"Frozen Jr."

Uncommon Productions.

Long Eaton School.

I've never really been a massive fan of this musical, maybe I'm too old to appreciate the Disneyness of the story. I'll let you into a little secret; I also was not a massive fan of the musical "Cats", until my third time of seeing it, after which everything fell into place and then I loved it, and still do. I'll let you into another secret, this is the third time of me seeing "Frozen Jr".... stay tuned folks!

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.

"Frozen Jr" has been performed at Long Eaton School since Wednesday with two different casts alternating. When I was at school there were, as far as I can remember, no proper drama classes and the stage in the hall was used for the morning assembly and the annual production, open to the privileged few to perform. How times have changed, and in my mind for the better.

Young Elsa is played by Jessica Carruthers, and while we don't see that much of Jessica, her version of Young Elsa was swift but quite poignant due to the magic she held in her hands which separated her from her younger sister.

Young Anna is played by Martha Briggs and  this role stuck in my mind for the playfulness of the character, always wanting to build that snowman with her elder sister, as well as the disappointment in her voice when she got no response from behind the door that separated her from Elsa.

Queen Elsa is played by Paige Bone, isolated in her ice palace, cut off from Anna, after their parents had died, Paige depicted the loneliness well and what I also loved was the make up she wore made her look cold and drawn; the costume of silver also helped to bring out the ice queen image, and of course it's Elsa who gets to sing the most famous song from the musical. "Let It Go" is a massive song for an adult to crack, but Paige absolutely nailed that song as well as that note at the end. Paige has a really nice folky tone to her voice which made the song feel and sound just that little bit different, and I liked the difference.

Anna is played by Isobel Pickering. Anyone who knows Isobel and her family know what a tough few years she has had, which I'm not going to go into, but Izzy's performance in this show showed the inner strength that she has, a strength that exploded from the role. Blending the sadness and frustration of being apart from her sister with the fun of finding love, or so she thought with Hans in the song "Love Is An Open Door", which always requires greet timing with your singing partner. Between Isobel and Paige, they really showed the bond and the strength between sisters.

Sarah Armstrong played Queen Iduna, another quick appearance along with Holly Oldershaw, who played King Agnarr, Elsa and Anna's parents who made the decision to keep the sisters apart so that Elsa could not cause any further harm to her sister.

Madelynne Woodroffe plays prince Hans. Prince Hans "falls" for Anna but that's where the twist comes in, as we discover later on in the musical. Quite rightly identified as a baddie of the musical who received several "boos" from the packed Long Eaton School audience at the time, but a massive round of applause at the final bows.

Olaf is the magical snowman who the two sisters created when they were younger and played by Violet Graney. Looking at the programme before the show I wasn't sure if Violet would be dressed as a snowman, but no, Olaf turned out to be a rather wonderful puppet, operated by Violet, who also dressed the part, all in white.

Kristoff, an ice harvester, almost put out of business by Elsa's extreme frost, is played by Rowan Jackson. I last saw Rowan playing an Ancestor in last year's production of "the Addams family", so it's good to see him as a more major character with Kristoff. A very confident young actor who has a nice line of comedy, especially with his sidekick Sven, the reindeer, played by Dexter Yates. Dexter looked as if he was really enjoying himself with some of the lines and the choreography that Sven was given. A good comedy pairing with Rowan and Dexter.

Pabble was played all week by Amy Taylor and Lily Bradley took the role of Bulda on Friday evening.

Oaken, the shop owner and trader is played by Rowan Brown, a brilliant comedy role for them. The song "Hygge" perfectly represents this along with the fun choreography Oaken and family perform, putting broad smiles on everybody's face.

Emily Taylor plays the Duke Of Weasel Town - oops, sorry Westleton. Quite an angry character when first introduced, but you would be wouldn't you if people keep getting your name wrong? That character trait does change later on in the musical though and a nice character filled role for Emily.

And last, but not least is The Bishop, played by Keeley Rickerby.

The citizens of Arendelle/ Oaken family are played by Matilda Mills, Excel Anamalu, Nicolena Morales, Arietta Morales, Isla Ingham, Livvy Mae Houghton and Yasmin Cuthbert.

The Ice Chorus consist of Darcie Price, Lily Ann Goddard, Leah Bestwick and Lyla Mae Houghton.

The Hidden Folk were played by Mia Allen, Olivia Hill, Leah Thomas, Margaux Shaw, Antoni Penev, Jakob Screen and Joshua Tomkins-Bell.

Produced and Directed by Mr Beardmore, who had a big task to follow from last year's "The Addams Family", but he certainly managed to top that. "Frozen" I now realise is one of those musicals that a certain generation grew up with and absolutely love, so the choice to perform this, this year was inspired. The whole cast performed with great maturity, and you could just feel that they loved performing this year's production. A rapid set of scene changes executed really well made the story and time fly. Helping out in Directing duty was Holly Oldershaw, one of the students.

Musical Directors are Miss Hall and Miss Attenborough. These ladies have really done good with this cast because the singing was a joy to hear, and the students timing was to be applauded all round.

Choreography for this show is by Miss Thrower, Mr Beardmore and Martha Briggs. Another area of production that has been smashed out of the ballpark.

The set was designed by Mr Mendham and used a split level stage to be able to depict the ice castle, and to give the cast an additional platform to use to show travel, and of course so that we could all see them when it came to the final bows. <r Mendham also had a bit of help from Student set designers Aimee Fothergill and Madelyne Woodroffe.

The Costumes are brilliant. From the regal dresses for Anna and Elsa, to the rather marvellous Olaf and Sven, and everything in between. Miss Hall is responsible for these brilliant creations.

Lighting Design is by Ruby Didwell and Maddie Taft with Sound Design by Lewis Cuthbert and Emma Webster Tams.

I touched on the effect the make up had on making Elsa look drawn with worry and cold, and that, as well as all of the other make up is thanks to Lily Bradley

It was a packed out audience on Friday, and I found out that the previous two days were the same, showing that all of the publicity worked wonders. The student Head of Publicity was Imogen Scott, and I must thank Lisa Pickering for asking me over to review.

As I said at the start, "Frozen" has not been up there in my Top 5 favourite musicals but, after tonight, this cast have defrosted more of that coldness I felt for this show; in fact, I really enjoyed this production. It must be something about third time lucky, or seeing a show three times. Whatever the reason, I drove back to Nottingham humming "Let It Go" all the way back.

"Frozen Jr" ended its' run tonight.