Olney Theatre Center to Present Regional Premiere of FROZEN

Olney Theatre Center is one of the handful of regional theatres chosen by Disney to create their own, original production of Frozen, runs the musical October 24, 2024 - January 5, 2025 on the Roberts Mainstage. Written by the Oscar and Tony Award-winning team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez (Music and Lyrics) and Jennifer Lee (Book), the international sensation is directed at Olney Theatre by Alan Muraoka, best known as the proprietor of Hooper’s Store on Sesame Street. This will be the Emmy Award-winning actor and director’s third musical at Olney, where he previously directed Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific and Once On This Island. Local favorite Alex De Bard (Kinky Boots) stars as Anna and is joined by rising star Gabriela Hernandez as Elsa, Kennedy Kanagawa (Broadway’s Into The Woods) as Olaf, and Ricky DeVon Hall (Woolly Mammoth’s Incendiary) as Kristoff.
 
Tickets are available to the public from $26 - $110 and can be purchased at olneytheatre.org/frozen or by calling the box office at 301-924-3400.
To accommodate younger audiences, curtain times for this production only will be at 7:00 pm for evening performances and 1:00 pm for matinees.
 
Says Artistic Director Jason Loewith, “It’s a great testament to the success we’ve achieved with our big holiday musicals like Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins that Disney selected Olney Theatre Center to mount the Frozen’s first resident professional production in the DMV.” He continued, “Alan Muraoka with, his decades of experience on Sesame Street, leads the biggest creative team we’ve ever put together.  Both kids and adults are going to love this new, intimate staging of Disney’s smash-hit celebration of sisterhood.”
 
Muraoka has won 2 Emmy Awards for Directing and Producing the iconic television series Sesame Street, where for the past 26 years, he has played Alan, the proprietor of Hooper’s Store. His extensive theatrical experience includes performing in 7 Broadway shows and a growing list of directing credits, in addition to South Pacific (2018) and Once On This Island (2014) at Olney Theatre, his work includes: Kafka’s Metamorphosis: The Musical! (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Zac Efron (World Premiere-Token Theatre Chicago), Clue (Dallas Theater Center), Elf (Pioneer Theatre), Gold Mountain (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Awesomer & Awesomer!!! (Legacy Theatre). His New York theatre credits include: Avenue Q (Off Broadway-Resident Director), The Report (NY Fringe), Kung Fu (Signature Theatre-Assistant Director), Elizabeth Ward Land: Still Within The Sound of My Voice (Green Room 42, Bistro Award- Best Tribute Show 2020) Ann Harada: American Songbook (Lincoln Center), Grand Hotel (NYU/Cap 21), Falsettoland (NAATCO), and John Tartaglia AD-LIBerty (Joe's Pub). Alan is joined on the creative team by Christopher Youstra (Music Director), Kelly d'Amboise (Choreographer), Paige Hathaway (Scenic Designer), Kendra Rai (Costume Designer), Christina Watanabe (Lighting Designer), Matt Rowe (Sound Designer), Kylie Clark (Puppet Designer), Patrick Lord (Projection Designer), Ryan Phillips (Magic Consultant), and Larry Peterson (Wig Designer).
 
Also joining the Cast are Jay Frisby (King Agnar), Sarah Anne Sillers (Queen Iduna), Tyler Dobies (Pabbie), Crystal J. Freeman (Bulda), Noah Israel (Hans), Jared Michael Delaney (Weselton), Alex Mills (Sven), Jamie Smithson (Oaken). Elise Chrappah and Aliza Cohen share the role of Young Anna. Ruth Benson and Taylor Esguerra split duties on Young Elsa. The ensemble includes Jessica Bennett, Quadry Brown, Mia Goodman, Angelo Harrington II, Stephen C. Kallas, Ariel Kraje, Robert Mintz, and Haley Nachlas. Stellamaris Orellana and Walker James Vlahos are swings.
 

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