Let it go? Never! Frozen, the £10 million musical based on the Oscar-winning film, may have had to shift its West End opening from this autumn to next spring.
But the show will still reopen the magnificently made-over Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, with previews starting on April 2 and a grand official opening scheduled for April 14.
The venue has been undergoing a £65 million refurbishment — to restore it to its Regency glory — overseen by impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, his wife Madeleine and Rebecca Kane Burton, chief executive of the couple’s LW Theatres group, which also controls the London Palladium.
Michael Grandage, who’s directing Frozen, with Samantha Barks (right) as Elsa and Stephanie McKeon (left) as her sister Anna, said he’s delighted with the innovations
The Lloyd Webbers have been at the forefront of plans to covid-proof our theatres, and demonstrated pilot measures to culture secretary Oliver Dowden at the Palladium. They include imaging cameras to check temperatures of theatregoers, performers and staff; silver ion door covers which are effective against pathogens similar to coronavirus; fogging machines, to coat seats and carpets with antiviral chemicals; and other safeguards introduced for the South Korean production of Phantom Of The Opera, which has been up and running for months.
The best of those protocols will be used at the Drury Lane and other theatres around the UK. The temperature checking technology is already up and running at the Drury Lane, keeping construction workers safe as they install doors that are held open magnetically, ensuring audiences need not touch a door handle, except in a ‘powder room’.
Michael Grandage, who’s directing Frozen, with Samantha Barks as Elsa and Stephanie McKeon as her sister Anna, said he’s delighted with the innovations. ‘We’re going into a completely refurbished theatre — a theatre with a massive history,’ he said.
Frozen is one of a handful of stage blockbusters that will be crucial in the fight to woo family audiences back to the theatre
‘There’s a new design we’re working on for Elsa’s ice palace,’ Grandage said. And a new song, too: I Can’t Lose You, written by Oscar-winning team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who penned the rousing anthem Let It Go.
Frozen is one of a handful of stage blockbusters, including Mamma Mia!, The Lion King, Les Miserables and Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, that will be crucial in the fight to woo family audiences back to the theatre.
In a way, it’s also a perfect story for these strange times. ‘The central theme is about a woman (Elsa) who puts herself into self-isolation, then joins society again,’ Grandage observed, wryly.
The show will still reopen the magnificently made-over Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, with previews starting on April 2 and a grand official opening scheduled for April 24
Joining Barks and McKeon at the Drury Lane will be Obioma Ugoala (George Washington in Hamilton at the Victoria Palace) as the hunky ice-master Kristoff; Craig Gallivan as Olaf, the gormless but lovable snowman; and Oliver Ormson as scheming Hans. Gabriel Mokake and Jacqui Sanchez will play the King and Queen.
The rest of the company consists of: Richard Frame, Mikayla Jade, Ashley Birchall, Jeremy Batt, Cameron Burt, Lauren Chia, Laura Emmitt, Emily-Mae, Danielle Fiamanya, Hannah Fairclough, Matt Gillett, Joe Griffiths-Brown, Emily Lane, Justin Lee-Jones, Jason Leigh Winter, Jacob Maynard and Leisha Mollyneaux.
Rounding out the company are Sarah O’Connor, Jemma Revell, Jak Skelly, Jake Small, Isabel Snaas, Joshua St. Clair, Monica Swayne and Anna Woodside.
Joining Barks and McKeon at the Drury Lane will be Craig Gallivan, Obioma Ugoala, Richard Frame, Mikayla Jade, Ashley Birchall, Oliver Ormson
Grandage said that because everyone has been stuck at home, none of the cast members knows who else is in the show. ‘It’s like a family being announced,’ he said. They will all meet for rehearsals in early February.
The original Broadway cast of Frozen was a diverse one, and that will be true in London, too, Grandage told me.
‘I want people to come in from the street and watch a show that’s at least representative of the place they’ve just come from.’
The original Broadway cast of Frozen was a diverse one, and that will be true in London, too, Grandage told me
- *The Frozen production issued the following details regarding ticketing arrangements: Due to the ongoing impact throughout the theatre industry of Covid-19, Disney’s Frozen will open in the West End on 14 April 2021, with previews from 2 April, and is now booking until 24 October 2021. All patrons with pre-existing bookings will automatically be transferred to a new performance date with the same seats, and notified in due course via email, with the company working through bookings chronologically. If the new date is not suitable, at this point patrons will have the opportunity to request an alternative date or a refund.*