REVIEW: Disney's FROZEN, The Broadway Musical—La Mirada Theatre
- TheShowReport
- Jun 8
- 8 min read
Updated: Jun 10
JUNE 7—LA MIRADA
It’s almost summer. Just ask Olaf. A soft-shoe number with brilliant choreography of character, voice and visuals, “In Summer” has been dubbed a “musical comedy miracle.”
But let’s say it’s dead of winter and you lived in International Falls, Minnesota, which is well-known as the “icebox of the nation.” You’d probably be petitioning to send the Snow Queen back to Arendelle too. Luckily, we’re here in Orange County and cannot fathom that kind of cold.
And the poor Snow Queen has faced enough persecution already — let her enjoy her trip to La Mirada Theatre, where she and her frisky sister Anna are starring in the coolest theatrical extravaganza ever through next weekend — the stage adaptation of the highest-grossing Disney animated film of all time, that near-inescapable tale of Nordic adventure, cryokinetic magic, and the bonds of sisterhood — the 2018 mega-musical Broadway hit, FROZEN.
On this unusually drafty Saturday night, with swarms of little girls trailing excitedly after their parents filling up the theater and done-up with little gowns and tierras, the vibe was a heady one.
About a dozen years ago, Disney’s film FROZEN produced something akin to Beatlemania, especially surrounding one of its heroines, the ostracized enchantress Elsa, and her character-defining empowerment ballad, “Let It Go.” The catchy song won an Oscar for husband-and-wife team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the music-and-lyrics duo who have created more than a dozen new songs for the musical’s stage incarnation, as well as inciting a new, full-fledged FROZEN phenomenon.
So, it was only a matter of time before Elsa sashayed onto the La Mirada stage — and sure enough she’s here, along with her spunky sister Anna; the playful, talking snowman Olaf (Mark Ivy, “Sweeney Todd”), full of child-like wonder and unwavering positivity; the lovable mountain man Kristoff (Alexander Mendoza) who accompanies Anna on her quest; his trusty reindeer Sven — companion, sumpter and conscience; the kooky, trouble-making Duke of Weselton (Derek Manson); a group of magical hidden folk led by Pabbie (Kenneth Mosley) and Bulda (Regina Le Vert); and the rest of the gang from Arendelle, FROZEN’s picturesque, fairy-tale take on a mid-19th-century Nordic kingdom.
The results are a wintry mix. There’s much to revel in: The ensemble is bright and buoyant, with the regal Jenna Lea Rosen (“Funny Girl,” “Mack and Mabel”) belting her heart out as Elsa and the adorable Cailen Fu (Broadway/Ist Nat’l Tour: “Mean Girls”) charming the lederhosen off everyone as Anna. The stage is a lush Scandinavian paradise, a vibrant winter wonderland brought to sumptuous life by Director Dan Knechtges, Set Designer Tim Mackabee, Costume Designer Colleen Grady, and Mickey Mouse’s bottomless coffers. There are real thrills and chills in many of the musical’s magical moments, with all of the songs a genuine delight, judging by the two full hours and 20 minutes of whooping, whistling and impromptu clapfests.
And yet, though the chrestomathy of Lopez and Anderson-Lopez’s newest songs are sweet and memorable, the decision to take the digital route for much of Elsa’s ice magic — animations and projections swirling across various screens and surfaces — is both understandable and at times, slightly underwhelming. When Director Knechtges and the special-effects team alight on palpable, physical gestures to create the story’s enchantments, however, rushes of exhilaration ripple through the audience like one of Elsa’s icy blasts. When they let screens and pixels do the work for them, the show, for all its visual splendor, starts to veer away from true theater magic and perilously close to Disney-resort territory.
Nevertheless, it's a show you can't miss! But for the few who might have sidestepped all things Elsa over the last few years, a brief recap: FROZEN’s book (by Jennifer Lee, who co-directed the movie and wrote its screenplay) is drawn very loosely from events in Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Snow Queen.” It tells the story of two princess sisters, Elsa and Anna, who were best buddies as kids but whose relationship has gotten chillier in the wake of a childhood trauma — Elsa, who can conjure up and control ice and snow, accidentally zaps her sister during one of their after-bedtime magical snowball fights.
Though Anna is cured (and her memories of her sister’s powers wiped), Elsa’s parents shut up the palace gates, slap gloves on their precocious older daughter, and warn her to keep her powers to herself. “Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show,” becomes the little sorceress’s mantra. Of course, as Disney parents often do, the king and queen (Gabriel Nararro and Ashley Moniz) soon die tragically, leaving their daughters to grow up alone and setting the stage for a catastrophic reemergence of Elsa’s repressed powers on the very day she’s supposed to be crowned Arendelle’s queen.
FROZEN’S two young actresses who play the feisty redhead (Everleigh Kim Bergman as Young Anna) and her suffering blonde big sister (Bellami Soleil Smith as Young Elsa) are mini-dynamos. Everleigh Kim Bergman carries much of the weight in the show’s opening scenes, not to mention powering the musical number with the most major-movie-recognition, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” It’s one of those songs that sits right on the fence between clever-cute and syrupy-trite, but the irresistible Miss Bergman nails it. Her vivacity gets the play rolling, and when she passes the baton to Miss Smith, that spirit remains infectious, especially when we see them all grown up halfway through the first act, immediately becoming two exuberant, endearingly delightful, Disney classic heroines.
In a way, the role of Anna is a tough one. You’ve got to drive the entire plot of the show, handle not one but two potential romances, sing a bunch of songs, keep a stiff upper lip, and save your troubled sister, who — after fleeing Arendelle when that much sifted-through, stress-induced magical outburst on coronation day causes an unstoppable blizzard and convinces the townspeople she’s some kind of witch — manages to accidentally magic-blast you a second time, lodging a deadly shard of ice in your heart. Oh, so now you’ve got to save yourself too. And you’ve got to do it all without receiving anything even close to the wild cries of super-fandom Elsa gets for delivering FROZEN’s showstopper. You’ve got to do it all without a “Let It Go.”
