Frozen the Musical, review: the venue puts the show in the shade

Short of sending a coach and horses to get you there and back, I’m not sure what else the powers that be at Theatre Royal Drury Lane (pre-eminently Andrew Lloyd Webber and wife Madeleine) could do to make the experience of West End theatregoing more magical.

Flinging open its mighty doors after a £60m refurbishment and relaunching with the UK premiere of Disney’s Frozen, “the Lane” deserves five stars for inspirational palatial grandeur. Is it the perfect fairytale spot for Frozen? Yes, and no.

The romance of the place, from the jaw-dropping vistas on arrival to the opulence of the re-configured auditorium, builds incredible audience excitement. But while the ambience is faultless, that finesse points up how cursory Frozen sometimes feels. The venue is a sensation; the show, despite flurries of potency and a brace of songs you go in humming, is serviceable. Beside Disney’s theatrical masterstroke, The Lion King, it looks a lot like a poor relation.

Michael Grandage’s admittedly polished production has been reworked (with new material added) since its Broadway premiere in 2018, where it met with mixed reviews. The challenge for the creative team (music and lyrics by married duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, book by Jennifer Lee) was to transpose as much of their mega-hit 2013 film as possible, but deepen it thematically – widening the audience reach without losing child-friendliness.

To an extent, it’s a case of mission accomplished. Augmenting the running-time gives the tale of sibling princesses Elsa and Anna (sundered by Elsa’s imperilling capacity to freeze stuff) more breathing space. The knotty familial dynamic (Elsa feels she must repel Anna to save her) gets unpicked without unravelling the “family show” ethos.

That said, there’s a crack of confusion at the heart of the piece that this stage incarnation can neither mask nor seems able to resolve. The icy powers Elsa possesses – initially held to be a source of threat and shame – are pent-up then embraced (cue that rebel-rousing anthem, Let It Go), only, come the rushed denouement, to be compartmentalised again. No amount of emotive singing can obscure the muddle as to what the show is “saying”, which seems to dwindle to a slushy combination of: be true to yourself but remember, true love conquers all.

You can sense that missing element of meaning in Rob Ashford’s choreography, which often makes do with decorative adornment – high-lifts and waltzy-twirls – rather than expressions of interiority. It’s quite facile, in keeping with Christopher Oram’s beautiful but two-dimensional looking set. The show is at its best in the first half, detailing the growing chasm of estrangement between the siblings and between Elsa and her inner self (witness the meltingly lovely, achingly mournful ballad about repression, Dangerous to Dream).

The Act One “Let It Go” climax has a standalone Samantha Barks (chilly-composed as Elsa, in contrast to warmer-spirited Stephanie McKeon as Anna) see first a glove then her cape fly off, before hey-presto, getting an instant wardrobe make-over in keeping with her twinkly new-build palace. It’s the gasp-aloud pinnacle.

After that, the piece flip-flops between generic grandiose angst and cutesy comedy. The latter is afforded by the openly puppeteered Olaf (the chatterbox snowman), the frankly adorable reindeer Sven (with agile operator encased within) and a bizarre knees-up number (Hygge) involving a chorus-line of faux-scantily-clad sauna-users that skates over the vital jeopardy afflicting frozen Arendelle.

Yes, I’m being picky, and no I’m not the immediate target audience (tots and die-hard fans foremost). But if I sound coolly critical, it’s because I fervently believe Disney could, with a bit more spade-work, achieve a wonder for all ages. It’s not there yet.

Tickets: frozenthemusical.co.uk