Meyer Sound System Helps Jonathan Deans Achieve Sonic Vision for Broadway's Redwood

	"It's not until that character discovers the redwoods that we open up the whole surround system and we're all now within that forest, both visually and sonically."

Redwood, the new Broadway musical starring Tony Award winner Idina Menzel, is more than seen and heard, it's profoundly felt -- its narrative brought to life through dazzling projected visuals and an immersive soundscape created by sound designer Jonathan Deans. Leveraging Meyer Sound's advanced technologies, Deans transforms the Broadway theatre environment into a vibrant, breathing forest where every sound envelops every audience member.

Conceived by Menzel and director Tina Landau (who also wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics) with music and co-lyrics by Kate Diaz, Redwood tells the poignant story of Jesse, a New Yorker who, grieving a devastating loss, finds solace among the ancient redwoods of Northern California. The show, which opened at the Nederlander Theatre in February 2025, challenges Broadway conventions by pairing a deceptively simple stage set -- the trunk of a redwood tree -- with expansive sound and projected visuals that extend beyond the proscenium, drawing the audience deep into the heart of the forest and into Jesse's psyche. Together, these elements not only set the scene but become integral characters in their own right, driving the emotional arc and heightening the dramatic stakes.

Translating Redwood's themes to immersive soundscapes was a familiar challenge for Deans, a veteran designer who has crafted sonic landscapes for hundreds of Broadway and West End productions and 16 Cirque du Soleil shows. Deans joined Meyer Sound as senior specialist, theatrical production systems, in 2024.

"Because much of Kate Diaz's work has been filmic, and she's also writing songs, she was able to create compositions to be used in a multichannel way," Deans says. "The show starts before Jesse gets to the redwoods. That part is a very traditional kind of sonic adventure, which is onstage around the proscenium. It's not until that character discovers the redwoods that we open up the whole surround system and we're all now within that forest, both visually and sonically. For me, that was a very easy thing to grab onto, based on my experiences with other productions, especially Cirque du Soleil -- but applying that here to something that is more 'real,' more understandable."

Using Meyer Sound's audio technologies, including the Spacemap Go spatial sound design tool, Deans created an enveloping sonic experience that makes the forest's presence felt in every corner of the theatre. "There's a huge difference between something coming at you from a proscenium to where you're sitting in it and you're being wrapped with a blanket of sound and becoming part of the story itself," he explains. "You're in it, as opposed to watching it."

Deans says Meyer Sound systems' power and transparency helped him achieve his sonic vision for Redwood. "The sound is so neutral, you're not necessarily aware of the system itself because it belongs to the music and the production. It's at a high quality -- the air, the space, the dynamics, the depth, and the voicing; if you want to move speakers and add speakers to cover different areas, the voicing is critical. And, just the dependability. All those things allow us to create this experience night after night."

The show's Meyer Sound system, supplied by New York-based PRG, centers around 16 LEOPARD compact linear line array loudspeakers and 18 LINA very compact linear line array loudspeakers. Across the auditorium, the design incorporates multiple generations of point-source loudspeaker solutions including two ULTRA-X40, 14 ULTRA-X20, and 16 ULTRA-X22 compact point source loudspeakers and 56 UP-4slim ultracompact loudspeakers, supported by UPA 2P and UPJ-1P products. Supporting the system the system are elements from the low-frequency control family, with four 1100-LFC, three 900 LFC, and two 750-LFC low-frequency control elements delivering low-end impact. A further 26 loudspeakers are installed onstage. The whole system is controlled by Galileo GALAXY and D-Mitri network platforms.

"It's taken what would be called immersive now and taking it up several notches," Deans explains. "This is not a traditional format like 5.1; we created our own format, because we have four areas of the auditorium -- the front, in front of the balcony; the balcony; the rear balcony; and underneath the balcony, in the orchestra level -- and they're all different as far as we're spatially concerned."

Because the scenic design relied heavily on LED video walls, speakers had to be placed in very specific locations, often projecting sound onto screens, taking advantage of reflections to provide a sense of distance, or to tone down direct energy focused on close audience members. "The layout had to be very tight, within inches," he says. "I would have to say things like, 'I can only go down to this size speaker in this area, can you move that screen, or slightly angle it, to give me that room to put that speaker?' When I look around here, I'm seeing the nooks and crannies where the speakers are all very much planned between myself and the set designer."

"There's been an understanding of unity from the beginning to all departments, but especially sound and music, to work as one cohesive idea and support for each other," says Deans. "It's the first production that I know of, that has been done in a legitimate Broadway theatre, that has fully immersive screens, with an immersive film score, with leading actors of this caliber," he says. "It's super cool."