Interview: Caroline Innerbichler of FROZEN at Dr. Phillips Center

It's hard to think of a more fitting production than FROZEN, to make an extended stay at Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center. As this Broadway hit musical makes its way to the City Beautiful for a run February 24th - March 6th, I caught up with Caroline Innerbichler, who plays Princess Anna, to find out more about her career, bringing this Disney hit musical to Orlando, and what it's like performing this show for live audiences all over the country once again.

BWW: Caroline, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today. We are really looking forward to FROZEN here in Orlando!

Caroline Innerbichler: It kind of feels like a full circle moment getting to the capital of Disney. We're all pretty excited. A bunch of us are going to try to get our park hopper passes and, instead of giving Disney to other people, we plan to imbibe some Disney ourselves!

Is this the first thing you've done since the pandemic?

We got back into rehearsals to do a brush-up of sorts in August of this last summer, and then we opened in Buffalo, New York in September. So we've been touring since then. We were in Buffalo for about three weeks, then on to Minneapolis in early October.

You were on tour before COVID hit, right?

Yes, we started rehearsals in late August of 2019 and premiered in L.A. over the holidays. So we had four or five months of touring before the pandemic hit.

So, I am sure it's really exciting to return to a sense of normal, so to speak?

It's been, as I imagine it is for a lot of other people, an adjustment to getting back into being in person, after such a long, strange, and sometimes scary time. We were very fortunate that we had been through the pandemic together as a company and as a touring company. We kept in touch throughout the pandemic. We would have weekly Zoom sessions together - we called it our "Hygge Happy Hour." We would just get together and touch base and see how everybody was doing. A lot of times we'd have a girl's wine night or something, some which lasted until four in the morning. These were the only people that really understood what we were going through - the other people in our company - and I think it made us a lot closer. Then to come back with the same people was such a gift, which I know didn't happen with a lot of other theatre productions. We were one of the very fortunate companies to come back with each other and get to breathe new life into this project. What's funny is the show is a lot different now. It's got a different feeling to it. There's so much about isolation, about a lack of community, about feeling alone. The root of this story is about community and about meeting other people. You can get things done by yourself, but you really do need other people to lean on whether it be family or friends or community and so it definitely hits harder this time around, honestly.

It's amazing what new perspective gives you as performers as well as the audience. Looking at the story that they think they know, but then seeing these elements surface, all because of the collective experience that we've all had.

It's pretty interesting to hear audience responses to certain song lyrics. Like in "For the First Time in Forever"...there'll be magic there'll be fun..

Oh! "And there will be real-life people..."

"There'll be actual real live people, It'll be totally strange, But wow, am I so ready for this change!" You can hear murmurs through the audience, where you normally wouldn't. That's pretty awesome.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in the theatre?

I grew up in Eagan, Minnesota and my parents always took me to go and see as much theater as they could because that was a part of their childhood. It's a great activity to do as a family and a great way to go out and be social. It was so special. I remember my sister, and I, getting all dressed up in matching dresses, white tights, and wearing our fancy theater shoes to go and see shows, my dad always called it "velvet coat season", because all of the little girls would be wearing their fancy velvet. So I grew up just loving musical theater. My parents would buy all the CDs of the shows that we went to go see - we went and saw JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT and so we had the cast recording of that and my sister and I would put on our own versions in the basement with our Barbie dolls. We only had one Ken doll so he was really busy.

I imagine so! Especially with JOSEPH.

I think he became really well-rounded after that. So I was trying on so many hats, but then I eventually got involved in community theater, through an incredible program in Eagan at the high school, led by the late Denny Swanson, who was just an incredible mentor to me and took a chance on a kid who had zero experience. I auditioned for my first production of ANNIE and was one of the orphans and from then on, I think I was about nine, I was like oh, this is really fun. I was a really hyperactive kid with a lot of feelings and really liked other people, so it was just perfect for me. I continued auditioning for larger-scale productions and got my professional debut when I was 11 at The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis and then was working as a professional from age 11 all through the rest of high school. And then I went to the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Actor Training Program and that was more of a classical program - like Shakespeare or Greek work. No musical theatre. I found that I had a really hard time balancing my classwork with the conservatory elements of the acting program and I was getting a lot of offers in the Twin Cities community to go work. I made the hard decision to leave school after one year. And then I just started working professionally as an adult in the Twin Cities and then sort branching out to other regional theaters around the U.S. I put some things on tape for initial auditions for something and then that led to other auditions and then some work in Santa Barbara. And so, one day I was visiting a bunch of my friends that lived in Chicago and one of them said hey you know there are auditions for the stage production of FROZEN. And I didn't have an appointment scheduled, but I just walked in, and eight callbacks later I had a final callback for Broadway which ended up not working out, obviously, but then a while later they called me back in for the touring production and here we are!

