Original Broadway Cast, 2025 (Sony Masterworks Broadway) (2 / 5)  Redwood, which lasted only 127 performances on Broadway, has a score that exposes several of the musical’s inherent weaknesses even while showcasing the undeniable talents of its cast. With music by Kate Diaz, lyrics by Diaz and Tina Landau, and a book by Landau, the show centers on Jesse (Idina Menzel), a woman grappling with the profound grief of her son’s death. Unexpectedly, she finds solace and healing in connecting with a giant redwood tree. Jesse is first introduced to the beauty of the redwoods by tree experts Finn (Michael Park) and Becca (Khalia Wilcoxon) while she is trying to avoid processing her grief by running away from her life with her wife, Mel (De’Adre Aziza). As always, Menzel delivers a vocally powerful performance, and these songs are clearly tailored to her strengths, but at times, her singing here overshadows the complexities of Jesse’s emotional state. The score can be broadly divided into two parts: the modern musical theater-style ballads that comprise the majority of Jesse’s solos (“Great Escape,” “In the Leaves,” “No Repair,” et al.) and the more rhythmic, folk-inspired songs for the other characters (“Little Redwood” and “Becca’s Song,” for example). Those items in the latter group most effectively capture the magnificence of the show’s redwood forest setting, yet the result is a score that often feels more cinematic than theatrically intimate. Breaking from this pattern, Jesse’s son Spencer (Zachary Noah Piser) appears to her in a dream at the end of the show, offering her closure and giving listeners the most memorable track on the recording, a delicately performed song titled “Still.” Ultimately, despite Menzel’s presence and a strong supporting cast, this album only hints at the more compelling musical Redwood might have been, had it featured a more distinctive and nuanced score. — Forrest Hutchinson