Frozen Jr.
Information
- Date
- 23rd March 2024
- Society
- Drama Geeks
- Venue
- Pier Pavilion South Shields
- Type of Production
- Musical
- Director
- Charlotte Reid
- Musical Director
- Bethan Amber
- Choreographer
- Kyra Batty
Disney know by now the ‘formula’ for a good crowd pleaser and the fully sold-out audience over all performances were certainly pleased. The cast comprised of a wide spread of ages from around 5 up to about 18 and none looked out of place amongst their peers.
Cuteness factor goes to Mia Fairley and Isabelle Foster as the very young sisters Elsa and Anna respectfully who wow’d with their rendition of ‘Do you want to Build a Snowman’ before being replaced by their slightly older counterparts of Pippa Marlee and Kate Woodward. Their ‘parents’, Queen Iduna and King Agnarr (Lola McDonagh and Finley Peralta) showed their ‘compassion and empathy’ to their daughters before their untimely deaths.
The mountain Trolls who fix the frozen Anna (caused in accident by the younger Anna) were led with suitable gusto by Annabelle Lancaster and Bo James (as Pabble and Builda). Entering the coronation phase, the grown up Elsa and Anna (Macie Sinclair and Sophie Nevins) now seem much more ‘rounded’ characters as Anna falls in love instantly with the distant Prince Hans (Olivia Chase) who both regaled the audience with the beautiful ‘Love is an Open Door’. Spurred on by the weasel like ‘Weselton’ (Madox Jamal) who performed very much like his ‘name’ with pompous weasel like demeanour. The engagement of both after knowing themselves a few short hours is blocked by the now Queen Elsa whose ‘magic’ causes the nation of Arrendale to go into permanent winter.
This is not good news for Kristoff and his trusty reindeer Sven (Isla Hamill and Sam Craig) whose continued employment suffers as an ‘ice provider’. Queen Elsa self-exiles herself to her ice kingdom wowing the audience as she went with the arguably best know song in the show of ‘Let it Go’ along with the clever instant costume change onstage which caused a gasp from the audience.
As Anna and Kristoff set off to try and find and return Elsa to Arrendale they come across the ‘Oaken Family’ led by Kaiden Hutchison who collectively cheered everyone up with their wonderful rendition of ‘Hygge’.
Joining Anna and Kristoff on their quest was the loveable character of Olaf (Eva Craig) who gave a wonderful interpretation of the slightly naïve ‘snowman’
As the story comes to its conclusion with Hans being banished for trying to take over the throne, Anna is cured of the ice in her heart by an act of true love by Elsa protecting her causing the realm to return to its former glory.
It is impossible to mention all the Townspeople, Oakens, Trolls, Snow dancers and Hidden Folk but each played their part in a lovely production.
On the technical side of things, the costumes were very colourful and appropriate and the video wall used so effectively to denote the various scenes and the snow storms were extremely effective. Good, choreographed movement throughout.
It is a cult production and was loved by the audience – no more so than the little girl of about three in front of me who made all the motions of Elsa throughout the show.
Well done Drama Geeks – I look forward to seeing your next production.
Michelle Coulson – Regional Youth Coordinator notes:
The entire show had lots of energy and good stage presence throughout and was thoroughly enjoyed by the near capacity audience. I attended the Sunday 2pm performance so saw some different principals to Gordon and he has asked me for my thoughts on those performances. The young and middle Elsa and Anna’s were very confident (Martha Trigkilidas, Eleanor Donkin, Jasmin Aiken Burnikell and Jessica Nygaard) and gave lovely vocal performances. Charlotte Hall gave a really strong portrayal of Anna, her duets with Elsa and Hans were very good. Nathaniel Trigkilidas gave a confident portrayal of Hans and had very clear diction, the duet with "Anna" was very good . The character of Kristoff was in the safe hands of Rubin Morgan who have a super confident performance with good comic timing. Gabriel Trigkilidas as snowman Olaf had so much cuteness and was an audience favourite, their libretto was well delivered and the song “In Summer” was definitely a highlight in the show, congratulations. The dancers and ensemble gave good support throughout.
This was a super show and you should all be proud of your achievements.
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