The latest musical adaptation of a beloved Disney film fails to justify its exorbitant ticket price.
Some previous children’s musicals, notably The Lion King, have successfully taken Disney to Broadway. The stage version of Frozen that just debuted at the St. James Theatre, though, is turning one corner of Broadway into Disney World. The musical is such a literal, dutiful take that it’s the kind of thing you’d expect to pop up before your eyes unannounced at the Magic Kingdom itself, in front of Cinderella’s Castle, while you’re feasting on chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. I’m not saying the principal actors in Broadway’s Frozen are animatronic bots, but if you had peered backstage during the intermission, I suspect you would have seen several of them plugging themselves into outlets.
When bringing a justly beloved Disney property to the stage, as director Michael Grandage has done, you have to ask yourself if you want to truly adapt the material or simply reenact it. Do you want to do a live version of what we’ve already seen at the movies or do you want to build a show, man? With its resolutely unimaginative style, Frozen reminded me less of The Lion King than it did of another enduring Disney property — The Country Bear Jamboree, that down-home entertainment from another era.
Fresh it is not, but Frozen, I hasten to add, is also not bad. “Not bad” is not good enough when you’re spending well over $100 for a single orchestra seat and a mere souvenir program will cost you $25. Unless your kids are paying for all of this, you have every right to ask, “What’s in it for me?”
Unless your kids are paying for all of this, you have every right to ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’
All of the brilliant songs from the 2013 movie are here, and no show armed with such a wealth of bouncy numbers — “For the First Time in Forever,” “In Summer,” “Love Is an Open Door,” “Fixer Upper,” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman,” “Let It Go” — can be wholly unengaging, assuming the songs are competently executed, as they were at the performance I saw. The songwriters who wrote all of these, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and her husband, Robert Lopez, have come up with several additional songs, including a sparkling new number for the start of Act II. The general-store owner Oaken sings “Hygge,” that Scandinavian concept of shared coziness, here imagined with cheerful Scandis scampering in and out of the sauna and drinking merrily. The number wraps up with a crazed can-can, which will put to rest any suspicion you may have that Nords tend to be reserved. (Just kidding: Any actual Norwegians in the audience will no doubt be scowling and thinking, “I wish the American lifestyle magazines had never learned of our sacred hygge.”) The staging of “Let It Go” at the end of Act I is suitably glittery, with projections of ice dappling the stage, sparkling curtains of beads falling everywhere, and lavish use of dry ice, all of the bustling scenery setting up an instantaneous and spectacular costume change by Elsa (a bland Caissie Levy).
Other expected highlights fall flat, though: The scenery is dreary and apparently made out of wood. So are the actors. Greg Hildreth, as Olaf the snowman, plays the part in a furry coat and hat, standing just behind a four-foot puppet of the character that never fails to be distracting: Are we supposed to be watching the actor or the marionette? “In Summer” is supposed to be a show-stopper, but as performed by Hildreth, presented unimaginatively against a beach-scene postcard and a desultory display of sea shells popping out of the floor, it isn’t even a show-slower. As Princess Anna, Patti Murin is an even bigger letdown, scrounging for laughs with one desperate facial contortion after another, while Jelani Alladin is a bore as Kristoff, and Levy proves lifeless as Elsa. Only John Riddle, as Anna’s dashing suitor Hans, has any charm at all, playing the character’s lovestruck wonder with goofy innocence.
Sticking as closely as it does to the movie — even reproducing Anna’s green coronation-day dress and Elsa’s ice-blue “Let It Go” gown — Broadway’s Frozen is still likely to appeal to the most forgiving Disney fans. Your kids will probably enjoy it, as my six-year-old did (as she was wearing her Elsa costume, she was hardly going to fail to enjoy herself). But those who are more cost-sensitive than a first-grader should know that Broadway is positively abloom with family-friendly options right now, and heavily discounted tickets are available for several shows that are notably better than Frozen, such as School of Rock and Anastasia. If your kids insist on seeing Frozen, employ delaying tactics till it hits the half-price booth. Unless the cost never bothered you anyway.