Disney have been a bit wishy washy about their plans for a stage version of Frozen, but work has been underway for sometime, largely in secret. Now Baz Bamigboye, who has a good track record with these things, has reported on a writer, a director and even a projected opening schedule. According to Baz, the musical is being targeted for a 2017 bow. They seem to be in good shape too, with Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez already banking a couple of new songs alongside their originals from the film. The book of the new show - and for those who don't go to much musical theatre, which is almost everybody, the 'book' is what we call the script - is being written by Jennifer Lee, writer and co-director of the movie version. She's a very busy woman, having already co-written and co-directed the short sequel Frozen Fever and started out on her adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. She's also now a regular consultant in Disney's brain trust, which makes perfect sense: why waste a sharp mind like Lee's when you could run all sorts of ideas past her for feedback and insight? The newcomers to this project will include Alex Timbers, who has been workshopping the show so far and may yet go ahead and direct it. They'll also need a new cast - Baz only mentions that Idina Menzel will not be reprising the role of Elsa, but I doubt very much that they'll get anybody at all from the movie to return. I'm sure Disney will really want to get this project right. The Lion King musical has the biggest box office haul of absolutely anything - film or stage show - having pulled in over $6.2 billion, and if anything else has a good opening advantage to somehow maybe catch up, it's a musical based on Frozen.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
