‘Frozen’ to bow on Broadway in 2018
Alexander Hamilton has roughly two more years to dominate Broadway. Then he’s going to have to move over for Anna and Elsa.
Disney has announced it will bring the “Frozen” musical to Broadway during the spring of 2018.
It also has announced more of the creative team: The musical will be directed by Alex Timbers, who also was at the helm of “Peter and the Starcatcher,” and Tony-winner Peter Darling will provide the choreography, as he did on “Billy Elliot” and “Matilda.”
Already on board: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who wrote the songs for the movie, are working on additional music and lyrics for the show. In addition, Bob Crowley (“Mary Poppins,” “Aladdin”) will work on scenic and costume designer; and Stephen Oremus (“Avenue Q,” “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon”) will be music director.
Disney currently has two shows running on Broadway: “The Lion King,” the Tony-winning best musical that has been playing for 19 years; and “Aladdin,” which opened in 2014. While “Aladdin” has received a warm reception, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it step aside for Frozen. Disney did not announce a theater for “Frozen.”
Before the show hits the Great White Way, Disney will mount an out-of-town tryout in the summer of 2017. In the past, these dry runs have taken place in Minneapolis (“The Lion King”) and Seattle (“Aladdin”). Smaller venues hosted early try-outs of “The Little Mermaid” (Short Hills, N.J.) and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (La Jolla, Calif.) So keep an eye on your local theater company.
If you want to keep up on news about the musical, you can already visit its website.
And this is not the only Frozen news announced today; there is also a holiday television special in the works.
By the way, there’s a connection between the hip-hop Broadway hit “Hamilton” and Disney. Hamilton’s writer and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is currently writing songs for “Moana,” the Disney musical set in the South Pacific that will hit theaters Thanksgiving. If the movie has a fragment of Hamilton’s brains and heart, look out world. That will be enough … to get it to Broadway too. (With apologies to Lin Miranda for trying to work his lyrics into basically everything I write these days.)
