Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield – until 7th November 2026
Reviewed by Lauren Fordham
5*****
Frozen: The Musical is based on the 2013 film phenomenon with music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. It centres around two royal sisters, Elsa (Evie Rose Owens) and Anna (Lexie Pygott) who live with their parents in a castle in Arendelle. They are kept isolated from each other as children due to Elsa’s magical ice powers, which are triggered by high emotion and beyond her control, accidentally harming Anna when she was young. When their parents die and Elsa assumes the throne, opening the gates of the palace for the first time, Anna becomes infatuated with a man she meets, Prince Hans. Triggered by the announcement of their snap engagement, Elsa accidentally sets off an eternal winter and absconds, creating fear and distrust amongst the townsfolk in her wake.
The stage is set to be both intimate, when inviting the audience into Elsa and Anna’s bedroom as they secretly make a toy snowman that’s ‘a little bit of you and a little bit of me,’ and immense.
The intimacy in the bedroom scene is provided physically by the small curtained beds and emotionally as the young Elsa (Pixie Pettigrew) and young Anna (Imogen Antich) share the qualities they each bring to the snowman. Elsa imparts the affection her powers preclude her from enjoying, ‘He’ll love warm hugs and the bright sunlight’ and Anna her sense of exuberance and naughtiness. It came as no surprise to me to read that Antich has already starred in the musical ‘Matilda’, as her enthusiastic tree-swinging energy is evident and endearing from the start.
Pettigrew’s young Elsa is more cautious and contemplative, serious and self-sacrificing, begging Pabbie to ‘take my magic too’ to ensure her sister’s long-term safety.
The immensity of the palace is portrayed through use of a video screen, provided by Innovation Productions, whose changing backdrop (images provided by Disney and collated by Production Manager Annette Gamble) extends the stage. During ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’ Elsa’s bedroom is down a long corridor, emphasising the physical and psychological distance between herself and the lonely, uncomprehending Anna.
Lexi Pygott is excellent as the giddy yet gauche adult Anna, and evokes a lot of empathy when she pleads with Elsa that ‘I Can’t Lose You.’ This adds a much deeper layer of sincerity to the sisters’ love.
Samuel Davis is suave and smooth-tongued as Hans; it is easy to see how he deceives Anna. He also has the perfect evil laugh, he would be well suited to either role if ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ were to be revived.
Marcel Blake is warm, funny and open as Kristoff, he makes the audience want to root for Anna to choose Kristoff from the start. He also has great chemistry with Sven the reindeer (Emma Sykes), not easy with an inanimate object! But their connection is totally believable.
Sykes has great dexterity to not only mobilise Sven but to make him sing and have just as much personality as the human characters.
James Wilczynski’s Olaf proves just as entertaining and endearing as the original, has a powerful belt and definitely melted this reviewer’s heart.
Adele Taylor’s additional original choreography for ‘In Summer’ with the ensemble dancing with parasols enhanced the scene, an improvement in my opinion on the West End production where just symbols were used. The choreography of the ensemble movement symbolising waves when the king and queen die at sea was also very powerful.
As well as the obvious themes of sisterhood and friendship, there is a marvellous thread of matriarchy running through this production of Frozen The Musical because of the decision to cast women in roles like Pabbie, the troll who saves Anna’s life at the beginning of the show (Zoe Roebuck), the Bishop (Leah Melling) and Oaken (Sarah Taylor.) Roebuck is maternal and nurturing when Anna is brought to her after Elsa strikes her for the second time. Taylor in particular is an unforeseen musical and comic talent, hitting notes more often found in shows like The Phantom of The Opera, I think she would be more than capable of fulfilling a role like Carlotta, should that be licensed for adult companies in the future.
Oaken’s sauna is another scene where the screen worked highly effectively to evoke a warm, cosy cabin. There was the odd glitch in it working but one of those moments was just a white screen so it almost looked as though it was by design as well, as if the snow itself had severed the connections.
The screen was fantastically effective at evoking the blizzard conditions on the mountain and Elsa’s ice palace, further enhanced by Chris Brearley’s lighting design that made the walls crackle with frost as Elsa moves. Annette Gamble’s use of dry ice as Elsa builds her palace also added to the impact and sense of danger as it rises up around her. Jonathan Hudson’s sound design also added to the sense of menace, as if the snow itself is a serpent beyond her control.
Evie Rose Owen’s performance reminds me of a young Samantha Barks, she is magnetic, especially in the darkly reflective number ‘Monster.’
It is abundantly clear that she, and the rest of the cast, has the skills required for a highly successful professional career. In ‘Frozen: The Musical’ Huddersfield Musical Theatre Company has unleashed a veritable avalanche of talent, grab a ticket while you can, it would be monstrous to ‘let it go’ unseen!