Frozen: The Musical

 

When: 25th May 2024

Where: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

Writer: Jennifer Lee

Music and Lyrics: Kristen Anderson-Lopez                                                and Robert Lopez

Director: Michael Grandage

I love Disney and so it comes as a bit of a surprise that it has taken me so long to see Frozen, but I've always been fearful of the amount of children in the audience, I expected it to be noisy and disruptive. This audience was anything but that, whilst there were a larger proportion of small children dressed up as Elsa, they were so mesmerised by the action on stage they were silent for the majority of the show and when they weren't they were simply responding to the production with audible excitement. On top of this there was such a variety of people in the audience, with and without children, young and old, all of them marvelling at what they were watching. If anything this atmosphere is one of the reasons I had such an amazing experience, it simply felt nostalgic I felt like I child again, part of me even wished I had come dressed up as Elsa myself.  

Clearly when transferring the film to the stage there are many changes that have to be made, most notably for this was the music. The stage show still contains the majority of the classic songs from the film, but they have been reworked very slightly in order to fit the new form. I admired this, it showed a willingness not to copy the original word for word in order to gain the same audience, but to explore its new form. Breathing new life into the story. I think my only negative on this point would be the use of repeated phrases, I understand that it was a simple way of tying new ensemble moments to the already established music, but I know there's a storm and I know its still raging on you don't need to keep reminding me. The biggest change is the replacement of the "First Time in Forever reprise" for "I can't lose you". Initially I was disappointed by the reprises absence, it has always been a stand-out moment in the film, but I do understand why this change was made. The new song is a nice addition and it does highlight the sister relationship that seems to be missing from the second half of the film, yet I think the drama of the original song could have translated brilliantly to stage and would have created a dark contrast to much of the rest of the show.  

Controversially, I found some of the staging choices underwhelming. I think the physical sets were brilliant, the ice castle was stunning, the ballroom brilliantly demonstrated its grandeur. One of the standout scenes was probably "In Summer" which popped out the stage like a pop-up book to imitate a living postcard. It demonstrated what theatre can do and sometimes that the best can be simple. Yet I had two issues with the staging, firstly the use of projection. I'm not saying the projection was bad, I just felt it an odd choice to decide to transfer a film onto stage and then rely so much on film and projection. Some of the projection was really interesting, the floor projections were brilliant during let it go, but the screen at the back and on either side that often had projections of snow just didn't quite hit the mark in my opinion. My small other, more confusion really rather than issue, was the turning circles they were only used once at the very end to close the show. I did really like this usage of them it sort of connoted to me the idea of a snow globe and it was a nice way of showcasing all the characters we had met throughout the story, but my big question was why was this the only time we saw it used. My sister did think that it was likely used to move the sets, and whilst this does provide an explanation, I think if I was going to use it for people at one point, I would use it more frequently throughout. 

The final element I want to look at is the acting. I wanted to see this show mainly because I loved the film like most people in the audience, but being able to see Samantha Barks in it was definitely a bonus. Barks did not disappoint her performance was fantastic. The character shone through almost effortlessly and her vocals were incredible (despite the poor sound mixing). We saw an understudy playing Anna - Jemma Revell - who was amazing, again her performance felt natural and she nailed the quirky nature of Anna's character. I could give a shout out to everyone in the cast they all perfectly executed their characters, even the children which can be very hit or miss, but of course I think the other big stand-out was Olaf. The way in which the actor is both puppeteering and acting, is fascinating to watch. When he entered you could hear children shout "Olaf!" and the audience brighten, that was the sort of character that he portrayed throughout the course of the show. 

Whilst this isn't the most technically or intellectually advanced show I've seen, what it aims to achieve it passes with flying colours. This show is the perfect family show, an exceptional introduction for young children to the world of theatre and an exciting night out for everyone. I could knit-pick and the little things that I perhaps didn't like or though they should have done differently but that's not the point I had such a great evening out that the enjoyment I think in this instance out weighs the need for technical perfect, or a need to show off with innovation. It's a great show I really recommend every tries to catch it before it closes in September.