Frozen Jnr

Frozen Jnr is based on the Disney animated film “Frozen” and contains a lot of the most popular songs but is a much shorter version suitable for young performers and young audiences alike. This is only the fourth youth production that CAOS have produced and they go from strength to strength.

The sets were simple in design, mainly 3 pieces, which were repositioned and turned – often by the cast – to change the scene and they worked really well. Those together with a snow machine, star cloth and supportive lighting plot ensured every scene was good to look at. I particularly liked the way the shipwreck was portrayed. Sound quality was good with a good balance between backing track and voices. The costumes were all good and appropriate for the piece, the “Olaf” and “Sven” costumes were super, all of the characters were instantly recognisable and everyone looked good.

The opening was excellent, the cast were silhouetted and both the singing and movement were of a high standard setting the scene for the entire show. The ensemble throughout showed good stagecraft and gave excellent support to the principals. The young Elsa and Anna were very cute, Daisy Bradgate and Eva Belcher are certainly ones to watch for the future. Nieve Liddle and Rana Ozbek as the middle Elsa and Anna also gave good confident character portrayals and sang well. “King” portrayed by Alex Rochester and “Queen” portrayed by Darcy Ranasinghe gave strong character portrayals, Darcy was also the alternate Anna and I’m sure she would be excellent in that role too. Amy Burlison-Brown and Olivia Tucker gave good interpretations of the magical “Pabbie” and “Bulda” and Luke Rochester did well as a suitably pompous “Weselton”. Dan Burlison can always be relied upon to give a good character interpretation and he certainly made his presence felt as the eccentric “Oaken”. George Anglesea worked really hard as “Sven” the reindeer, he contended with a full body costume and mask which he even kept on for the bows so as not to spoil the magic, well done! His master and all round good guy “Kristoff” was played by Thomas Nugent, again great characterisation.  As “Hans” Ted Gladstone was confident and sang well, the duet with Anna was very good. Milly Cassin gave us a loveable portrayal of “Olaf” the snowman with good vocals for the “In Summer” number. Ellie Choake portrayed “Anna” at the performance I attended and she did a great job, her songs were good and she acted with confidence. In the pivotal role of “Elsa” Ellen Ledgerwood shone, it is no surprise that this young performer has been accepted for professional training, her singing and acting were excellent and she commanded the stage.

Well done to the entire cast and congratulations to Lee, Claire, Melanie, Scott and their support team for putting together a very polished and enjoyable production, I am looking forward to seeing what you do with “Les Miserables School Edition” next year!

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