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April 9, 2025 12 mins

Idina Menzel joins us to discuss how she prepared for her new appearance in 'Redwood' the Musical!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is mister Wren in the morning show.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
So a Dina Manzelle about to walk through the door.
She is starring in Redwood, a musical Broadway. Not only
is she starring in this thing, and you saw her,
yes did ye? She's absolutely part of the team to
put it together. It's kind of I think her idea.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yeah, wait, you guys go see it because it's amazing.
The visual effects are incredible and she's actually climbing a tree, singing,
swinging all over the place. I don't know how she
does it. I want to feel her muscles because she
must have, like, you know, good arms.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, she's coming in now, Danielle wants to feel your muscles.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
I want to be.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Very nice.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
We're just talking about Redwood. Danielle saw it the other night,
she said, swinging around the trees and singing, and she said,
it's a little crazy.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
How do you How do you do that while you're singing?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Choreograph my breathing. And I've also found that I can
hang upside down.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
And sing pretty well like Spider Man.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, daniel says the staging is just amazing, that it's digital.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, the visual effects incredible because the only real thing
on the stage is the tree and then you and
everyone else. And it's a small cast too, and it's
only one one uh yeah, one act.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
There's no intermission. You don't have a pee break for
this one.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well we we didn't want. We thought they can't pee
because then they'll go get twizzlers and then that'll break
the whole world we've just created.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yes, he did.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
It was weird, No problem with that, right.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, I have my character Jesse, She's lives up in
a tree for some time, and we do say my
two friends and the show. They're these scientists, are tree
botanists who teach me all about this world. And they
bring in a bunch of stuff and they go this,
this trash is for trash and your waist. Yes, and

(02:01):
so everybody whenever I you know, I can't drink a
lot of water, and I need to drinkle lots of
water because I'm a singer, but I don't right before
I get on stage because I won't be able to.
And everybody always says, no, just go in the in
the trash can. And I said, how I'm going to
pull my pants down in front of everyone.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It's a part of the story make it a part
of the stage so authentic. Did you actually go to
California and climb some trees?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yes, one of the most special experiences was with a
man named Tim Kobar. So he brought me all the
way up and I've been learning how to climb. So
we climbed all the way up there, a little by little,
and he told me stories. And when we got off there,
I sang my songs from the show for him up there,
because I also wanted to feel what it would feel
like to just be singing these songs, you know, in

(02:44):
the real environment. And so it was just really one
of the most beautiful days. And he came to the
show and he brought me to baby redwoods.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So my friend Jobi is you were trying to figure
out can it go in her backyard in Vermont? In
my backyard? Right? Job? He says, they can grow there.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, well wow, Okay, no, I have a farm. Okay,
so GONEI wants to sneak out there in plant redwoods.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Just yes, I think I do the research for you.
Maybe you want just a thousand years from now, it
will up.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
I'm telling you, I'm not a religious person, but when
I was in the Redwood forest. I felt something there
that I cannot explain. With these thousand year old trees, you.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Will look at it.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
I'm coming.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
She's my new theater.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yes, you have to come. What is that like to be?
I mean, I know what I felt there? How do
you feel in there?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
The silence that you hear, it's a deafening silence. It's
you're all the life birds, all of the little creatures.
They live way up in the canopy, so you don't
hear much down there. It's just the moss and it's
very padded. So there's this beautiful silence down there that
can be like a sanctuary, but also which my character finds,

(04:10):
it can bring all the chaos back into your mind
because you're living in your own thoughts. So I think
that's kind of what the story is about. For my character,
is that she's trying to get as far away as
possible from her troubles and her heartbreak, and so she
thinks getting all the going all the way from New York,
getting in her car one night and driving all the

(04:31):
way to northern California, and she learns that, you know,
obviously we can't run from heartbreak and our loss we
have to figure out a way to connect with the world.
And so I think everyone in the audience, oh, you
were there. I feel like it's that kind of experience
for everyone, for us on stage, for the audience, that
we feel interconnected.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
I'm gonna lose it.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Now.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
There's two things. First of all, the name of your
son is Spencer, and that's my son's name character character. Yeah,
when your character starts talking about Spencer and then you
call him spending at one point, oh my gosh, I
just lost it.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
And then yeah, show.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
And then when you're in the tree and like you're saying,
you're going through all these emotions and you're spending the
night and you're going through chaos and then serenity and everything,
and then you name the tree. Which can I say
the name of the tree? She names the tree, Stella says.
Stella's talking to her. I started crying. My husband starts crying,
and I looked over to him and I'm just like,
he's like, this is just I don't even know what
it was, but it was just the most amazing moment.

