"Frozen Jr" by The Young Performers

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

Now, I know that I will be in the minority here, but I have never seen "Frozen", never mind "Frozen Jr", before, although I know a couple of the characters and a few of the songs; apart from that, this is a new one for me. If there's anyone else reading this who, like me are "Frozen" newbies, here's the story.....

When Queen Elsa accidentally sets off an eternal winter in the town of Arendelle, her younger sister Anna (along with her friends Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven) goes off on an adventure to find her sister and save the kingdom. Facing an unsuspected villain, unpredictable ice powers, and something new waiting round every corner, Anna must fight alongside her friends to bring back summer. "Frozen" reveals how true love can come in many forms, and can at times be deceptive, that the bond between sisters is something truly special.

Elsa is played by three young actors, for the three stages of Elsa's life; Olivia McEwan (Young Elsa), Sophie Longcroft (Middle Elsa) and Heidi Parsons (Queen Elsa). With the musical being the shorter version, we only get to see the first two for just a short time, and I was a bit worried when Olivia jumped on the bed and the bed stabilisers were not employed, I was afraid that the bed would disappear and leave poor Olivia on the stage! That's the sort of magic I didn't want to see! 

Heid did a splendid job, and of course being Queen Elsa, she got to sing "Let It Go" to close Act One. I bet by the time Saturday comes around it's going to be like a stadium anthem with the kids, belting out "Let It Go".

Anna is, again, played by three young actors, mirroring the time lapse with her elder sister Elsa. Olivia Monk (young Anna), Hattie McEwan (Middle Anna) and Ella Charlesworth (Anna). As with Elsa we get to see a revised family history with the growing up period. Ella has always had a lovely voice for musical theatre and you can hear the progression of her vocals in this role.

Olaf, if you didn't know, is the magical snowman who the two sisters created when they were younger. What I wasn't expecting was puppetry, and Olaf waddled on stage, helped slightly by Millie Weston, and the puppetry was so good that I hardly noticed Millie at all. Now, that is not what an actor wants to hear, that they were not noticed, but in this case it's a compliment to Millie because she made me believe so much in Olaf that I was watching him/her/she/they/their - I don't know how Olaf wants to be perceived and believed in Olaf. i think I love Olaf - there I've said it!

Kristoff is played by Fin Boswell, who I've seen with The Young performers several times, the most recent in "Spongebob Squarepants". Fin is growing as a young actor and I noted how natural he is as Kristoff. It doesn't sound like a script because the delivery is so good. He has "leading man" stamped all over him for future productions. Watch out for him future directors!

Sven, the reindeer, is another favourite of mine, and another puppet, well kind of. It's like a pantomime reindeer but with just the front half. What a wonderful sense of humour Sven has, and that is all thanks to Dillan Brookes, who operates Sven. And I must say that both Dillon and Millie synchronized their characters perfectly to make it look as if Sven and Olaf were speaking. This in itself made me believe in the characters because the operators did such a good job.

Prince Hans is played by Lewis McDowall. Now, never having seen this musical before and knowing nothing of the story or characters, I was quite unprepared for this handsome Prince's real character. No spoilers from me but Lewis drew me in and then nearly made me drop my bottle of water with the U Turn reveal. A cheeky smile from Lewis at the final bows when he received "boos" from the audience, proved he did a good job, and he knew it.

There are so many young performers in this play, so let's give them all a mention.....

Lucy Coulson-Jones (Oaken), Will Mellor (King) - just a shame that his mic was not working so we couldn't hear him, Summer McNorton (Queen), Alex Povey (Duke Of Weasel Town - oops, sorry Westleton) - Alex makes me smile; he has funny bones and I can see him in line for some fine comedy roles in the future - with or without a moustache, James Pedrick (Pabbie), Emily Wilkins (Bulda), Bishop played Em McEwan, well that's what the programme says, but I think it must be the other way around.

The citizens of Arendelle are played by Lucie Artiss, Keeley Rickerby, Remi Read, Livy read, Clarissa Armitage, Carly Gaunt, Izzy Pickering, AJ Chamberlain, Erin Gell, Isobella Frampton, jess Henshaw, Violet Graney, Emily-Mae Taylor, Avaani Babra, Fin Tomlinson and Neve Johnson.

Directed by Zak Charlesworth, and assisted by Neve Saxton. This pair and the cast have managed to ever so slightly melt my frozen heart, because, even though I'd not seen the film or the musical previously, I'd got reservations, after all it was a kids' musical, wasn't it? This production even got me liking "Let It Go" et all. I was a fan of "Love Is An Open Door". but that was about as far as it went with me. The musical itself will not be in my top five favourites, but this production went a long way to making me change my mind. 

What I will also complement on was the speed of the scene changes; there was no hanging around at all. With an interval the show only lasts less than ninety minutes and the swift scene changes, the time flew by. Great job with the stage management.

Choreography for this show is by Vicky Byrne and she really brought out the Disney feel around this show.

The set was designed by Roydon Charlesworth and I really felt as if I was inside the castle, as well as outside in the snow. While the set may look relatively simple by design, it accomplished everything that it set out to do by transporting the audience to several settings.

Light Design is by Dave Martin. I'm unsure if there were supposed to be a strobing effect on some of the lights near the start but i did feel that there should have been a warning for anyone who may be affected by strobing. Apart from that the performers were well illuminated, as was the stage.

Sound Design is by Harvey Taverner and in the first act, I felt that the backing tracks were just a little too loud, sometimes swamping the vocals, and with some mics not working, it drowned the singers. But in the second act, the sound was so much better with a calming of the backing music. 

With opening night, you kind of expect a few technical issues which I know in the past have all been eradicated by the following evening's performance. I know Harvey and Dave and know that these things will be taken under their technical wings and sorted out.

I must mention the costumes, which were brilliant, supplied by Sarah Charlesworth and Utopia Costumes, and I believe that Olaf and Sven travelled down from Scotland.

I already knew three of the big songs from the show, "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman", "Love Is An Open Door" and of course "Let It Go", but there are some more tunes that will stick annoyingly in your head after seeing this production, like "Reindeers Are Better Than People" and "Fixer Upper".

"Frozen Jr" is at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 17 June.