Frozen The Musical opens at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

The streets outside Theatre Royal Drury Lane were filled with a sea of blue Elsa dresses last week, as the long-awaited theatrical production of Frozen The Musical opened its doors, writes Rebecca Magill.

Children are often an excellent way to gauge the success of a theatre production.

If it’s captivating on stage, then you can hear a pin drop.

But if the energy levels drop, the stalls come alive with the sound of fidgeting kids and parents desperately opening snacks.

We’re happy to report that the audience of Frozen The Musical were captivated throughout the stage version of the much-loved film.

Having opened on Broadway in 2018 to box office records and three Tony Award nominations, the show has been reworked and made tighter for its London opening.

It certainly has some theatrical heavyweights behind it, with direction from Tony-award-winning Michael Grandage and being translated for stage by Jennifer Lee, the writer behind the film.

It even has some brand-new music from Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, writers of the song Let It Go.

A particularly good new addition was Hygge, in which the cast pranced around in skin suits covering their unmentionables with eucalyptus leaves.

It was genuinely funny song with clever lyrics.

The staging and production values were impressive – this is obviously a big budget show.

A highlight was the puppet of Sven the reindeer, where you wondered how an actor managed to contort themselves into such back-breaking shape.

Craig Gallivan also deserves a special mention as Olaf, as he added a wonderful comic twist.

Samantha Barks is the embodiment of Elsa, emanating a cold icy disposition in the opening acts and visibly warming up her character as her heart melted along with her ice palace.

Of course, everyone was waiting for THE moment.

Barks performance of Let it Go was everything you could have asked for.

When she transformed from frumpy frock to the glittering crystal-encrusted dress, there was an audible gasp from the audience.

No wonder, as the costume is made up of over 18,000 hand-beaded crystals.

It was always going to be difficult to translate such a well-loved classic to the stage, so we did find our attention waning during one of the new ballads and the trolls were maybe a missed opportunity.

I was looking forward to similar comedy turn as in the film, but they were far more creepy than comic.

But my two-year-old loved it, coming home and insisting she watch the film three more times in a 24-hour period.

You don’t get much more of a glowing endorsement than that.

Frozen The Musical is now booking to June 2022 and for more information and tickets head to frozenthemusical.co.uk

Main Pic: Samantha Barks as Elsa Picture: Johan Persson