‘FROZEN’: (left to right) Patti Murin, Caissie Levy & Jacob Smith. Photo: Deen van Meer

FROZEN
Book by Jennifer Lee
Music & lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez
Directed by Michael Grandage
Choreography by Rob Ashford
St. James Theatre
246 West 44th Street
(212-239-6200), FrozenTheMusical.com

By David NouNou

Based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, Disney turned Frozen into the glorious 2013 Oscar-winning animated feature film, containing the beloved Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” sung by Idina Menzel (or, as John Travolta mangled her name at the 2014 Oscars, “Adele Dazime”). The film turned out to be the most profitable and beloved Disney animated feature in many years. So one wonders how could Disney, with all its resources and talent, take something that was so vibrant and full of color and life and turn it into such a drab stage musical?

The easiest thing would have been to take the film and with Disney’s expertise in special effects transpose it, frame by frame, to the Broadway stage. Although that may not have been too original, it would have been a marvelous feat. The story revolves around the two princesses of Arendelle: the older Elsa (Caissie Levy) who possesses magic and has the power to turn everything to ice; and the playful younger one, Anna (Patti Murin) who is at risk of being unintentionally harmed by her older sister. As children, while playing a game one night, Elsa accidentally injures Anna (Anna passes out). She is rescued by her parents who summon the Grand Pabbie (Timothy Hughes) to heal Anna thus altering her mind about what had occurred. The sisters are separated and locked up in different parts of the castle in order to prevent more harm coming to Anna.

With the demise of their parents, Elsa at 21 becomes crowned as Queen of Arendelle. The sisters reunite but no good comes of it. Anna meets Hans (John Riddle) at the coronation ball and immediately falls in love with him. She wants to marry him and asks Elsa for her approval and is denied and accidentally unleashes her powers in front of the court. Elsa flees into the Northern mountains to isolate herself from the world by building a palace of ice. Arendelle is doomed to eternal winter. Anna goes in search of Elsa, gets lost and along the way meets Kristoff (Jelani Alladin) and his reindeer Sven. They encounter the snowman Olaf (Greg Hildreth). Through their bond of friendship and love they pull their resources to find Elsa and to help Anna reconcile with her sister and discover the true meaning of love that thaws out the ice in the heart and the eternal winter.

As with any good fairy tale, the story has to be compelling, hence the huge popularity of the film. The story here is basically the same, but where did it veer off into the doldrums? The two obvious factors are the pedestrian book by Jennifer Lee, who directed and wrote the movie, and secondly the ever-so heavy, leaden direction by Michael Grandage.

In film you can write with broader strokes, so even if a line is not funny or just plain generic, there are visual treats that can mask this flaw. Stage writing has to be succinct and can’t feature sophomoric writing; it becomes cloying. However, the bigger problem here is the direction by Michael Grandage. He is a great British director who has directed such dramas as Art, for which he won a Tony, Frost/Nixon, and The Cripple of Inishmaan. So, it is with great astonishment why Mr. Grandage, best known for dramas, would be chosen as director of a family-oriented, fun Disney musical. What should have been a bright, buoyant musical entertainment just plods and plods through dark, drab and somber moments. The proceedings aren’t helped any by Rob Ashford’s listless and unimaginative choreography. Where is the brilliant and imaginative director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw when you need him? He turned Disney’s Aladdin into one of the most joyous and colorful shows in recent memory.

Ms. Levy and Ms. Murin are in fine voice as Elsa and Anna and do their best with the material they are given. I do hold a soft spot in my heart for Sven, the reindeer and Olaf, the snowman; they conveyed more humanity and reality than the real actors.

This is the one case where Disney could have learned a thing or two from Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Squarepants, the musical currently on Broadway, directed by Tina Landau and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli. Now there is an original, colorful, buoyant and fun musical to be enjoyed by the whole family.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 22, 2018
Reviewed at March 21, 2018 press preview performance.

‘FROZEN’: Caissie Levy. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: Patti Murin. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: Patti Murin & Caissie Levy. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: Patti Murin. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: Caissie Levy. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: Jelani Alladin, Patti Murin & company. Photo: Deen van Meer.

‘FROZEN’: John Riddle, Robert Creighton & cast. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: Jelani Alladin. Photo: Deen van Meer

‘FROZEN’: The cast. Photo: Deen van Meer

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‘HUGHIE’: Frank Wood (left) & Forest Whitaker. Photo: Marc Brenner

HUGHIE
By Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Michael Grandage
Through March 27, 2016
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.HughieBroadway.com

By David NouNou

In all my years of writing, the thing I always found to be the hardest was to criticize a most honorable actor/movie star. I have admired Forest Whitaker for a long time. I first noticed him as a standout in Good Morning Vietnam, then Bird, The Crying Game, The Butler (robbed of an Oscar nomination), and, of course, his Oscar-winning role in The Last King of Scotland. He is an incredible actor to watch and so it pains me to say he is making his Broadway debut in Hughie, a non-existent Eugene O’Neill play and his interpretation of the beleaguered character Erie Smith is all wrong. To be sure, Mr. Whitaker is giving an earnest performance, but unfortunately it is a misplaced one.

Erie Smith is a lost soul. He is a drunken gambler who on this particular 1928 night happens to be sober and is returning to his hotel room. Also on this night he meets the new night clerk (the wonderful Frank Wood). The topic of choice by Erie is the former night clerk, the now deceased Hughie. Erie is trying to engage the night clerk with stories of his lucky halcyon days and anecdotes about Hughie. For Erie is afraid of the outside due to his debts, and afraid to go up to his room and be left alone with his demons. His safe haven is the dilapidated hotel lobby.

That’s the play, a 60-minute monologue by Erie prattling on about what he imagines to have been his glory days. Erie has to be full of bravado and has to have a certain charm to be likable. Mr. Whitaker has the charm but has chosen (or maybe it is a joint decision by him and the director Michael Grandage) to lose all of Erie’s bravado and play him as a schlemiel. Considering there is no plot or point to this play, the bravado has to be an essential part of the show, for without it the show becomes a big snooze.

The set by Christopher Orem, a decaying hotel lobby, is a piece of art and the ghostly lighting by Neil Austin is a vision. The expressionless, almost silent night clerk, Frank Wood, is as otherworldly as the set and the lighting and just as effective. Although it is not intentional, the three conspire to envelop and swallow up Erie/Forest Whitaker as if he never existed.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 3, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on March 2, 2016

‘HUGHIE’: Frank Wood & Forest Whitaker. Photo: Marc Brenner

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