Being that Orlando is a Disney town, our readers, I am sure are very familiar with FROZEN, the film, but may not be as familiar with the stage production, how would you describe it? Any major differences?

I think the biggest change is that it's a more fleshed-out story. I think we have 11 or 12 more songs than the film all written by the same writers, Kristen and Bobby Lopez. They know people love this story and so this production is just a shift to a different art form. It's like seeing the ballet version of THE NUTCRACKER vs. a TV film version. I think it will be really fun for Disney lovers and for lovers of the films to get to watch people live on stage as the characters - more fleshed out and showing the intricacies of what else they are really battling on the inside. You also get to see more of the community, because we have this incredible ensemble that is up on stage singing and dancing their hearts out but they're also incredible storytellers instead of just background drawings of people. On top of all that, on the exterior, there's some incredible Disney magic and attention to detail. And, of course, there's a huge orchestra that's playing a whole film soundtrack live.

So, you play Princess Anna. Tell us about her? What do you like the most about her?

I think my favorite thing about her is that she's a problem solver and that she's optimistic. Throughout the show, even when other characters are saying "Oh well, that seems hard"or "Leave me alone" or "Oh, I don't think we can do this", she is constantly saying "Yeah, but let's try that, okay? Let's go do this! Oh, it's dangerous? Well okay, let's go." The fact that she doesn't get stopped up by any of these challenges, and she just continues to say okay let's find another way around this, that's what I love about her. I think another thing that I really love is that she's written in this beautiful sensitive way. She's a strong character but she's also sensitive and very emotionally aware of what she's feeling at all times and encourages her sister to try to live authentically in that way, no matter how self-conscious she is. She's not only sensitive and strong, she's strong because she's sensitive. And that is something that I needed to hear too. You know it's not one or the other, you can be both and I love that about her.

Were you a FROZEN fan before you got involved?

Well, I had gone to go see it at the movies with a bunch of my castmates from a production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. We went between shows on a two-show day - we had a movie theater right next to the theatre. I was playing Chava, so I was sitting there with my hair in braids for the character. Anna comes on screen and everyone slowly turned down the aisle and stared at me and I was like "yeah, that's pretty accurate." Then just hearing the music, I thought, "This is going to be a hit. This is musical theatre."

What do you look forward to the most before you step out on stage each night?

I think what makes this whole experience of playing Anna so satisfying to me and so special to me are the people that I share the stage with. Caroline Bowman, who plays Elsa is one of the most talented musical theater performers I've ever seen live, let alone shared a stage with. We both take our job very seriously but we also feel the need sometimes to goof off. We always spend the time at the beginning of the show in one of our dressing rooms making each other laugh, or when life gets hard just checking in with each other. The whole cast is amazing, I've never been part of a more talented company and I don't say that lightly, because I've had some incredible experiences in my 23 years of doing theater. This is, without a doubt, the most talented cast, across the board, with these big beautiful hearts that really care about this story and care about each other, just as people, and that makes a difference, and I think it translates onto the stage.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know?

Just that we've been looking forward to Orlando for a long time, because we know we're going to get some really good reactions. We slipped in some really good inside jokes here and there, for the true diehard FROZEN fans and I think the Orlando audiences will really enjoy those little special details. But overall, even if you aren't a FROZEN lover this show has a tendency to creep up on people, to really grab you at the heart, where you don't expect it to.

FROZEN runs at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts February 24th through March 6th. Performances are 8:00 PM Tuesday - Saturday and 6:30 PM on Sunday, with matinees at 2:00 PM on Saturday and 1:00 PM on Sunday. Tickets are available online at https://tickets.drphillipscenter.org/production/12210 or by calling the Bill & Mary Darden Box Office at 407.358.6603. Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is located at 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801

All Photos by Deen Van Meer

Top Photo: Caroline Innerbichler (Anna), Naomi Rodgers, and Caelan Creaser in Frozen North American Tour

Middle Photo 1: Caroline Innerbichler (Anna), Caroline Bowman (Elsa), and the Company of Frozen North American Tour

Middle Photo 2: Caroline Innerbichler (Anna) and Mason Reeves (Kristoff) in Frozen North American Tour

Middle Photo 3: Austin Colby (Hans) and Caroline Innerbichler (Anna) in Frozen North American Tour

Bottom Photo: Caroline Innerbichler (Anna) and the Company of Frozen North American Tour

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