(05:33):
And it just this clarity and this because the show
to me was all about strength and how at the
end of the day. The tree is so strong and
it's still there, and all the people that love you,
and all the people that are in your lives that
care about you, they're gonna still be there for you.
They're gonna always surround you. And so just you having
him name Spencer, these feelings in the tree and all
it's it was beautiful, and.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
It was beautiful the heartwood. Heartwood is the innermost part
of the redwood. It's impervious to to k and disease,
but it's actually dead. So it's this idea that the
people we've lost, whatever it is we're struggling with, they
can be inside of us, and they can be the

(06:15):
things that empower us and strengthen us and and help
us find out who we are. They don't have to
be the things that bury us. If you will, just.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
The description of this production is mind blowing. I'm loving it.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
And then it's funny.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
It is funny.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
The guy who plays the you know, with the beer
park so funny.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, okay, so laughing. We hate you with the Zingers
a little layer.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Her Son sings a song at one point forget it.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
You're spoiling the shut up, pour yourself together. Okay, So
there's more than Adina Menzel playing Jesse in Redwood. You
also are on the production team. You are producer, director,
created on the.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
D L because it used to say those kind of
things in the theater of vanity projects, even though in
film and TV you can be an actor. And but yeah,
I because I wanted to learn. I didn't want to
just sit around waiting for jobs, you know, I wanted
to learn other parts of of the business. And so

(07:22):
she as I'm getting older, I want to be able
to have some kind of control and create things for
myself and for other people, but also make sure I
got myself covered as I get a little that in.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Case the acting thing doesn't work out. You singing, he's
hit those flat notes production, I know it's every night.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, of course I sing two million notes in a night.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm gonna miss too, going going from acting and.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Producing being on Why you want to do that to yourself?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Seriously? Well, yeah, so there's an email, there's it's business,
there's dollars, signs, there is If that you don't.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Know life, you'd be so you would be so surprised.
Sometimes I go in to the theater for the first
part of the day and I go over I shouldn't say,
I go over to the office, the box office, box office,
and there's this lovely lady and how it's.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Going, How are we doing today? Wow?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Give me, give me the numbers. And she's like, and
she's been told by everyone else, do not tell me anything.
She's like, we're doing great, and people are coming and
there's lines around the block. Like she just tells me stuff.
But the idea that we've accomplished this after so many years,
that the idea that it is really here at the

(08:48):
Neederlander Theater where I got my start and my whole
career in rent.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Of course, thirty years ago.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
You guys were like, we were like your first interview,
you came up in the whole cast.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
You know, I'm in my same dressing room. That's awesome, yes,
but I want to come clean. I've been doing some
press and I've been saying, oh, I'm in the same
dressing room that Daphne room Bega and I were in,
and that the other dressing room adjacent was so small,
you know, because we are unknown, so they just like
put us in these tiny crasies. So now I'm just

(09:21):
a diva, right, So they've they've now broken down the
wall to the adjacent dressing room which used to have
three of the guys and I for the last six months.
Whenever I tell the story, I say, it was on
in Pascal, Anthony Rapp and my ex husband Tay Diggs.
But I just knocked that wall down and I've been in.
I thought it sounded look at you. So he just
recently came to the show. He was so blown away,

(09:42):
so supportive, so emotional about it, and I said, remember
used to be and he goes, do you don't know
I was in that dressing room. A good story, don't
change it.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
You get it right, Menzel, of course you was just
turning us on. Redwood is on Broadway. Today's Wednesday, So
you do two shows today, so you can be swinging
around a tree and singing twice a day, go straight.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
To the theater, take a quick nap, and then I go.
What I do is I gotten elliftical at the theater
now so that I can get myself moving and sweating
and singing at the same time. Because the morning shows
are just I mean, I will miss four out of
the two million notes that I have, and that is
just it's humiliating. Now, there's nothing more humiliating on Broadway stage,

(10:31):
where you just people come coming to see you. You're
known as this wonderful singer and you just crack like
all hell in the middle of a big importance.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
You just laugh it off. At this point, it's like,
what do you It depends more than fire me.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I try to have a short memory, you know. But
but it's our last night. I I there's a line.
There's a line I have, And I say, I have
a lot of experience. It's in art because I'm an
art gallery. On it. It's an art not trees. But
it's still valuable. Actually, I said, I have a lot
of experience. It's in cars, not trees. No, it's not

(11:06):
in cars.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
You don't know.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'm an art gallery Desira, I mean. And I was like,
sometimes you can't get out and who would have known
except you? And I came on stage at Michael USA.
Was funny. He's like, so you're a car dealer, a
really good card dealer today.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, one day you look back on and just
laugh and laughing cars.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I laugh at that stuff.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Is little Adina really proud of Big Adena right now
because you started in this dressing room that was so
tiny you were able to knock down all the walls,
and you're behind the scenes and in front.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I'm very proud of myself, and because I have a
fifteen year old son who's usually a moody teenager, he's
actually expresses his pride to me quite often. He was
here recently and he wanted to see the show three
times in different places, so to see through his eyes
that he thinks it's a really big deal. And he

(12:00):
actually reminds me when I'm pessimistic at times, like mom,
you're an icon seriously. So it's yes, thank you. I
am proud. I tend to be hard on myself, but
I've been taking a lot of time to to give
myself some props and then be able to see it
through my son as well. It is. It's pretty profound.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
That that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Congratulations, awesome Redwood. It's on Broadway and Adina Minzel's right
there at the top of the tree. She's up there.
Thank you for coming in today. You have two shows
to do today and four notes to miss.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Thank you wisely have awesome
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