Disney has come up with yet another stage spectacular in Frozen – Live At The Hyperion, an hour-long Broadway-scale, Broadway-caliber live adaptation of the smash hit 2013 computer-animated movie hit.

Unlike Disney’s Broadway two-acters (Beauty And The Beast, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, etc.), Frozen – Live At The Hyperion compacts rather than expands its source material.

No new songs have been added to the movie’s Kristen Anderson-Lopez/Robert Lopez baker’s half-dozen, the Oscar-winning “Let It Go” proving not surprisingly the production’s biggest show-stopper, though “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?,” “For the First Time in Forever,” “Love Is an Open Door,” “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People,” “In Summer,” and “Fixer Upper” each offer its own delights.

Jennifer Lee’s screenplay has been adeptly trimmed, the movie’s lengthy action-adventure finale largely dispensed with (and snow monster Marshmallow nowhere to be seen), the better to concentrate on characters and song. (That being said, those who’ve not seen Frozen The Movie may find themselves a bit at a loss in following an occasional plot point.)

Though it’s Frozen – Live At The Hyperion’s extraordinary scenic and special effects projected on a gigantic LED video wall that are most likely to get audiences buzzing (and they are stupendous, taking us in an instant from royal castle to snow-covered mountain peaks to a tropical island to a troll-inhabited fantasyland), it is the performances by a rotating ensemble* of well over a hundred of L.A.’s finest young (refreshingly colorblind-cast) triple-threats that make the production a particular treat for musical theater lovers.

Choreography, costumes, and sound and lighting design are equally sensational including an Elsa costume change worthy of Hollywood’s Magic Castle and a “Fixer Upper” sequence (featuring live, puppet, and computer-generated trolls galore) that must be seen to be believed. And speaking of puppets, you won’t meet a more adorable one than Olaf or a more ingenious one than reindeer Sven.

Frozen – Live At The Hyperion can be seen at no extra charge to anyone with big enough bucks to spring for a Disney California Adventure ticket (and all the added expenses of a day at a theme park), but what an extraordinary perk this latest Disney theatrical event proves to be.

There’s just one word grand enough to describe it, and that’s FROZEN-sational!

*Appearing at the performance reviewed: Devin Archer, Carly Bracco, Ryan Castellino, Michael Cavinder, Ashley Diane, Jack Eld, Jennifer Foster, Rebecca Gans, Heidi Godt, Cooper Howell, Rachael Johnson, Andrea Laxton, Craig Lucas, Victor Mazzone, Amber Mercomes, Bruce Merkle, Tayler Mettra, Philip Dean Lightstone, Jane Papageorge, Katheryne Penny, Cailan Rose, Jerald Vincent, Michael Thomas-Visgar, and Armando Yearwood, Jr.

Disney California Adventure, 1313 Disneyland Dr, Anaheim. See website for performance dates and times.
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/entertainment/disney-california-adventure/frozen-live-at-hyperion/

–Steven Stanley
August 3, 2016
Photos: HD Photography