La Jolla Playhouse’s world premiere musical “Redwood” starring Idina Menzel sold out long before it opened last month, but San Diegans who didn’t get a ticket can now hear a live song from the score. And in a few weeks they can see for free the aerial dance company that taught Menzel how to climb trees.
On Tuesday, the producers of “Redwood” — a new musical by Tina Laudau, Menzel and composer Kate Diaz — released a lyrics video of Menzel singing the song “Great Escape” on YouTube.com. Captured before a live audience at the Playhouse, the song encapsulates the musical’s story about a despondent middle-aged woman who finds solace from personal tragedy by living high above ground in a California redwood tree.
“We knew we wanted the production to be cutting edge and unconventional. We have encouraged one another to dream big, break rules, and not compromise our creative ideas,” Menzel said, in a statement. “What I love so much about our show is that it’s managing to tell a very personal, intimate story against the much larger backdrop of nature, and the importance of escaping from the realities of the real world, which is something I think we can all relate to.”
“Redwood” opened Feb. 13 and closes March 31. Although the run is sold out, the Playhouse has said that occasionally day-of-show tickets become available. When this happens, the Playhouse box office announces available tickets around midday on its Instagram page at instagram.com/lajollaplayhouse.
Seen from below, BANDALOOP company members doing vertical dance on the side of a building. BANDALOOP will perform April 5 and 6 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival on the UC San Diego campus.
(Courtesy of Basil Tsimoyianis )
To help Menzel and other cast members learn how to rappel up and down a faux redwood tree onstage, the Playhouse recruited BANDALOOP, a vertical dance company based in Oakland that has been performing with the help of rapelling equipment on the sides of buildings and cliffs since 1991.
On Wednesday, La Jolla Playhouse announced that BANDALOOP will join the lineup for its 2024 Without Walls Festival, taking place April 4-7 on the UC San Diego campus. The free performances will be presented on the side of UCSD’s Design and Innovation Building at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. April 5, and 3:30 and 6 p.m. April 6. Reservations are not necessary.
The BANDALOOP troupe will be presenting excerpts of their new work “Downstream (tributaries),” which makes its world premiere April 19 in the Russian River Watershed at the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, California. The dance piece celebrates the ecological watershed and humans’ relationship with water, land and one another.
For more details on the Without Walls Festival, visit wowfestival.org.