Review: FROZEN at Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 28th May 2022.

Disney Theatrical Productions has brought Frozen: The Musical, another stage adaptation of a computer-generated cartoon film, to Adelaide. I'll admit to not having seen the film, so I approached this simply as a review of a musical, without making comparisons. The stage production adds another dozen songs, by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, to the nine that feature in the film, as well as extra work for the chorus and dancers.

As a child, Princess Elsa discovers that she has magical powers in her fingers that can freeze all around her, a dangerous power that she accidentally unleashes on her younger sister, Anna, as they play together making a snowman. Her parents call for help from the rock trolls and she is healed by Pabbie, and her memory of the event and her sister's power is erased. They then lock the gates. For the next decade, Elsa wears gloves and locks herself away in her rooms so as not to hurt her sister again. Her parents, having been lost at sea, she comes of age and is to be crowned Queen. At the coronation, she accidentally freezes the castle, and flees to the North Mountain.

Anna goes in search of Elsa, meeting ice harvester, Kristoff, with his reindeer, Sven, and also a small snowman, named Olaf, who help in her search. They find Elsa and explain that her spell has continued to grow, freezing the entire country of Arendelle, but she again accidentally releases her power, seriously injuring Anna, who can only be saved from freezing to death by a true love's kiss.

If this sounds familiar, it should, as it is based on Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, which, incidentally, also features a reindeer. One might also recognise elements of the White Witch, from C. S. Lewis's books, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Magician's Nephew.

The mood is established before even entering the theatre, with projections on the roof of the Festival Centre turning it into an icy mountain. This is a nice touch. Once inside and seated, the excitement of children anticipating what was to come created a constant buzz.

The young Elsa is variously played by Miranda Ferrigno, Makayla Healy, Amya Mollison, or Samara Wheeler, while the young Anna is played by Marli Lee, Matilda Murray, Stella Partridge, or Hunter Ribiero, all of whom, I have no doubt, will be as lively as the wonderful pair on opening night, Amya Mollison and Hunter Ribeiro. Lochie McIntyre performed the extremely physically demanding role of Sven, the reindeer. He shares the role with Jonathan MacMillan.

The adult sisters are played by Courtney Monsma, as Anna, and Jemma Rix, as Elsa, building beautifully on the strong sibling bond that exists between the two outwardly dissimilar women. Anna is still oblivious to Elsa's power and has no idea why her sister has avoided any contact as they grew up. Aside from being isolated from the outside world, and the sadness at never seeing Elsa, her life has been pleasant enough, and simple, but has left her uninformed about relationships and the ways of the world. Elsa, however, has lived her life in fear of what she might inadvertently do to those around her, and still wears gloves to stop her powers leaving her fingers. While Anna is bright and breezy, Elsa is rather austere and maintains a distance. Monsma and Rix offer superb contrasting characterisations but also show how much the sisters care for one another. There is a great deal of chemistry in their working relationship. It hardly needs mentioning, of course, that their singing is wonderful, and they really shine in their duets as their complementary vocal ranges blend in superb harmonies.

Anna falls instantly in love with Hans of the Southern Isles, who much later turns out to be not exactly the Disney prince that he first appears. The duplicitous suitor is played with plenty of swashbuckling style by Thomas McGuane.

Sean Sinclair plays Kristoff, the rough diamond mountain dweller, a human who lives with the rock trolls. Sinclair's Kristoff establishes a close relationship with his reindeer, Olaf. He gradually builds his character as he falls for Anna, and realises that he loves her.

Lochie McIntyre works hard as Sven, the reindeer, under the costume of which he is on stilts to obtain the height, movement, and shape of the quadruped. He gives the reindeer plenty of character, purely through his physical skills, endearing himself to the audience.

Matt Lee animates the snowman, Olaf, and provides his voice, in a captivating performance that often has one forgetting the existence of the puppeteer who is right there doing all the work. He adds a little bit of magic of his own in bringing Olaf to life.

Aljin Abella plays the crafty and devious Duke of Weselton, introduced at the coronation to his annoyance as Weasel Town. He is a self-important dignitary who makes much of being the largest trading partner of Arendelle, and has eyes on captivating Elsa. Abella brings a great deal of comedy to the role of a man with ideas far greater than his abilities.

Justin Anderson plays Oaken, another character adding a lot of laughs to the production, particularly with his energetic choreography, and the fun provided by those people using his sauna.

Extremely important, of course, are the visual aspects, the sets, costumes, lighting, projections, and sound. These are created by the team of Christopher Oram, Natasha Katz, Finn Ross, and Peter Hylenski. Puppet design is by Michael Curry, with the exceptional special effects designed by Jeremy Chernick.

Set changes alone receive huge rounds of applause, as do the visuals projected onto them as Elsa freezes them. Her instant costume change from black to white during the Let It Go number to close the first act, suddenly wearing a dress covered in thousands of Swarovski crystals, was astounding. There is as much here for adults as there is for the youngsters. Frozen is not just a musical; it's a spectacle. Make sure you get tickets. You'll probably want to see it more than once.

Photography, Lisa Thomasetti.

Frozen is at the Festival Theatre until July 24.