Frozen is open on Broadway, and the critics are… luke warm. The leads (Caissie Levy as Elsa and Patti Murin as Anna) deliver on their parts, offering fully developed characters that feel inspired by the film but evolved enough to capture attention in a live setting. And the production is certainly stunning, even if a bit inconsistent in style, featuring crystal curtains and other kinds of impressive Disney magic. But translating an animated mega hit to the theatre comes with challenges… like how to balance a tone that alternates between high stakes and high goof and how to satisfy audiences of ages 3 to 99 (and who all know the source material inside out). In the end, it might be best to just let all that go and strap in for a beautiful musical journey… and maybe put your disbelief on ice for a couple of hours.
NY TIMES REVIEW OF FROZEN
Forget girl power, sisterly love and the high-belt clarion call of “Let It Go.” Anxiety over the handling of a precious gift is the theme that comes through loudest in “Frozen,” the sometimes rousing, often dull, alternately dopey and anguished Disney musical that opened on Broadway on Thursday. The precious gift is not, I hasten to add, the freeze-ray of Queen Elsa, which threatens her kingdom without any corresponding benefits. (Couldn’t they at least hook her up to a gelato machine?) Nor is it the warmheartedness of her sister, Anna, which puts her at constant risk of unelective cryogenesis. No, the precious gift causing so much anxiety at the St. James Theater is the 2013 blockbuster film from which the stage musical has been adapted. After all, $1.3 billion in box office is a lot of ice…
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY REVIEW OF FROZEN
You already know how you feel about “Let It Go.” At this point, after a 2014 Oscars performance by Idina Menzel (and subsequent win for best original song), a Grammy, and constant in-home sing-alongs by every child with a dream, Frozen’s anthem of self-acceptance has taken on a life of its own, and it’s too late to train a fresh eye on the tune. But there is a moment in the new Broadway musical that captures the energy of the song as you first heard it and focuses it into a lightning-fast quick change. In a single sequined gasp, Queen Elsa becomes Ice Queen Elsa. The applause is immediate; you might say it could set off an avalanche…
VARIETY REVIEW OF FROZEN
As Princess Elsa says in this snowy, showy stage adaptation of the popular Disney movie, “I’m not as cold as I seem.” Credit the thawing trend in Broadway’s “Frozen” to the lovable characters of Jennifer Lee, who wrote the film and now writes the book for the stage musical, and to the warmly human cast assembled by director Michael Grandage. Caissie Levy is stunning as Elsa, the beautiful princess with the cursed gift to turn her kingdom into ice, and Patti Murin makes a darling Anna, the earthbound princess whose love for her sister is the only thing that can set Elsa free…
NY1 REVIEW OF FROZEN
Full disclosure: “Frozen” is not my favorite Disney princess movie. Loved the message and the song, but the story seemed pretty convoluted even by Disney standards. As a musical, the plotting remains weak, but there is a special magic that only live theatre can produce, and it’s working a charming spell on the Broadway stage. There is, of course, Elsa’s magic, but I’m speaking of the thrill that comes from experiencing familiar material beautifully honed up close and personal. And this one was quite a challenge. How to recreate the G-rated spirit of the animated film while delving into the characters’ personal conflicts, which are pretty psychologically deep…
DEADLINE REVIEW OF FROZEN
Just before the start of a recent performance of Frozen, Disney’s winter blast in a two-decade flurry of remaking Broadway in its own animated image, a tiny girl a row back explained to the adult next to her that the blue and purple lights washing the stage weren’t just any blue and purple lights. “They’re the Northern Lights,” she explained with considerable authority. “It’s in the movie.”…
Broadway Musical Blog 