It’s true that “Love Is an Open Door,” the jubilant meet-cute song that Anna sings with the handsome Prince Hans (Garrett Clayton, best known for Disney’s “Teen Beach I and II,” and now, doing his best in a flashy but thankless, backstabbing part), has its own bouncy earworm quality, and Ms. Fu and Mr. Clayton sound incredible singing it. But part of the difficulty of FROZEN is that its major song, “Let It Go,” is so famous, and so legitimately solid, that it almost feels like its own show. You can sense the audience waiting for it, and there’s no way a song like that is going to be anything other than the first-act closer.
Of course, when that climax does come, it delivers. Ms. Rosen has an enormously strong, richly emotional voice — and perhaps even a clearer, more classical one than the original Elsa. She releases the song as if she’s Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden, and the response from the audience is comparable. There are screams, cheers, tears — this is what we came for, and the effect is genuinely electric. It’s also in moments like the song’s soft, minor-key opening that the visual-effects team make some of their best ice magic discoveries.
One contribution to the stage magic is watching Thomas Whitcomb (who must need about five massages a week) cantering around the stage inside Sven, the gorgeous reindeer puppet designed by Afsaneh Aavani. Less dopey and infinitely more mesmerizing than his movie counterpart, this Sven feels like an elegant, naturalistic nod to the innovations of “The Lion King”: a real human body creating something fantastic, something beyond human.
When FROZEN’s enchantments are fleshy, textural, really there, the play truly sparkles. And once it’s gotten over the necessary Everest of its chart-topping hit, it starts to breathe too. Act Two feels fresher, freer, and more released, with a heaping helping of sublime silliness to start it off. Of all the show's new songs created for the stage, none can hope to compare with “Hygge,” a spectacularly daffy ode to the untranslatable word of the title (it rhymes with the last two syllables in “Beluga” and refers to the Scandinavian commitment to fuzzy, friendly wintertime coziness).
Delivered with fourth-wall breaking clownish conviviality, along with a bright and breezy Swedish accent by the excellent Daniel Dawson (Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”) as the mountain outpost trader Oaken, “Hygge” offers a kind of contrast and tonal antidote to the rest of the show, allowing Director Choreographer Knechtges to give us a kick-line of euphoric, almost-nude sauna-bathers, a cartoonish ski crash, and more happy-go-lucky beer stein-ography than “Be Our Guest.” It’s a hilarious number, and a smart one: After “Hygge,” the audience is primed to have fun for the rest of the show.
Like the snowy mountains Anna and Kristoff (the intrepid, appealing Mr. Mendoza) have to scale in order to save the day, FROZEN does have its share of emotional ups and downs. But powered as it is by gale-force blasts of earnest exuberance, a host of solid, sunny performances, and a surfeit of stunning visuals, it confidently throws its fur-lined winter hat in the ring for at least another week at the prestigious La Mirada Theatre. So com'on! Is your heart frozen or something? Get to this frosty treat now while it’s still here. And don’t forget the tiaras.
LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & McCOY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS, FROZEN, THE BROADWAY MUSICAL. Music & Lyrics by KRISTEN ANDERSON-LOPEZ & ROBERT LOPEZ; Book by JENNIFER LEE; Originally Directed on Broadway by MICHAEL GRANDAGE; Based on the Disney film written by JENNIFER LEE and directed by CHRIS BUCK & JENNIFER LEE; Originally Produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions; Original Broadway Orchestrations by DAVE METZGER; Original Broadway Music Supervision & Arrangements by STEPHEN OREMUS; Additional Broadway Dance Arrangements by DAVID CHASE; Directed & Choreographed by DAN KNECHTGES; Musically Directed by BRAD GARDNER; Scenic Design by TIM MACKABEE; Lighting Design by JASON LYONS; Sound Design by JOSH BESSOM; Costume Design by COLLEEN GRADY; Production Design by MIKE TUTAJ; Puppetry Design by AFSANEH AAYANI; Wig Design by KELLEY JORDAN; Makeup Design by KAITLIN YAGEN; Technical Director KEVIN CLOWES; Company Manager DAVID NESTOR; Production Stage Manager TALIA KRISPEL.
STARRING: CAILEN FU; ALEXANDER MENDOZA; JENNA LEA ROSEN; MARK IVY.
WITH: ISABELLA ABIERA; BRITTANY ANDERSON; BEAU BRIANS; DELILAH BRIEN; DAVIDE COSTA; QUINTAN CRAIG; DANIEL DAWSON; ANDREA DOBBINS; SLOANE GRIFFITH; HARMONY ISHIKAWA; EVERLEIGH KIM-BERGMAN; BRUNO KOSKOFF; REGINA LE VERT; DEREK MANSON; SHANON MARI MILLS; MARISA MOEHNO; ASHLEY MONIZ; AUDREY MOORE; KENNETH MOSLEY; GABRIEL NAVARRO; CAMAL PUGH; ALEXANDER RIOS; BELLAMI SOLEIL SMITH; THOMAS WHITCOMB; and GARRETT CLAYTON as HANS.
FROZEN, THE BROADWAY MUSICAL runs June 6th through June 29th at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd in La Mirada. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 pm; Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 2 pm & 8 pm; and Sundays at 1:30 pm & 6:30 pm. Parking is Free. Tickets range from $39 - $139 and can be purchased at www.LaMiradaTheatre.com or by calling the Box Office at (714) 994-6310.
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
PHOTO CREDIT: Jason Niedle/TETHOS
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