Frozen Jr

It is always a pleasure being invited to Settle to watch a production and this was the first of their junior productions which I had seen. There is always this wonderful feeling of community, and this group gives the young people in the area a wonderful opportunity to enhance their social skills and make new friends.   I was looking forward to watching The Courthouse Kids Theatre Youth production of Disney’s “Frozen Jr”. With music and Lyrics written by Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez from a book by Jennifer Lee and based on the very popular Disney film of the same name, which in turn was based on Hans Christian Andersen’s, The Snow Queen, however this story isn’t as dark and evil, but still deals with the death of parents and the estrangement of two sisters who, unfortunately and unintentionally, do harm to each other emotionally and physically, for example - when Elsa strikes a fatal shard of ice into Anna’s heart. Happily, in the end, they save each other with love and the adventuring fairytale spirit. It’s lovely to see a show with two female leads, where romantic love takes a back seat to sisterly love and affection.

The production was all under the direction of Paula Griffiths with choreography by Amy Lawson and Musical Direction Steven Lawson. The story follows the same lines as the film which means there are some very well-known characters in the show where the expectation of the audience is probably already established. Paula had at her disposal some very talented performers who rose to the occasion and really got into the spirit of their characters and the production as a whole. All the cast, principals, chorus and dancers, worked together to produce an excellent and very enjoyable production, which I am sure all lovers of the film would really enjoy. Like the film we see the two central characters, sisters Elsa and Anna at three different stages in their lives as they grow up and I thought the relationship between the sisters was captured beautifully through childhood and adulthood. This meant we had six different performers in the roles of Anna and Elsa. Firstly, we had Pixie Graham as young Elsa and Maya Wali as young Anna, both gave us a lovely interpretation of the sisters’ contrasting personalities, producing enjoyable performances. They were followed by Millie Hutt Holgate as middle Anna with Olivia Grace Brown as middle Elsa who effectively and seamlessly carried on the illusion that they were the same girls growing up. Finally, we were introduced to grown up Anna excellently played by Grace Louise Haynes, who was spot on with the spirit of Anna’s character, bold and lovable. Grace was able to maintain it throughout the performance which was very important as this role is central to the story and needs to be played by a strong performer. We also meet grown-up Elsa played by the talented Bella Clarke who produced an excellent characterization, she showed the sadness within Elsa as she tells us about the hideous magic within her. Bella had a lovely singing voice, and she had the job of singing the iconic song “Let it Go” a responsibility she carried out beautifully and confidently which was well received by the audience. 

Then we have the three very popular iconic comedic characters from the film who Anna meets on her quest to find her sister and who become friends. They were Kristof, Anna’s sidekick very well played by Roy Negrut Griffiths, Christopher Roberts as Sven the reindeer and Beau Lippit as Olaf the snowman. All three produced nice comedic characterizations which were enjoyable. There was also a confident Mungo Bell who showed very good acting skills as the diabolical and scheming Prince Hans who Anna falls for on their first meeting and leaves in charge of Arandell.

Other important roles and good performances came from Logan Fellows as King Agnarr and Lottie Oliver as Queen Iduna, with Amiyah Wright as Pabbie and Emily Atkinson as Bulda. There was also Otto Scott Keron as Weselton, and Harry Rutter as Oaken. All the cast worked together, there were no weak links, and all supported each other very well. Generally, there was some very good acting and lovely singing.

The chorus were strong and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves while supporting the principle cast excellently with some very nice singing and good movement - there was lots of energy on the stage. I liked the way the dancers were used to convey Elsa’s Ice Magic by skilfully performing effective and lovely choreography by Amy Lawson.

The lighting was very efficient and enhanced the performance and action on stage and the costumes were bright and colourful.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this lovely excellent production both on stage, backstage and front of house. It was great to see the youngsters on stage having such a good time. I had a wonderful afternoon as did the audience. Thank you for inviting me. 

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