With temperatures expected to be in the 100s this week, anything with the word “Frozen” in it sounds good.
So, that’s a good reason to go see the musical, Frozen, which runs through July 2nd at The Orpheum.
It’s great.
For some reason, I knew nothing about Frozen except the name and the image of “Elsa,” the main character. And that’s thanks to my great-niece, who has gotten Elsa dolls and, I guess, anything else associated with Frozen, for years as birthday and Christmas presents.
Whenever I confessed my ignorance about Frozen to anybody, I was greeted with, “You haven’t seen the MOVIE?”
They were referring to the Disney animated movie and, I guess, the sequel, Frozen II.
No, I never saw the movies. Again, my mind was frozen as far as learning anything about the musical. This time I just wanted to experience something I knew absolutely nothing about. I closed my ears to spoilers.
I wasn’t disappointed that I waited until I saw it opening night June 22nd.
The musical with its perfect cast at The Orpheum is wonderful. Caroline Bowman is, to me, the embodiment of “Elsa,” which I only previously knew from drawings and dolls. And, speaking of dolls, I still remember the giant Elsa doll I didn’t buy one Christmas for my great-niece. She had no idea I was thinking about buying it for her. I’ll tell her when she reaches her 30th birthday.
I felt better about not buying that doll after her mother bought her Elsa and Anna (Elsa’s sister) dolls, which are on sale during the performances. My great nephew is getting an Olaf doll. That’s the snowman in Frozen.
I asked Orpheum president/CEO Brett Batterson to give me some background on this fabulous show.
“It’s doing very well,” he says. And, for those who don’t have tickets, he says, “We have some tickets left for next weekend ’cause it’s the Fourth of July weekend. Best ticket availability is this weekend.”
If you think you’ve seen Frozen previously at the Orpheum, you’re wrong. “This is the first time we’ve had Frozen. It’s the last of the current Disney programs to make an appearance at the Orpheum. Everything Disney has out touring right now we have presented at least once. So, we hope that Disney creates some new shows. And we’ll keep bringing back the old faithfuls like Lion King and Aladdin.”
I had to ask Batterson what percentage of little girls were showing up dressed as Elsa at Orpheum performances. I saw lots of them, including my great-nice, in their flowing, diaphanous gowns gliding through the theater.
“Probably 60 or 70 percent,” Batterson says. “But there’s been a lot of them.”
By the way, I did notice a movie also called Frozen came out in 2010. A Rotten Tomatoes synopsis I found on Google says, “As a winter storm approaches, three people become stranded on a chairlift high above the ground after a ski resort closes for the night.”
Elsa, apparently, doesn’t have anything to do with this movie. But it does sound like another beat-the-heat movie I might want to check out.
