By Kent Straith

DETROIT, MI–At risk of resorting to an overused cliche, Frozen the Broadway Musical is worth melting for. Admittedly, I don’t feel great about resorting to that predictable cliche/pun this early in a review of this universally known property. But, so be it. Frozen, presented by Broadway in Detroit, is great, and if you have children, know children, remember being a child, or like stage magic, puppets or power ballads, you should see it.

Adapted from Disney Animation Studio’s mega hit, which dominated the Christmas season ten years ago, Frozen is (thus far) the best of the Disney Theatrical adaptations of their popular films. While The Lion King has played on Broadway over ten thousand times, and tens of thousands of times in other cities around the world, it has never once occurred to me that I needed to ever see it again, while I may see Frozen a second time on this tour stop.

Unlike most Disney stories centered on the romantic love between a couple, Frozen is about the love between sisters torn apart since childhood by near tragic circumstances, and also the love of a queen for her country and her willingness to sacrifice for its citizens.

At about forty-five minutes longer than its progenitor film, Frozen takes the opportunity to stretch out and give deeper examination to previously glossed over material. The show opens with an introduction of the royal family of the Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle in what seems to be the mid-19th century. The show makes the brave choice to not introduce its leads until at least fifteen minutes into the production, putting the show on the backs of two young girls as older sister Elsa, and younger sister Anna as we are shown the close friendship they had early in life, and the two terrible accidents which causes them to grow up not only as orphans, but separated from each other.

When the girls reach their teen years, they are played by Lauren Nicole Chapman (Anna) and Caroline Bowman (Elsa). Bowman, like most people who have played Elsa since Frozen opened in 2018, is a Broadway veteran who has previously played Elphaba in Wicked. Aside from the original incarnation of Elsa being voiced on screen by Idina Menzel, most famous as the ur-Elphaba, there are a great many similarities between the characters. Both are purveyors of magic since before they could remember, and both grow up isolated and/or abandoned because of the thing that makes them special. Bowman’s Elsa is dark, brooding, and terrified of her own abilities and she clearly does justice to the classic take on the character. Chapman’s Anna, on the other hand, is bright, bubbly, dorky, and (in a refreshing expansion of the text) openly horny.

Despite growing up in different areas of the same castle, Anna’s search for love has made her the embodiment of love and openness, while the inverse opposite is true of her sister, who consents to a public royal coronation as she reaches age 21, but is perfectly content to never see another living person again afterward.

Bowman’s vocals are crystal clear and have a raw power tempered only by decades of training. Her rendition of “Let It Go,” the most famous power ballad of the 2010s and the song most associated with this show, is a literal show stopper, as it immediately precedes the act break because the audience needs a minute. Bowman’s voice is showcased well in two new songs, “Dangerous to Dream” and right at the very end, “Monster”, which Elsa literally contemplates suicide to save her people from the storm she has unknowingly created.

Chapman’s Anna is a warm, effervescent delight, blending her natural comic timing with genuine pathos. Vocally, she is certainly more accomplished than previous incarnations of Anna, and is absolutely a peer with Patti Murin, who created this role on stage. Good work is also turned in by Michigan’s own Dominic Dorset as Kristof, the scruffy outdoorsman with whom Anna eventually finds her match, and Preston Perez as Hans, the ambitious, golly-gee prince of a neighboring kingdom with whom she finds…something else.

It would not be fair to not mention the fabulous work of the Disney ‘imagineers’ who brought into real three dimensional space a story that most believed could never be done off screen. Through use of LED panels, rear projection, creative light and costume design, and undoubtedly the most impressive quick change anyone has ever seen (it’s on Youtube if you look hard enough), the creative team has created a world that your brain tells you is physically impossible, but what’s left of the child in you will whole-heartedly embrace.

Frozen is a darker, richer, expansion of a story that’s been so much a part of our lives for the past decade, it’s felt inescapable. And you’ll probably leave wanting to see it again.

(Frozen is playing at the Detroit Opera House as part of the Broadway In Detroit season, now through December 17th. Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling the Fisher Theater box office at 313-872-1000)