Review: Disney’s Frozen Music Tour dazzles with special effects, set design and soaring vocals

Not every Disney animated film successfully transfers to the stage. The Lion King won six Tony Awards and is still drawing crowds on Broadway 26 years later. But the film adaptation of Disney’s “Tarzan” in 2006 failed.

But Disney’s stage adaptation of Frozen, which opened Wednesday with a two-week run at the San Diego Civic Theatre, delivers everything fans of the 2013 film can ask for.

Written by composer-songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and writer Jennifer Lee, the 2018 Broadway musical follows sisters Elsa and Anna, two orphaned princesses in a Scandinavian kingdom whose relationship is torn apart when Elsa can no longer control her magical power to transform things. into the ice.

The story has been faithfully translated onto the stage, with some additional refinements to the plot and score, notably the signed characters of the king and queen and the mysterious community of the magical hidden people of the forest. The sets, projections and special effects are impressive, especially the ice bridge and ice castle that Elsa builds in the mountains, as well as the original design of Sven’s reindeer costume. And although the show’s target audience is children, it has enough humor, songs and dances, which makes it no less interesting for adults.

Energetic vocalist Caroline Bowman, who plays Ice Queen Elsa, rocked the house with her perfect rendition of the show’s famous female anthem “Let It Go”. Lauren Nicole Chapman is just as clumsy, rowdy and funny as you’d expect as Anna’s crazy little sister. Jeremy Davis brings Olaf the fun and funny snowman to life through puppetry, dance and song. And lanky Dan Plehal actually possesses Sven the reindeer, who has a headdress with blinking eyes and twitching ears.

The characters of the reindeer Sven and the snowman Olaf in the musical Frozen.

Other standouts include the boyishly sweet Dominic Dorset as Kristoff, an ice merchant with a heart of gold who falls in love with Anna; the funny Evan Duff as the pompous Duke of Wesselton; and the talented singer and actor Will Savarese, who is so sincere like Hans that it’s hard to hate him when his true colors are revealed in the second act.

Thanks to the incredible popularity of “Let It Go”, which won the 2014 Oscar for best original song, and the comic duet “Love Is an Open Door”, “Frozen” is deservedly known for its movie soundtrack. Expanding the story into a two-hour musical, composers Anderson-Lopez and Lopez wrote several new songs. And it is some of these new numbers that are the only weak points in the show. The second act opens with an endless and often incomprehensible number “Hygge,” a Danish phrase meaning “cosy,” but the song does nothing to advance the plot and slows down the normally fast action of the play. Also less exciting are the new numbers “Deer are Better Than Humans” and “Monster”.

The larger than usual Frozen gift shop in the lobby of the Civic Theater was busy Thursday night, and many of the girls in attendance came dressed as Elsa and Anna. “Frozen” is an upbeat, sweet story that celebrates the love between two sisters, and viewers are very warm to the charming show in its local involvement.

Frozen – Musical

When: 19:00 on Wednesdays. 19:30 on Thursdays and Fridays. 14:00 and 19:30 on Saturdays. 13:00 and 18:30 on Sundays. Until January 29th.

Where: City Theater of San Diego, 1100 Third Avenue, San Diego

Tickets: US$39-114

Online: Broadwaysd.com

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