FROZEN Reviews — Page 4

I saw it Tuesday night. It was ok. The Let It Go Scene is amazing. But otherwise the show is ok. This week I am in NYC without my 10 year old. I have a theater trip planned with her in late June. I asked if she wanted me to wait to see Frozen with her. She was adamant about not seeing it. Now I am glad we aren't wasting our trip together on this.

I think it will do well. Families will still go.

I vaguely remember at the time Francesca was hired, there was an interview stating she didn't like Musical Theater.



Also I only remember two things from that production:

1) She used the same stage trick twice, where someone was flown up into the rafters (as if swimming upward) and then the character emerged through a trap door to signify they made it to land. Using it twice wouldn't have been a big deal except that it was for Ariels big end of act 1 i made it to the surface after becoming human. It was a very disappointing act 1 curtain.

2) the giant phallic towers that opened up at the top like the dilophosaurus in Jurassic park.

Apologies if this has already been addressed, but how is the view of the stage from the balcony?

Here's one (big) example of why I think the show is so misguided"

The big, dramatic moment of the show is, of course, LET IT GO. So what happens? There is a blackout, lights up, we see Ice Palace, Ilsa walks on, goes center stage, sings a brief introduction, with some bad lyrics about something, than sings her t*ts (and dress) off. Moves her hands around, some lighting effects, the song ends, Curtain! End of Act. No scene, no dialogue, no motivation for the big song. It's like the writer and Director threw up their hands and said just sing the damn song. I felt nothing.

Look over on 45th St. Hammerstein and Rodgers created Soliloquy, a combination of dialogue and song. Billy goes through changes, emotions and then belts his heart out. We get goose bumps, even in a less than perfect production, this usually works like gangbusters. Great writing.

No matter what you think of WICKED, (a show FROZEN tries so hard to be, almost pathetically) DEFINING GRAVITY is set up by the conflict between Glinda and Elphaba, some dialogue, some singing and a lot of tension. Then Elphaba sings her guts and anger out and the song (and Elphie) soar.

Was there no one on FROZEN who said, "where's the scene? where's the motivation? Where's the tension? It's very lazy writing and direction in my book. It may as well be AMERICAN IDOL.

Someone needed a stronger vision on this show. And I felt this carried through most of the show. The plot is set up and that's it. The girls are reunited, we knew they would be. There is no heart. Even a Fairy Tale has a better plot and some emotion. And if you say it's just a kids show, well kids feel things too.

Okay, that's my rant. I think they missed big time with this show. Will it run? Yes, it will, but deep in Disney mindset, they will know it doesn't really work and they better (and will ) sell a lot of toys. Take the show to DISNEYWORLD and it will wow the tourists for a long time.

Scarywarhol said: "What the hell show did all the people saying Little Mermaid was experimental see? That show did not fail because it was too theatrical."

YES. I think this all the time when it's included as an example. What was the "naturalistic" version of LITTLE MERMAID? It was pretty much as literal as you could get. And certainly not experimental. TARZAN, yes, I'll give that to them. But it didn't fail because of that but likely because it wasn't a good choice of material.

The first 20 minutes of FROZEN seem like they're laying the groundwork for a wonderful, adult, emotionally rich show. It's then tossed out to pander at every opportunity.

LITTLE MERMAID had roller skating fish,

Personally one of the biggest problems this adaptation has IMO is that Anna and Elsa didn't get any new music together. Instead of ending the show with yet another reprise of Let It Go why couldn't they sing a sister duet? Or better yet an interesting counterpoint duet they could have sung in the second act while each is on their own journey IDK just something else. Also in terms of structure, all of Elsa's songs basically negate each other. They are all just self-imposed monologues that don't go anywhere. Going from Let It Go where she's supposed to release everything to Monster where she again is "im dark and dangerous" its just like WTF? Elsa could be the far more interesting character.

Fetus said:
I never saw Little Mermaid, but at least the design of the show looks more appealing than Frozen's does.

No, it doesn't. Nothing was uglier than the underwater set.

I just wanted to take a moment and give my own thoughts. I attended tonight's performance and had set my expectations low due to the critic reviews and the feedback on this board. Oh boy, was I wrong. I thought it was amazing! First the cast: Caissie and Patti were amazing as Elsa and Anna. They had great chemistry, great vocal chops (Monster and Let it go were both huge standouts for me), and embodied the characters while bringing their own interpretation to the work. John Riddle (Hans) and Jelani Alladin (Kristoff) were better than their movie counterparts! Greg Hildreth was pretty similar to Josh Gad's interpretation and he was a huge crowd pleaser. The rest of the cast (Robert Creighton in particular) were phenomenal and looked like they were having a blast. As for the book and score: I really don't understand the complaints about run time. The show felt like it was an hour and a half and I honestly wished it was a bit longer. The newer book scenes (Icy Bridge for example) fit perfectly and cohesively into the work. Let it Go is a strong contender for the best Act 1 finale since Defying Gravity. The sets were great and the special effects brought the work to life. I wish they were slightly less dependent on projections but they were used to great effect. As for the score, I wished they kept Frozen Heart from the movie. The biggest standouts to me are Monster and Dangerous to Dream. Elsa finally got her vocal part a bit more fleshed out. The only weak spot for me was Hygge although the crowd loved it. It was a bit too long for my taste. I feel like most of those who dislike the work either 1. Disliked the movie or 2. Wanted Disney to change Frozen substantially. I enjoyed tonight's performance immensely and would love to see it again. If you love frozen and want to see it brought to life I highly recommend this production.