Frozen - Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Try and concentrate in future, david. It's up there ⬆️ for thinking, and down there ⬇️ for dancing 🕺. 🙂

2 stars

Like the other Disney musicals in the west end, it's intended for children - so know what to expect. Be prepared for constant talking from the audience (children) for the whole show.

Sam's voice was great
The set for the castle was great
Got a day seat for £20 (meant to be £125), so that was also great

Other than that - very low brow & forgettable

Something is I hate from the yt clips. Is that why are the costumes direct copies from the film. I have seen clips of beauty and the beast and that was different from the film? the lion king's were very unique and authentic , mary poppins were great, aladdin's were excellent . so why the copy?

yes but  lion king, aladdin, even mary poppins and beauty were all different to the films

In attempting to salvage a night out in the West End, without wasting hotel and train costs following the very late cancellation of Back to the Future, we found ourselves hunting for a replacement show.

We haven't seen &Juliet, but that pretentious ampersand and the marketing made us fairly confident this was one for the Hamilton crowd and we still have painful memories of our trip to that.

Not ready to do a repeat viewing of something already seen, that left just one other option.

And so we found ourselves last night in front row stalls seats at Frozen, just to the left of the conductor. The stage floor is in a horizontal plane rather than the usual gentle slope forwards. The front row is slightly below stage height: if you raise yourself up about three inches, you can see everything. (I'm 5'8".) For that reason, I thought this row should have been in the £79.50 price band rather than the £89.50 we paid.

I couldn't work out who this show is for. The attention of most of the kids around us was lost after half an hour, and they fidgeted and looked tired and bored. One precious little thing in the centre of row C made a nuisance of herself throughout thanks to an ineffectual mother/guardian. Teenagers would regard the show as completely un-sick or whatever the current yoof vernacular is. And there's insufficient wit and charm to captivate adults.

But there is spectacle. And in bucketloads.

In fact, the Act 1 finale, blink-and-you-miss-it, quick change, is so good it was almost worth the price of admission just to see that. Almost.

There is just one nod to traditional Broadway theatre song and dance by way of Hygge, early in Act 2. This was the musical highlight for me. The rest of the score was largely forgettable, save for the hit from the film, which I've never been fond of.

The realisation of the reindeer is quite magical, but pity the performer inside, and there is some delightfully realised stage craft.

The sound design and fidelity is adequate but way below the new benchmark set by Cinderella. By contrast, the lighting and effects here are stunning.

Hygge establishes that we're set in Denmark, or some fairy tale equivalent, so the decision to have characters speak with an American accent seemed bizarre and unnecessary. This doesn't fully explain why Anna is pronounced "Ahr'nah" and Hans "Hons", both of which I found particularly grating.



In conclusion, five stars for the rather wonderful renovated Drury Lane, but three stars for this show.

Act 1: 19:03-20:03
Act 2: 20:26-21:15

Or gone to &Juliet, even with its pretentious ampersand!

Interesting. I filtered by today's date in TodayTix, and &Juliet was listed first!

Also of note for Frozen, the pre-show no phones/recording auditorium announcement included a polite and very clear request to wear masks to protect staff and cast, and was ignored by 95%.

Apologies. You're right. Norwegian too it seems. I only knew of hygge through Sandi Toksvig.

I saw this on Sunday and feel very mixed about it! Adored Samantha Barks' voice and I liked the sets although they weren't quite as spectacular as I expected. It mostly seemed to be lighting effects. I remembered the sets and costumes in Aladdin being incredible so was expecting something more like that and was a bit disappointed.

Audience was awful. I could let the constantly talking children off because they're young and I understand! But the two women next to us loudly sang along to Let It Go very badly which was frustrating. And a woman behind us started loudly pantomime booing Hans on two separate occasions which set all the kids off joining in. Plus saw people round me texting loads. I can't let the adults off!

Perhaps a silly question, but in situations like these who decides when she should perform/not? Is it up to the performer, or do they need a doctor's note, or does a resident director of company manager decide? I would imagine her understudy will also be fantastic, and I would have thought better the understudy than a sub-par lead who may need time to recover and get more ill if they continue - how does it work?

Company Manager and performer will liaise constantly (provided they get along!), like family with WhatsApps back and forth etc.

Ultimately it comes down to the performer, provided Covid symptoms aren't involved.

They will phone/text the CM saying they're sick and unable to perform, just like you would with your line manager in any other job.