Frozen - Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

I am afraid this is going to be a long one so I will comment on the show first then the theatre and other observations after so you can skip that bit if you want.
The way I can tell if a show is good or not is if I sleep well that night. If I sleep badly its because my brain is still racing and I cant relax. Well I had the most awful nights sleep!
Never seen the film of Frozen although I knew "that" song and have seen clips so I was really a Frozen "virgin". I wanted to go to see the new Drury Lane and also I knew it would be visually good. Well it was stunning and amazing.
Apart from Come From Away this was the first time I have been to a very large theatre with a full audience and this was one of the most insane audiences I have ever seen. The applause was unbelievable, like being at a pop concert and I could tell the cast really appreciated it. They (and I ) even applauded some of the special effects.
For a first public performance the show is in excellent condition, I would think the 2 dress rehearsals an the invited performance helped sort out any technical issues. I didn't notice any problems.
I wont give any spoilers as I don't know how to do it so I will try and be a bit vague.
Great cast, Samantha Barks was a perfect Elsa (although in act 2 she got slightly drowned out by the orchestra in one song, but that could be a sound issue.) Stephanie McKeon as Anna was brilliant, great actress and very funny. It was only when reading the programme I realise I knew her from the Bacharach musical at The Menier. The rest of the cast great and I especially like Olaf and the actor playing Sven as that must be such hard work. The 2 children who were on last night were also great especially Young Anna who was very sweet.
Really liked the songs, for which there a lot and one of my favourties was Hygge which was so funny. There was also a bit of adult humour in that song with the dance.
But this show is all about the effects and staging. I really cant remember when I have seen something so spectacular and technical. The mixture of sets and projections was breathtaking in parts.
As already mentioned the bridge was just incredible and went on and on - how it works is beyond me. It stands along with the staircase in 42nd Street as mind boggling scenery. The staircase was also spectacular and act 1 finale left the audience with open mouths.
This is a huge musical and must have cost a fortune and you can tell there is a lot of money plowed into it.
I was worried that it would be more for kids but not at all. Its great to see a big budget musical back in town and really hope it has a great future.
So my ratings always go on whether I was entertained or not and I therefore have to give it 5*.

You can tell this is a big show from the minute you walk in. Big shop selling a massive amount of merch, a bit like a Disney shop. Not cheap but there was a big queue so they must be selling the stuff. There was an area set up just inside the entrance for people do do their social media stuff, all set up with lights, props etc. Very clever. Quite a few cameras around the place filming bits and pieces for social media and they filmed the bows at the end. They even filmed a couple with 2 kids dressed up going to their seats. Pretty sure they were professionals as all the family were so good looking and perfect.
Talking of the kids, lots of kids there who loved it, a lot of the girls dressed up as princesses and they looked so sweet. The staff had to hand out so many bolster seats. Most were well behaved but there were 2 girls in front of me and one was a total horror. She basically wanted to be on the stage with Elsa and threw a tantrum, crying and hitting her mother. The people next to them complained at the interval and so they moved them to the back where she wouldn't disturb people as much.
Lots of creatives sitting around me in the stalls including the director and right behind me there were 2 executives from Disney who seemed to be over to oversee things.
One thing I missed, as I left by the side exit was the snowfall outside the front of the theatre at the end. I presume if was just for last night and not a nightly ocurrance.
Michael Grandage made a very nice speech at the start and welcomed everyone back to the theatre and spoke of the hard work by the cast. He got a huge ovation for that.
As to the theatre, well its stunning. Box office has gone and there is a bar in its place. I can only comment on the stalls but you no longer go down the staircase to the stalls. I believe there are lots of new toilets down there. So you go up the steps in foyer and then enter the stalls. New seats, wider and very comfortable. The best thing is the legroom. Lots of legroom between the rows and quite wide aisles. I did hear people say legroom is also good on other levels. The dress circle curves more now and there are some dress circle slip seats just before the boxes start.
Also up to row M there is no far left and far right aisle. Instead the far end seats are up against a low wooden "wall" and there is a space then up to the wall which is under the boxes. I think I heard someone say that that area may be used as slip stalls.
End left and right block on Row M has unlimited legroom as its an aisle.
You seem to be able to order drinks to be delivered to your seat as the staff were bringing bags with drinks to people and also lots of programme sellers walking around.

Finally if you have managed to get to the end. I know everyone can give the shows any star rating they wish but there is a 1* score from 1 person. I am sorry but there is no way on earth this deserves a 1 star. Even if you hated the show you have to give it more just for the staging. That is just silly.

a good trailer, teasing the secrets

I was there last night and LOVED it, for the acting, the effects and the sheer Disney magic!

Some spoilers follow. . .

Some people (not me) have seen this on Broadway, some people have seen the film (me) and some people have done neither (Alece10), and I imagine all three groups will have different experiences. The first group will want to know if it's bigger or better than Broadway, the second will want to know if it lives up to the film, and the third are an open book.

Although I imagine Category 2 people (those who have seen the ubiquitous film, whether by choice or by force, but not seen it on Broadway) will be the vast majority of visitors to this, I think Category 3 people are best positioned to comment on whether the story is well-told (as the rest of us know the story already) so for that reason, I'm delighted to hear that Alec10 found the story easy to follow and rated this five stars. That bodes especially well for all the unwitting parents who have plonked their kids in front of the film, but never bothered watching it, and now find themselves dragged along to this at the point of a tantrum lol!

For me, having seen the film, I felt this was a marvellous realisation of that film, with theatrical sorcery and terrific lighting effects conjuring up a dazzling spectacle, while the actors brought immense warmth and humour and even, in the case of Sam Barks, an aching wounded humanity to their characters.

