“Frozen” is a story about the power of human warmth amid overwhelmingly cold, harsh nature. “Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical,” now running at Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse, celebrates that spirit. As the New Jersey holiday season takes hold, this show offers a warm night of family theater that captures well the essence of its film predecessor.
The 2013 animated film, “Frozen,” was a massive commercial and cultural success because, on one hand, it had all the expected elements of a hit Disney animated feature: big-name stars like Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, dazzling and big-budget animation, and a full-throated centerpiece song in “Let it Go.” But on the other hand, “Frozen” thrived by bucking tradition. It is a story about two princesses and at least one handsome prince, but we have no swooning romance or wandering ingénue. “Frozen” instead celebrates the strength of sisterhood and the resolve that bonds family. In resisting many familiar trends, “Frozen” defined its own space and redefined what a fairytale could be.
Opening on Broadway in 2018, the stage adaptation did what stage adaptations of Disney musicals prioritize above all: Don’t mess with success. The show makes some minor tweaks to the show’s story and structure, and of course it cannot resist the urge to add some new, not particularly good, and not at all necessary songs to stretch the 100-minute movie into a full-length stage musical, but at its core this is a straight-ahead and successful transfer of the movie to the stage.
The story opens as young princess sisters, Anna and Elsa (Anjali Roa and Hazel Vogel, both adorable and excellent as the childhood versions of the show’s stars), frolic in the castle, delighted with Elsa’s magical powers to create snow and ice. Sadly, Elsa quickly learns that she cannot control her powers, which have the capability to do real damage, so she hides herself away from society and her sister. When time comes for Elsa to become queen, a grand public ceremony turns sour after Elsa’s secret bursts forth in dangerous ways and she flees the country, leaving potential disaster in her wake. Anna sets off through the tundra in the hopes of finding her sister and saving her country.
The Paper Mill production is full of fun and heart, fueled mostly by excellent performances in the lead. Samantha Williams and Mary Kate Morrissey as Anna and Elsa rise to the high bar set for them by Roa and Vogel (and also, to be fair, by Bell and Menzel). Williams is consistently precocious and playful, even when Anna is called to her courage. Morrissey impresses with her ability to balance Elsa’s resolve to remove herself from society with her inability to turn off the love for her sister.
Morrissey and the show’s team dazzle as act one closes with the song everybody came to hear, “Let it Go.” Morrissey travels an impressive vocal range while musical director Geoffrey Ko brings the orchestra steadily to full, powerful voice, and Ryan J. O’Gara’s lights evoke an icy wonderland. Here and throughout the show, director Paige Price helps these performers find the emotional depth of these characters that makes “Frozen” so unique among the world of animated films.
Add to all this some wonderful puppetry (Afsaneh Aayani, puppet design) that brings Olaf (Todd Buonopane) and Sven (Thomas Whitcomb) to life and this stage adaptation feels like a transportation to the animated world of the film. That world is no doubt cold, but the warmth at the heart of the story shines through at the Paper Mill.
“Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical”
Paper Mill Playhouse
22 Brookside Drive, Millburn
Tickets available online (https://papermill.org/). Running through Jan. 11.
Patrick Maley may be reached at [email protected]. Find him on Instagram @PatrickJMaley. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook
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