"Redwood" Is Dead Wood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         I know, girls, I know, that headline could have been the entire post.

                                        There is an urban legend, popular among gay men, that every one of us has a friend who has a friend who knows Idina Menzel.  I don't know who that friend is among my circle, darlings, but after seeing Idina in this, I don't think she will be spending much time on the Broadway stage.  Her era has come to a screeching halt.

                                           Could "Redwood" have been a salvageable show?  Maybe, if it was just Idina.  Unfortunately, the score,, by Kate Diaz and lyrics by Diaz and Tina Landau, who also wrote the book and directed the production, is sub-par on all accounts.  I have seen my share of turkeys over the years, but never before have I wanted to fall asleep so soon in the first act.  I literally had to fight back sleep, and I was not on medication.  I hoped the rest of the show would improve, but, for me, it did not, so I saw the whole thing.  I should have trusted my instincts and just gone off.

                                              Idina Menzel plays this character named Jesse, a lesbian, whose son, Finn, died from presumably an accidental drug overdose.  She thinks leaving her life and convening with nature will solve her problems, but all it does is show what an uncaring, unsympathetic character she is. If the writers intended to make Jesse sympathetic, they failed miserably.  These two other characters, Mel and Becca, should have been eliminated; they are so uninteresiting.  Short of Jesse twirling from a tree, like some ersatz version of Mary Martin getting ready to play "Peter Pan," there is no genuine musical theater choreography.  Maybe because this isn't a genuine musical.

                                                   Oh, I know I sound like a bitch, but then, girls, you did not sit through this, I did.   It closes on Sunday, May 18, if you want to check it out.  Be my guest.

                                                      I have only two final words for this show--

                                                       Chop!  Chop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!