Interview: Matt Lee of FROZEN THE MUSICAL at Crown Theatre

Worldwide smash hit musical FROZEN is right at home in Australia as winter takes hold. Based on the record breaking 2013 animation, the musical is full of themes of family, love, and acceptance: things the world needs right now according to Matt Lee, who plays Olaf the Snowman. I chatted to Matt to see how one of Australia's most recognized dancers found himself in the show and what he hopes people get from it.

Whilst Olaf might be unlike anything Matt Lee has played before, he has deliberately avoided pigeonholing himself throughout his career. "It's true that dance was what I first got into," says Lee, well known for being a judge on the Australian version of So You Think You Can Dance. "But I also figured very early on that give myself the best chance of being a performer I had to work on my other skills, so I was still young when I started acting and singing. I wanted to work as hard as I could at everything and be able to bring a variety of skills to anything I do."

The philosophy of hard work has been consistent throughout Lee's life and has provided him with many interesting and unique opportunities. "I'm still learning and developing, and there's still times when new skills come up that I need to develop and use. I would never have dreamed of wearing a motion capture suit and dancing like a penguin for Happy Feet, and here I am twenty years later having to add puppeteering to my repertoire!"

This is not the first time Matt Lee has taken an iconic role, with his portrayal of Bert in the musical Mary Poppins earning him a Helmpann Award in 2011. It might be easy to play into what the audience knows about these characters and mimic their iconic beginnings, but Matt Lee isn't happy just doing that. "I never try to be another actor. I don't want to be playing Josh Gad playing Olaf, I just want to be Matt Lee playing Olaf," says Lee, thinking of the well-known original character from the movie. "It was the same playing Bert. Dick Van Dyke's portrayal is well known, but I don't want to be known for being like someone else. In every role I do I want to be myself, so whilst I recognize that people will come to these shows with a firm idea of who the characters are, all I ever want to be is me."

The weight of expectation is something Matt Lee is familiar with, aiming to entertain in whatever role he has. "Whatever role I'm playing and regardless of how much people know about that character, I always want to entertain. That's my job and it's what I love doing. Knowing that I've been entrusted to convey the many weird and wonderful sides to these characters is something I think about a lot." You might think that with such a long career and so many performances to his name, Lee would be somewhat used to it. "It's something I never get used to! If anything, it's something I spend more time thinking about as my career goes on. I guess I have grown to be a bit more comfortable with how I sing or act or dance, and I guess that leaves more time to think about the expectations that are on me."

With the struggles come a sense of enjoyment, and whilst FROZEN has certainly had its share of setbacks, Lee believes it's made the experience more enjoyable. "We were held up by the pandemic of course, and then when we got to Queensland we were held up by floods, so we've had all this time working together but being separated," says Lee when asked about his connection with the rest of the cast. "If anything, though, it's brought us together because we have this shared experience. I'm loving the opportunity to work with Jemma Rix because she's such a big part of Australian theatre, but everyone in this show is so incredibly talented. I can't help but be happy working with this group and I hope I can channel that happiness and joy into Olaf."

The character of Olaf has many layers and Matt Lee sees that as an opportunity to learn many lessons. "On the surface Olaf is silly, but when you think about it he's something that Anna and Elsa created when they were children who comes back to them as young adults and helps guide them." Lee himself is familiar with the idea of guiding people, using what he learnt and enjoyed when he was young to enhance the work he does as a dance teacher. "Olaf teaches us that it's important to be a little bit of a child, to do things sometimes just because they're fun, and when he says the first thing that comes into his head, he's showing that sometimes the first thing you think is right. There's so many incredible themes in FROZEN, like the value of family and the need to belong, but Olaf isn't a silly sideshow to those themes, he's a part of them and there's many lessons to be learnt from him. I try my best to get that across, even if the focus of Olaf on stage is the puppet and not me!"

FROZEN THE MUSICAL is in Perth at Crown Theatre from August 25th. Tickets and more information is available at Frozen the Musical Australia.

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