Frozen The Musical Review

The West End Musical Frozen, which is currently being shown at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, follows the same storyline as Disney’s 2013 animated film of the same name directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck.

The story, set in the fictional town of Arendelle follows two sisters Elsa – played by Jenna Lee-James - and Anna – played by Emily Lane - who are forced apart by Elsa’s icy powers. When Elsa’s powers become to strong Arendelle is sent into eternal winter, Anna sets out to save her sister and the kingdom whilst trying to learn the true meaning of love with some obstacles and support on the way.

The show was a typical Disney production with each scene enriched with magic! The set designed by Christopher Oram was absolutely beautiful, complimented by lighting and other special effects, the attention to detail was insane, especially in Elsa’s icy castle; the Theatre Royal Drury Lane was the perfect venue to bring it to life.

The whole cast was amazing, with their range of powerful and emotive vocals being the best part of the show, bringing Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez’ songs to the stage. Jenna Lee-James had a fantastic show as one of the protagonist characters Elsa, she specially stood out in the classic “Let It Go” which was a great first half finale (I still can’t work out how the dress change was done so smoothly!). Lee-James also got across emotive elements of self-blame, particularly in the song “Monster”. Her co-star Emily Lane too had a great performance as Anna, bringing the naive younger sister with bubbly energy to the stage. Lane worked greatly with Kristoff, an ice seller who helps Anna reach her runaway sister, becoming a later love interest and important character! He was played by Djavan Van De Fliert, with his vocals and great acting skills it makes sense that he is going into London’s Les Misérables soon! Felicity Tong and Martha Bailey Vine both made their west end debuts in Frozen as young Elsa and Anna, the duo was adorably talented with the latter bringing a cheeky vibe to the theatre.

As the film is animated there is also some puppetry in the show to bring the animals to life. Sven – who is Kristoff’s reindeer – is a life-size puppet controlled by Mikayla Jade. Having watched Mikayla’s TikTok’s, Sven was the character I was most excited to see in action, and it didn’t disappoint being even more amazing knowing how the puppetry worked! I was a little less impressed my Olaf the Snowman who was controlled by Craig Gallivan - the actor was visible on stage behind the puppet much like Toto in The Wizard of Oz – though the character did bring wholesome humour to the stage earning laughs from the audience.

Growing up I wasn’t a huge fan of Frozen the film, but I was much more entertained by the stage adaptation and thought it was an overall great show. The show translates a heartwarming message of true love being unconditional, which was shown through the sister bond of Elsa and Anna. The acting, singing, puppeteering and set design makes Frozen the Musical an easy five stars for me. The only negative for me being the audience behaviour, but you can’t blame that on the show!

The show may be aimed at an audience of children but the theatre was full of a range of ages so I would recommend it to any Disney fan!

✩✩✩✩✩

Access at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Located a 10 minute walk from Charing Cross, The Theatre Royal Drury Lane is just outside of Covert Garden. When we arrived there was a separate entrance for wheelchair users along the side of the theatre, this led straight into the shop which was FULL of everything and more you could imagine that was Frozen related. The large theatre was beautiful and very fancy, once we got in through the designated entrance it was all flat to our seat. On the website it looked like we were in a box, but we sat in an area referred to as the “slip” next to, and on the same level, as the stalls, it is mainly for wheelchair users but I think anyone can purchase tickets to sit there. As we were sitting at the side, our view was slightly restricted and we couldn’t see the near side or back of the stage. With this being a show aimed at children there wasn’t a standing ovation at the end, so I actually got to see the bows! On the way out it was very busy as we had to cross the main foyer and the shop but we did get to see the costumes on display as we left.