Do the people behind Let It Go, Into the Unknown and Show Yourself hope those viewers take anything special from the experience? The stage version of Frozen will undoubtedly reignite a spark in the hearts of plenty of fans, and might well be the first time many younger audiences step into a theatre. “We took a lot of the musical DNA from the songs that did work in Frozen and used those motifs, those themes, to build new songs, so that it all felt like it came from the same musical place,” says Kristen. “This little hand-clap chant that they sing at the top of the show, that’s from our original material cut from the movie, but those songs are from different storylines that we couldn’t use again. “I think we used one little bit of one of them,” says Robert. They only had five months to write the new score for the stage show, so you might have forgiven them for going back to that unused material. “There’s something like 20 songs in the show and less than 10 in the movie.″Īnna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and Olaf (Josh Gad) in Frozen 2. “I think we wrote more songs for this show than we did that are in the movie,” says Robert. But, once again, this duo aren’t into sticking to the formula. The stage adaptation of Frozen was written between the two films, and given the original’s success it could have been easy not to shake things up. “And it’s amazing, the way that it has been adopted by the autistic community in particular is really powerful.″ “Addicts, eating disorders, it’s used a lot in recovery any place where people have been controlled by a part of them that society would find shameful,” says Kristen. Elsa is this character that appeals very strongly to that community, and also to neurodiverse groups, so many people really see themselves in that character.″ “So we’re used to it, and it’s wonderful. Did they expect to connect so strongly with those communities? “It’s always a good bet when you write a musical that that’s going to happen,” says Robert. That feeling, don’t let them see the shameful dark parts of me.”Įlsa has also been embraced by LGBTI people the world over.
Which I think is universal, and something that we’re maybe looking at a little bit more now as a society, but it’s existed as long as humans have been alive. “I actually think Elsa speaks for every part of us that’s ever felt: ‘I don’t want people to know the whole me’.
That’s why Elsa in particular, a young woman with a power that she can’t control, offered a new kind of role model for children. “And every little kid who’s been told ‘don’t cry’ or every little boy who’s been told ‘don’t skip, it looks too female’ or whatever, every kid in some way is being told ‘tamp it down’.” “We really wanted to tell real stories with true emotion at their heart,” says Kristen. Perhaps because of their personal backstories, the songs of Frozen and its sequel have lodged themselves in the hearts of countless children. “Annie was two, and she just followed her sister around, and a six-and-a-half year old really doesn’t like a two-year-old touching her stuff, taking toys, so she would slam the door, and the two-year-old would bang on the door crying ‘Katie, play with me, play with me!’″ “Katie was like six-and-a-half when we got the job,” says Kristen. ‘We took a lot of the musical DNA from the songs that did work in Frozen and used those motifs, those themes, to build new songs.’ Kristen Anderson-Lopez
Take Do You Want to Build a Snowman? in which a young Anna pleads for her sister to come out and play. But on a broader level, the stories those songs tell are also those of the two kids.
They’re in there literally: Katie sings the first verse of Do You Want to Build a Snowman? while toddler Annie scored a line in Fixer-Upper. You might think that a film with a $150 million budget wouldn’t leave much room for a couple of kids, but Kristen and Robert’s daughters left their footprints all over the film and its sequel. If you know Frozen, you know Katie and Annie. They also share the space with their two daughters, Katie and Annie. They work in separate home offices – “because it’s really helpful to have a door to close,” says Kristen – but the rooms are only separated by a metre of hallway. Speaking on video from New York, Kristen and Robert are these days in a slightly more upmarket townhouse, but it’s no sprawling ice palace.