hansen (Rachel Bay Jones), has no clue as what is going on and what her son is doing. Her husband left her and Evan 10 years earlier and she had to raise him alone. She is a nurse by day and taking paralegal courses at night, leaving her little time for Evan. She does her best to help but knows little what is happening with Evan, until she is invited to the Connors for dinner and then finds out through the Internet about The Connor Project and how Evan is co-president.

The web is so tangled and troubling to Evan that he is suffocating and losing himself in his predicament. He has to find his way out. I normally don’t like to give so much of the story, but must in order for the reader to understand the complexity of this piece. I also don’t want the reader to think that the piece is a depressing downer, morose or maudlin; on the contrary, it has a message of hope.

Michael Greif has taken this complicated tale and directed it with the lightest of touches. He knows it’s a heady topic and he treats all the action and movements with the utmost respect. The book by Steven Levenson is brilliant; he combines teenage angst and pains with today’s social media and all its trappings. The score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul is a marvel. They did an incredible whimsical score for the Christmas classic A Christmas Story but here the score reaches exultant heights that are haunting and riveting.

The entire cast is outstanding but the star of the show, Ben Platt, is a revelation. He has the acting chops, the singing voice, the looks, the charm, and the personality to make the star of tomorrow. His Evan Hansen is a performance for the ages.

Guess what, folks? Get your tickets while you still can, because come Tony time I see at least six major awards going to this masterpiece.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published December 9, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on December 8, 2016

‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’: Mike Faist & Ben Platt. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’: Ben Platt & Rachel Bay Jones. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’: Ben Platt & Laura Dreyfuss. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’: Ben Platt, Jennifer Laura Thompson & Michael Park. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

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‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Sarah Charles Lewis & the cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

TUCK EVERLASTING
Book by Claudia Shear & Tim Federle
Music by Chris Miller
Lyrics by Nathan Tysen
Based on the novel by Natalie Babitt
Directed & choreographed by Casey Nicholaw
Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th Street, (212-239-6200)
http://www.tuckeverlastingmusical.com/

By David NouNou

Tuck Everlasting is a well-intentioned musical but ultimately presents nothing new. To say that it shares a similar arc to Peter Pan is an understatement. Peter Pan visits a young Wendy but throughout the show he never grows up. Jesse Tuck (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) meets an 11-year-old Winnie Foster (Sarah Charles Lewis) but he never ages. Both are fairy tales and both have boys waiting for the girl to grow older so they can be together. But as we all know fairy tales–although end up having a happy ending–do not always end the way we would like them to end.

Tuck Everlasting was a novel by Natalie Babbitt published in 1975. It chronicles Winnie Foster being forced to stay home by her mother because the mourning period for her father’s death has been less than a year. Winnie wants to go to the fair that has arrived in town. Belligerently leaving her mother and Nana, she stumbles into the woods and comes across Jesse Tuck who says he’s 17 but in reality is 102. There is a reason for that. Many years ago, he and his family drank from the water trickling from a tree in Winnie’s back woods in New Hampshire and he ultimately tells her about their lives. She is kidnapped by the family; Angus Tuck, the father (Michael Park) Jesse’s older brother, Miles (Robert Lenzi) and their mother, Mae (the always delightful Carolee Carmello). The dilemma is now that Winnie knows the truth about the Tucks, what to do with her? So the story meanders into family tsuris that drinking from this fountain of youth and being able to live forever isn’t really a cure-all, but in reality a curse watching all their friends and loved ones die and having to keep running and hiding so people don’t get suspicious they are not aging. Jesse further instructs Winnie to wait six years for him until she is 17 before she can drink from the well and then they can be together.

Casey Nicholaw, acting as both director/choreographer, has a daunting task on how to keep this top spinning without it falling on its side. After all, he has done both chores for the outrageous Book of Mormon, the glorious Aladdin, and my favorite musical of the 2014/15 season Something Rotten!, there is no way of topping any of them so we are left in that gray zone of sitting through another musical that has an interesting book but is saddled with too many non-descript songs.

Fine acting and singing is done by all, especially Carolee Carmello, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Michael Park, and Robert Lenzi. Also noteworthy are Fred Applegate as Constable Joe, in search of Winnie when she is suspected to be lost; and Terence Mann as the man in the yellow suit, the carnival barker. All are talented indeed, but unfortunately the material doesn’t challenge them to be more interesting, so they end up being too one-dimensional. One must mention the lady of the evening, Sarah Charles Lewis as Winnie, for she makes a formidably self-assured Broadway debut.

Tuck Everlasting presents to each audience member the dilemma of would you drink from the fountain of youth and live forever or would you rather live your life to the fullest the way nature intended and enjoy whatever it presents you, with the possibility of a happy life: falling in love, getting married, having your own children, losing your parents and the cycle keeps revolving as life is meant to be lived? Your choice.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 1, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on April 30, 2016

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Carolee Carmello & Michael Park. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Fred Applegate & Michael Warte. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Terrence Mann & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Robert Lenzi & Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: (left to right) Terrence Mann, Andrew Keenan-Bolger & Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger & Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Robert Lenzi, Sarah Charles Lewis & Carolee Carmello. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Terrence Mann. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

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