Frozen Musical Will Debut In Denver For World Premiere

Disney’s upcoming stage musical adaptation of Frozen will premiere in Colorado at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. An exact date has not been set, but Frozen will make its debut at the Buell Theatre in August 2017.

Denver Center for the Performing Arts was also chosen to host the pre-Broadway tryout for Disney’s production of The Little Mermaid. The show will be the ninth musical that Disney has brought to Broadway through its New York-based theatrical division. The adaptation announced on Tuesday, as reported by Inquisitr, will land on Broadway in the spring of 2018.

The cinematic version of Frozen was a phenomenon grossing $400 million in the United States and nearly $1.3 billion worldwide. The film won Academy Awards for best animated film, best original song, and even inspired a boom in children being named Elsa.

The film’s original composers and screenwriter are adapting their work for the stage production. Music and lyrics are by Robert Lopez (The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q) and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who wrote the songs for the movie, and Jennifer Lee, who wrote the screenplay and was co-director of the film.

Several beacon figures in the world of theatre have been recruited to bring the production to life. Alex Timbers, a theatre-maker who previously directed Disney’s Peter and the Starcatcher as well as Rocky and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson on Broadway, will be the director. Peter Darling, who won a Tony Award for Billy Elliot and was nominated for his work on Matilda the Musical, is the choreographer. The scenic and costume designer will be Bob Crowley, who has won seven Tony Awards, including for the Disney shows Aida and Mary Poppins.

The Frozen adaptation will be the ninth musical that Disney has brought to Broadway through its New York-based theatrical division, some of which helped to rejuvenate the world’s two theatre industry epicenters for high profile shows and stage schools in London and New York.

The historical achievements and shared artistic heritage of both cities as world class centers of theatrical excellence, will be celebrated at the V&A this February with an exhibition. Curtain Up: Celebrating 40 Years of Theatre in London and New York will showcase the craft and collaboration that goes into creating award-winning plays, musicals and productions. Plays and musicals which have performed well both in London and New York will be highlighted with costumes on display from Disney’s The Lion King, designed by Julie Taymor, costume designs by William Ivey Long for Chicago and The Producers and Christopher Oram’s costume designs for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Film clips from notable theatre productions from the V&A’s National Video Archive of Performance (NVAP) and the NYPL’s Theatre on Film and Tape archive (TOFT) will be embedded throughout.

The immersive expo will take visitors through the main processes of bringing a production to life, from design workshops to stage to awards. Visitors will gain a sense of how production are developed from inception and an entire company – from back-of-house to center stage – contribute to an award-winning production, including material such as correspondence and production material relating to the original production of Evita. Script-writing, production, direction, lighting, sound, set, costume, music, choreography and the evolution of technology will all be explored.

Curated by the V&A and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, objects drawn from the collections of the V&A and The Library for the Performing Arts will be on display, along with loans from private collections. Highlights include original costume designs from The Phantom of the Opera by Maria Bjornson (1986), one of the longest running West End musicals, and the longest-running Broadway production in history, shown alongside the costume worn by a recent West End Phantom; a selection of golden top hats from A Chorus Line, which won both the Tony Award (1976) and the inaugural Olivier Award (1976) for Best New Musical; a tunic worn by Rudolf Nureyev in Romeo and Juliet,which won the Olivier in 1977; and Dame Helen Mirren DBE’s dress designed by Bob Crowley and worn in The Audience, a role which she won both an Olivier (2013) and Tony Award (2015) for Best Actress.