My eight-year-old daughter loved the movie of "Frozen" and wanted to see the Broadway version as soon as she heard about it. Susan and I warned her that it might be a risky venture, i.e., a Broadway show is not much like an animated movie and Broadway, with which we have limited experience, appeals to a different and less demanding audience than the New York City Ballet, which she loves. We didn't press the issue much, deciding as we often do to offer her the experience and let her decide. After hearing what my daughter called a "shrieking" version of "Let It Go," a favorite song from the movie, at the end of the first act, my daughter was ready to leave -- she had had it with the ear-piercing "music" and heavily miked dialogue, the unfunny "comedy" and the klutzy "choreography" and dancing ("where was the grace and poise we see at the ballet?" my daughter said) So we fled the theatre and the meretricious and insipid show.
Whom does one blame for this aggressive spectacle? First of all I blame the undemanding audience that doesn't want to think but just to be wowed by the loud music and the grandiose and dubious special effects, then I blame Disney Theatrical Productions for squeezing every last buck they can from kids and their parents, remaking the same properties over and over, from film to Broadway to live action and back again. Complicit is Jennifer Lee, who wrote the book after writing and co-directing the original film, Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for the insipid songs and Michael Grandage for his direction, which treated the special effects as more important than the story of the two sisters.
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