Frozen JR

I was warmly welcomed at Front of House by Assistant Director Emily Wilson and met with her and Director Abigail Lonton after the performance. This was my first visit to this venue and I was impressed by the facilities offered. Strikingly there was no stage as such but a delineated defined area of the auditorium floor. Stacked seating allowed the audience a good view of the ‘stage’. There was a wing entrance each side for good entrances and exits. There were no sets as such but limited props were moved on to the stage where relevant. However, extensive use was made of a large whiteboard/screen at the back of the stage onto which very attractive scenes were projected. It all looked great! Music was to backing tracks and obviously very well rehearsed. Costumes were mostly made by the society and were attractive. The Fair Isle sweaters were striking as were the snow chorus costumes. Lighting enhanced the scenes, sound was good and everyone could be heard clearly

There were about 55 young people in this production and some roles were double cast. All the cast were aged from 3 to 18 and it was good to see the progress some of the older ones had made over the last few years.

The casting was good with principals playing to their strengths. There was good acting and many strong vocals. There was plenty for the large chorus to do ie townspeople, Oaken’s family, hidden folk and snow chorus. They all joined in enthusiastically with the songs. There were lots of smiling faces on stage and also some excellent tap dancing with all the dancers in step and time. Well done!

Young Anna (Mabel Groves) and Young Elsa (Aubrey Coburn) joined Middle Anna (Bella Strong), Middle Elsa (Madelyn Eaves), Anna ( Violet Stuart-Allen) and Elsa ( Holli Dixey) in the lively Do You Want To Build A Snowman. In fact both Violet and Holli had extremely good voices as demonstrated in For The First Time In Forever. Olaf the snowman had a niche role and was well acted by Lucy Stopps who sang the solo In Summer. Cameron Kiff played the strongman part of Kristoff with Aubree Howard as his reindeer companion Sven. These two blended well together with Reindeers Are Better Than People and Cameron’s voice was very clear and strong.

Hans the Prince was well played by Stan Howell-Smith who brought an element of ulterior motive into the role. Was he really so innocent and kind?

King and Queen, Lewis Wright and Poppy Drury were suitably regal as was Savannah Hammond as The Bishop. I enjoyed the role of Oaken, well played by Lewis Wright who sang a lively song, Hygge surrounded by his family. Small but important roles were by Eden Gediking (Pabbie), Pippa Robertson (Bulda) and Jack Bugden (Weasleton).

Song of the show for me was Let It Go sung by Holli Dixey as Elsa. Holli had the depth and feeling in her voice to really carry this compelling song and performed it so well!

In all this was a good production by this talented cast and crew with the creative abilities of the team obvious, Congratulations to the Director, Abigail Lonton and Assistant Directors Emily Wilson and Kayleigh Root for bringing this production to stage.

 

 

 

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