Frozen: The Broadway Musical Review
With Frozen due to open in the West End in a few months (although who knows what will happen with COVID-19 causing all the theatres to close), it seemed like the perfect time for me to review the show when I saw it in New York last December.
Frozen is a musical based on Disney’s film by the same name and was playing at the St James Theatre in New York City, until it was sadly closed during the COVID-19 lockdown. It follows the same story as the film. Anna, the feisty, positive, younger sister, sets off on a journey to find her older sister, Elsa, after she accidentally sets off an eternal winter in Arendelle at her anointment to become queen and runs away to the mountains. Anna meets Olaf, the snowman, Kristoff, the mountain man, and his reindeer, Sven, along the way and they help her on her quest to save her sister. It is a story of sisterly love and learning to love and accept yourself for who you are.
The musical, despite following the same story, brings lots of new songs and music, as well as keeping some of the classics from the 2013 movie. The first characters we properly get to meet are young Elsa and Anna, who sing ‘A Little Bit of You’, which is about them making a Olaf for the first time, and also leads to young Elsa hitting young Anna with her magic, which is really the beginning of the end for Elsa until the end of the musical when there is of course a happy ending (it wouldn’t be a Disney story without one!). I was fortunate enough to see Fiona Morgan Quinn as young Anna and Suri Marrero as young Elsa in this performance, and they were beyond phenomenal! Both had amazing voices and brought such an exciting energy to the stage. Their acting was very natural, but big enough for the whole theatre to see, they were an absolute pleasure to watch. I have seen a lot of children in stage shows and they are always amazing, but I was completely blown away by these two. They continue their excellent performances through a couple more songs, before magically growing up into Caissie Levy (Elsa) and Patti Murin (Anna) at the end of ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’
(photo from @fionamorganq on Instagram)
Having described the kids as phenomenal, I am left with no words to describe the voices of Levy and Murin. They both have such power in their voices, while still being able to portray the struggles both sisters have been through. I will not say anything more about the two leads, because it is not necessary. They were cast for a reason and they show it.
One of the only things I did not love about the show was the set and staging for ‘In Summer’, Olaf’s solo song. Ryann Redmond plays the role of Olaf and does a great job of acting with her own face and body as well as puppeteering the snowman puppet (which is very cleverly designed but I will get into that later). My dislike was nothing to do with her, it was the set. Practically the entire show is full of incredibly detailed, realistic sets, except for ‘In Summer’, which has a cartoony style to it, and I know it is to show that he’s imagining, but since it’s the only time in the show where this style is used, I felt it was out of place and took away from the overall vibe of the show. If the cartoon style had been woven more into the show, especially around Olaf’s parts, I think it would have worked better, but it was only used in this one circumstance and I did not like that.
However, while I am on the topic of sets, I must talk about how stunning the rest of them are. Christopher Oram was the scenic and costume designer on this production, and I adore his designs. The sheer detail that goes into each of them is unmatched in any other show I have seen, and I ended up spending £19 on the souvenir programme, so I would be able to fully remember them! For anyone who does not know, programmes in England are usually only £10 maximum, so forking out nineteen is unheard of for me, but I could not resist. I would genuinely say that the sets alone make this production worth seeing. The costumes compliment each set amazingly as well, it makes the scenes absolutely stunning to look at.
(Kristoff (Jelani Alladin) and Anna (Patti Murin). Photo: Deen van Meer)
The special effects (by Jeremy Chernich) are so magical, and the lighting design (by Natasha Katz) just takes them to the next level. Lighting design and special effects seem to go hand in hand in this show, so I could not possibly know who designed which parts, I imagine it was a collaboration between the two though. One of the standout moments to me is when Elsa sets off the eternal winter. She touches the edge of the stage and the whole theatre turns to ice. Shards of ice shoot out of the wings and the floor is covered in dry ice smoke to look like snow. The set pieces to disguise the wings transform into snowy cliffs and its just incredible. The set change got a round of applause from the audience. It was magical to watch. The other major special effects moment I remember is near the end. The people of Arendelle are coming to capture Elsa and punish her for the eternal winter, and to protect herself Elsa makes huge icy spikes shoot up from the ground to block them out. They look so much like ice and are quite scary really. If I were one of the people of Arendelle I would certainly count them as a good reason to stay back!
(Caissie Levy as Elsa in Frozen: The Musical. Photograph: Deen van Meer)
Now I do not want to make this review too long, but it would be a crime of me to not discuss Olaf and Sven. Olaf is done in a sort of Lion King-esque style. He is a puppet attached to the actor. His feet were joined onto her feet and she controlled his arms, mouth, and head with her hands, using a not-quite-classic puppeteering set up. When they first came on, I was concerned that having the actor be taller than the Olaf puppet would be distracting, but it was quite the opposite. I found that I stopped noticing she was there and focussed mainly on the puppets face. But even on the occasions I did look at Redmond, she was mimicking the facial expressions and it almost added more to the character. Sven on the other hand, was slightly different. He was not a puppet per say, but I do not know if he could be classed as a costume either. He looked and acted just like a reindeer, but of course was not really one. He has only one person inside, controlling him (Adam Jepsen and Andrew Pirozzi switch off playing him, but you never see their faces, so I am not sure which one I saw!). The design is ingenious. It unfortunately is very difficult to explain though, but believe me when I say it is incredibly effective.
(Collin Baja and F. Michael Haynie in 'Frozen' North American Tour. Photo by Deen van Meer)
I adored watching Frozen and wish I could have seen it again while I was in New York City, but time and money were against me (NYC is awfully expensive!). I am extremely excited for it to come to London and will definitely be there as soon as I can. The cast list includes Samantha Barks as Elsa and Stephanie McKeon as Anna, two extraordinarily talented actors. Assuming it is going to be the same, or similar, to the Broadway production, I could not recommend seeing it enough, especially if you have children who love Frozen. But even if you have no children, it is so beautifully done that I have no doubts it will be enjoyed by adults too, I certainly loved it.
