The ultimate no-brainer: Disney announced on February 9 that its theatrical division, headed by Thomas Schumacher, would develop the global animated hit “Frozen” for the musical stage. An out-of-town tryout in the summer of 2017 will be followed by a Broadway bow the following spring.“Frozen,” based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” has been a record-breaker on several fronts. Grossing $1.3 billion (with $400 million of that from the United States), it is the most successful animated motion picture in history and the ninth highest-grossing film of all time. Its soundtrack recording, featuring the all-pervasive tune, “Let It Go,” topped the Billboard soundtrack charts for 43 non-consecutive weeks. And the 2013 movie, directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee (who also wrote the screenplay), won two Oscars, for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, as well as two Grammy Awards.Lee will reprise her duties by writing the libretto for the musical, as will the songwriting team of Robert Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Directing will be Alex Timbers (“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”), who most recently collaborated with the Lopezes on “Up Here,” a new musical that had its premiere last summer at the La Jolla Playhouse. Rounding out the creative team of “Frozen” is a Tony-winning top shelf of talent: choreographer Peter Darling (“Billy Elliot”), Bob Crowley (“Mary Poppins,” “Aida”), and Natasha Katz (“An American in Paris”).While the film version of “Frozen” appeared to have emerged full-blown into a hit, the project actually languished for decades in “development hell” at Disney. Various iterations were pitched, attempted, and discarded, including one from Harvey Fierstein (“Kinky Boots”). It was only when Lee focused the story on two sisters, Elsa and Anna — and the sacrifice which one must make for the sake of the other — that the movie gained traction.In this regard, “Frozen” bears some similarity to the “girl power” of “Wicked.” This phenomenally successful global musical had its own “development hell” — the pre-Broadway tryout in San Francisco was met with bad reviews — until its writer Winnie Holzman, in similar fashion, zeroed in on the relationship between two women, in this case Elphaba and her putative nemesis Glinda.The expectations will be high for “Frozen.” But Disney, in ten times at bat on Broadway since 1994, has only had two flops (“Tarzan,” “Little Mermaid”). “The Lion King,” nearly two decades after opening, continues to be the all-time Broadway box-office champ with $1.2 billion in revenue and “Aladdin” is consistently among the top grossers. It’s arguable that once “Frozen” opens, Disney productions may well account for one third of all tickets sold on Broadway.
↧