My daughter had a Frozen themed party for her 3rd birthday (with 2 friends due to the rule of 6 in force at the time, and most of the 2 hour party was spent in the garden). Come her 6th Birthday, Frozen was still the order of the day so I decided to take her to see Disney's Frozen The Musical.
Booking tickets for Frozen the Musical, and where to sit
After years of waiting to see if it would come to Bristol, it wasn't showing any signs of going on tour, so we booked tickets to see it at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in Covent Garden. I bought tickets via the official website - I probably could have shopped around but it didn't occur to me and I paid around £60 each for (to my mind) brilliant seats, which we thought was OK for a West End show. We bought tickets about 7 weeks ahead of going.
I opted for the first row - Row A - of the Grand Circle. Row A meant we were right at the front, so I knew my daughter would be able to stand up and lean on the wall slightly if she wanted to, rather than being in rows of seats. Seats 19 and 20 meant we were in the central block - so a great view - but on the end of a row so could easily nip out to the loo if we needed to. Our seats have the red block around them below:
I would absolutely book these seats again - we were high, but not scary high for a child (or adult), and could see everything perfectly.
There were also piles of booster cushions available, and so we used one, to give anyone little (the majority of the audience) a bit of additional height, without spoiling anything for those in the next row back. And my theory about her being able to stand up if she wanted to worked perfectly. The only slight snags were that her Elsa dress was quite shiny and she kept sliding off the booster cushion! And every time she used her feet to push herself off the wall infront and back up onto the cushion, her light up trainers lit up the surrounding darkness as if I'd left my phone on and was receiving all sorts of messages!
Just a heads up that if you need to contact anyone about your ticket order, you'll be passed from pillar to post on the phone until you finally speak to Disney directly, who handle the ticket bookings for Frozen. But when you do get to the right person, it's all fine.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Covent Garden
Disney's Frozen The Musical is currently only (in the UK) showing in London in Covent Garden. We went as a day trip from North Somerset (more details on our itinerary and how we paid £12 parking for all day here) and got the tube to Covent Garden, from where it's an easy and pleasant 5 - 10 minute walk to the theatre.
I'd heard from a friend that there were costumes to see in the foyer, so we headed to the theatre as soon as we got to Covent Garden, partly to see the costumes and partly just for reassurance that we'd find it easily. And we were really glad we did, as the place was empty of tourists so we could study the costumes at our leisure. Then we headed off to get some lunch.
There are loads of places to eat in Covent Garden, but for ease of where to get into with a push chair, we opted for Zizzi's, 5 minutes from the theatre. It became evident, when we went to the loo to get changed into Frozen outfits, that lots of other people did the same, as Tiny Elsa after Tiny Elsa filed out of the toilets.
On that note, I'm used to people dressing up for Musicals. Even at the Lion King, people were wearing Disney t-shirts, and when I went to see Heather's in Malvern in the summer there were plenty of girls wearing short tartan wrap skirts. So, as it was a given my daughter would dress as Elsa, I got myself an Anna dress. And was officially (I think) the only adult in fancy dress!! It might have been embarrassing if I was seen by anyone I knew, but I wasn't, so as it was it was just cute to see little tiny Elsa's gawp at a real (to them, it would seem) Anna walking around. Great quote from another Mum in the loos at Zizzi's when we emerged from our cubicle in our costumes: "Ah, we're going there too... just with less commitment".
The Theatre Royal itself is a beautiful theatre to visit. When I took my son to the Bristol Hippodrome earlier this year I was excited to show him the architecture and grandeur - but not having been to Drury Lane before, I hadn't really considered that aspect of things for this visit. But it was even better than the Hippodrome in many ways because the foyer and entrance ways are so much bigger. In Bristol, when you're swept along in a busy flow of people it can be hard to stop and look at what's around you, but in the Theatre Royal there are wide stair cases which my daughter said felt "Royal". Walking up a stair case with a red carpet, which then splits at the top and goes to the left and right, whilst dressed as a Queen, was quite an unexpected magical moment for her!
Whilst we were in the theatre, my husband took our sons on a 15 minute walk to the lego store, watched some street performers, and went around the National Portrait Gallery. The show is 2 hours 15 minutes long, including a 20 minute interval.
Disney's Frozen The Musical: a review
So I've written almost 1000 words without actually getting to what the show is actually like. It's brilliant! It is so, so lovely.
One thing I did notice immediately is that usually there's some initial rousing song that makes me almost instantly burst into tears, just from the sheer overwhelm of a live orchestra, at the beginning of a musical. I assumed that'd come, in this instance, from the chanting of the ice collectors like in the beginning of the animated film. But instead, there was no all encompassing surround sound like that, and instead the show started with a somewhat gentle rendition of "Do you want to build a snowman?". A friend suggested afterwards that maybe they didn't want to overwhelm a young audience, many of who might be a bit daunted about what they were experiencing, and I think that could be right. Too much emotion, happy or otherwise, isn't necessarily the best start for young kids.
However, whilst I didn't get my usual goose bumps from the opening song, everything was amazing. There was more depth to the story about the girls' parents leaving, somehow, and the kids playing the leading roles were fantastic. There were extra songs, with the familiar ones done superbly.
I found out afterwards that they'd changed many of the main cast in September - we were watching it at the beginning of October - and Anna just absolutely knocked my socks off. Laura Dawkes has made her professional and West End debut as Anna - straight out of drama school - and is completely outstanding and utterly loveable. Our Elsa was the brilliant Jenna Lee James as Samantha Barks is on maternity leave.
Another thing about the show that I loved was the scenery. Now, I'm all for some creative artistry in how actors can make 1 cardboard box come alive and provide all the scene setting you need - but ends up that doesn't beat some full on Disney magic props and staging. I'm talking fireplaces, and big wooden doors and giant wooden rope bridges. There was plenty of imaginative work too - with people forming waves, and white capes used for frozen ice - which combined with some actual solid stage dressing, just made for an awesome overall experience. Don't you dare blink during "Let it go" though - you need to see the dress transformation!
My husband's favourite song in Frozen is Olaf's funny little tune about longing for summer - and I wondered how that would translate on to the stage. Needless to say they did it brilliantly, with vivid orange "cut out" scenery and signage popping up out of a muted blue background. That sounds odd, but it was a visual treat.
I raved about Frozen The Musical after I saw it, much more than I did after the Lion King - even though that had the feel-it-in-your-chest opening chorus that brought tears to my eyes - and I would absoutely see it again, and take the boys next time. Fingers crossed it'll come to Bristol eventually.
