Five Things You Should Know About FROZEN's Patti Murin

Frozen has taken Broadway by storm this season and it's partly thanks to Patti Murin's spunky yet honest portrayal of one of Disney's newest heroines. Earlier this month, BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge chatted with Murin about being chosen to originate this role for the stage, her history with Disney shows, and of course, other highlights from the course of her Broadway career!

Here are five takeaways from the conversation that you should know!

She worked hard to find this character...

"I keep saying that I forgot that I actually know how to act as opposed to make faces and appropriate gestures," explains Patti. "The way [Michael Grandage] approached it, it was like a fairytale, sure, but it's a story that has to be told in a clear and concise way. He really drew so many thing out of all of us. His is rooted very deeply in truth and in human characteristics and what not. It's been a while since I've been treated like an actor as opposed to just a singer who can convincingly say words as well."

But relating to Anna hasn't been difficult...

Murin admits that she saw herself in Anna from the beginning. "When I saw the film I thought, 'Oh yeah. That's my girl!' She just doesn't quite have it all together like a lot of the classic princesses do, but that is what is so charming and wonderful about her. She doesn't know any better than to think that she has to be any different."

And Anna isn't Patti's first Disney princess...

Not only did she play Ariel in The Little Mermaid at The Muny, but she took on Belle in a national tour of Beauty and the Beast. "I actually started out as the understudy, but then a month before we started rehearsals, whoever was playing Belle got another job and they were like, "Let's just bump her up," and I was like "Okay!" I think I was going to be a spoon originally... quite literally. It's quite the promotion! Spoon to princess in one swoop!"

She has her very own Broadway Prince waiting for her at home...

Patti married Broadway's Colin Donnell in 2015, but they first met long before that. "We met at a friend's birthday party years ago- I think almost thirteen years ago now. We lived close to each other, we did not start dating right away. I think I was dating someone else at that point. Then I was on Broadway with Xanadu while he was doing Jersey Boys. I did not remember this until after we starting dating, I was telling my mom and she was like, 'Oh, he is the one that got us house seats for Jersey Boys, we met him afterwards. He was so cute!'"

She's an advocate for mental health:

Earlier this year, Patti earned applause from fans when she made a very personal post about needing a mental health day. "It was very freeing but I feel like it's been so good for me too because it also reminds me of how many people are out there dealing with the same thing because you just don't assume or you don't think about it," she says. "I've gotten so many responses, it has been overwhelmingly positive. I get a lot of letters at the theater and they don't even want an answer back, they just want to tell their story. It's pretty cool and I hope that I can keep doing things that make a difference, whether it's writing a book or like just establishing some sort of organization just to carry it out throughout the rest of my career."