From the uproarious cheers that erupted every time they appeared last night, I think that youngsters (and the young at heart) were most excited by Craig Gallivan as Olaf and Obioma Ugoala as Kristoff! And I can confirm that they were indeed delightful!

For me, when I see an actor with a puppet, I always shed a tear or two if the puppeteer isn't Simon Lipkin, as the way that actor becomes emotionally one with puppets has always been one of the joys of living. So it is to Craig Gallivan's credit that he goes full Lipkin: when Olaf sighs, Gallivan sighs; when Olaf blinks, Gallivan blinks; but more than anything, Gallivan takes that wired energy that he honed in performing Dewey Finn in "School of Rock" and he makes Olaf relentlessly nervy and gormless and blundering and blustering and generally hilarious, and whether you watch the puppet or Gallivan's face, the two are totally synced. The standing ovation he got at the end was well-deserved.

Ugoala, I felt, had less to work with. For such a beloved character, for one so pivotal to the plot, for one with so much stage time, I felt he deserved more written scenes and more emotional moments, but the actor triumphantly sails right through this dearth of material by being irrepressibly agreeable, the sort of frazzled and good-natured force of nature that Boris Johnson is always trying and failing to be when he messes with his hair and makes startled faces. Ugoala puts aside the commanding thrust of his Washington character in Hamilton for an air of quizzical carefree affability, but somehow retains Washington's charisma, his eyes and expressions ever alert and reacting to the wonderous events happening around him, magnifying them and making them seem more magical by his reactions. Ugoala's Kristoff is the epitomy of easygoing loveable charm, and for me, he too deserved his ovation.

If youngsters, in the room where it happened, were most in love with Obiama and Gallivan, then I'd estimate that adults were most taken with the two leading ladies, Stephanie McKeon and Samantha Barks, for that is where the emotional heart of the story is. Grandage knows that this human heart has to carry right to the back of the balcony of this enormous Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and he has clearly and concisely mapped out the characters and acting styles of his leading ladies in both micro and macrocosmic aspects, so that everyone can feel some feels no matter where they are sitting, and McKeon and Barks realise his vision precisely.

If you were at the back of the balcony, you still could easily perceive Anna's innocence and joyous childish nature from McKeon's movements and utterances, which could be compared, since this is Disney, to those of a fast-talking excitable chipmunk, complete with flapping arms and alternately shotgun outbursts of fluster and joy. And if you were at the back of the balcony, you could still easily perceive Elsa's prideful majesty and deep wells of love from Barks's considered and stately movements and soulful slow-build to sincerely-fulsome belting singing, which could be compared, since this is Disney, to a wounded lioness, stalked by and stalking it's hunters, until all you hear is her roar!

Barks's performance was especially wonderful for me, as I come to "Frozen the Musical," from the film, firmly Team Anna (what a lovely animated - in more ways than one - person she is) lol, and ill-disposed to sympathise with Elsa's capricious and careless displays of power. Lucky enough to snag a front stalls seat in the O2 Priority sale, for less than £60, several decades ago (or is that the pandemic warping my sense of time again?), I could feel, and see in Barks's tear-filled eyes, how much pain lies behind Elsa's pride and majesty, and how much she fights her internal urges, so slow are they to build to their blow-off-top, which building emotion expresses itself in expertly modulated singing.

The effects in this show are excellent, with Elsa's magic being conjured by a light show and quick change that are extraordinary in their precision and spectacle, and enchating in their effect. I'll leave further comments about the size of bridges, and comparing effects to Broadway, to those who know the first thing about it lol.

For me, this show is a lovely entertainment, that does justice to it's equally entertaining source material. Some new songs are very funny ("Hygge" could only be funnier if Lucy Punch's Amanda, from "Motherland," jumped out and claimed they stole the idea from her failing fictional shop, "Hygge Tygge"), some serve a worthwhile dramatic purpose ("I Can't Lose You" spells out clearly the dramatic stakes at a critical point), some struggle to achieve their full potency ("Monster" just doesn't have a good enough melody to justify it's climactic position) and some are just as good as anything in the movie ("Dangerous to Dream" was even more impactful and rousing in dramatically reaching into Elsa's soul as "Let it go," for me, and Sam Barks turned this song into a total showstopper).

This show doesn't pretend to reinvent the meaning of life, but it entertainingly affirms the value of human connections, and it's a dazzling watch.

4 and a half stars from me.

Could someone post the song list? Thank you

Dare I say, the westend version is better! It's much more a spectacle now!

I was not thinking this was going to be one of the shows that I rushed to see as admittedly, Disney shows aren’t some of my favourite on stage (even when I love the movies) but this honestly looks fantastic. I won’t be able to afford to splash out on tickets though so can anyone tell me if the cheaper seats are worth it? (Mid/Back of grand circle or the Balcony) Will I feel really far away as it’s such a massive theatre?

Can't say from experience as I was in the stalls but the man sat next to me had family in the balcony and he met up with them in the interval and they said the view was great up there. Plus the show is HUGE so I don't think you are going to miss any of the spectacle.

Please could someone advise on theatre entry shenanigans - how long should I allow before the show starts? I'm in the royal circle and just want a programme. Has there been lines checking covid passes etc? Thanks very much.

I've already seen the show on Broadway but the positive reviews here have tempted me to potentially book to see the London production.

How is Drury Lane in its refurbished glory? The pics I've seen online look stunning.

Right well this is me convinced. I’m going to book for over the Xmas hols I think. Half term is looking booked up already. It’s pricey at £150 or so in the stalls though. Sounds like the view is great from all angles!

The ice bridge is like a train I believe, it’s in sections and there’s a track doing a loop of the entire stage.