Idina Menzel is back on Broadway.
On Thursday night, the actress, best known for her iconic roles in “Wicked” and “Rent,” returned to the Broadway stage after a decade-long hiatus in the new musical “Redwood” at the Nederlander Theatre.
“It’s a homecoming, and I’m at the Nederlander Theatre — where “Rent” premiered — so it’s full circle,” Menzel said. “It’s extremely emotional.”
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“Redwood” follows the story of a married woman whose son has passed away from an overdose. Grappling with grief and trying to maintain her relationship with her wife, she travels from New York City to California and ends up climbing redwood trees with a group of eco-scientists, ultimately finding a bit of healing.
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The buzz around Menzel’s return to Broadway enticed a star-studded list of attendees that included Adam Sandler, Amy Poehler, Gayle King, Lizzy McAlpine and Sara Bareilles. Sandler, who sported his typical hoodie and sweatpants, slipped into an aisle seat as the show was starting, periodically bopping his head to songs throughout the evening. Some of Broadway’s finest were also in attendance including Kelli O’Hara, Micaela Diamond, Betsy Wolfe and Menzel’s “Rent” costar Anthony Rapp.
While any show opening is celebratory, attendees were especially excited to gush about Menzel.
“I’ve been a fan of hers forever,” said singer and “The Notebook” songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. “I know I’m gonna be inspired…I’m just ready to soak it all in.”
Bareilles added: “I love Idina….Welcoming the queen back to the stage is incredible.”
Meanwhile, some felt like Menzel had never left.
“I love that everyone is framing it as this return to Broadway,” Diamond said. “It, to me, feels like she never left because she stays in my ears at various points of the year.”
Most attendees were entering the show not knowing much, other than the fact that redwood trees were involved.
“I expect to see [Menzel] at some point cascading down a tree singing her face off, and that is what we are all here to see,” Wolfe said.
“Stereophonic”’s Eli Gelb joked: “I know [that] there’s trees.”
That being said, many were eager to dress on theme for the evening.
“Redwood” writer Tina Landau wore a black Libertine coat featuring a pattern of sprawling white trees. Many, including Diamond and actor Troy Iwata, noted they had opted for earthy tones. Bareilles and Michaelson both sported jumpsuits.
“It could easily go from here directly into the woods,” Bareilles said of her denim version.
Although the show is just hitting Broadway after its run at the La Jolla Playhouse last year, Menzel and Landau had been discussing the concept for 15 years and began to establish it during the pandemic.
“At curtain call, when the show was over, we both got a little teary because we have so much history and so much of ourselves poured into this, so it feels very gratifying,” Landau said.
The show deals with wildfires, which felt especially resonant for many after the recent devastation in Los Angeles. Ahead of the opening, Landau noted that the team reviewed every aspect of the show to ensure this topic was presented with care.
“We wanted to make sure that we gave respect and dealt with it sensitively and thankfully, a lot of folks who have been with us at the show from Los Angeles have thanked us and said that they found it not insensitive but actually healing,” she said.
Coproducer Dominique Sharpton said: “In this time now, we’re really looking for things to empower us, uplift us and inspire us, but we also want to enjoy ourselves. I am excited about this because you get to do all of that.”