Evaluation: ‘Frozen’ at BroadwaySF exhibits how Disney magic thrives with youngsters and adults

Oh, how that Disney sheen glitters.

It transforms dangling ice crystals right into a curtain of sparkly prisms. It makes a layer of hygge-inducing rooftop snow look as delicious as icing on a gingerbread home. It immediately turns people to stone — the form of sun-stung crags that jut out from fjords.

And that’s simply the dazzling look of “Frozen,” the theatrical adaptation of the blockbuster Disney animated film. The present, which opened Sunday, Nov. 20, at BroadwaySF’s Orpheum Theatre, additionally shines in its storytelling. It establishes the childhood personalities of princess sisters Elsa and Anna (younger actors Sydney Elise Russell and Aria Kane, on opening evening) with a twirl of skirts and a puff of confetti.

It makes use of dance to make the impetuous grownup Anna (Lauren Nicole Chapman) fall in love twice — first with Prince Hans (Will Savarese), then with ice monger Kristoff (Dominic Dorset) — and Rob Ashford’s choreography presents a grasp class in tips on how to use motion, to not decoration or divert however to outline character. Dance right here is quirk and impulse. It’s attempting one thing bizarre and just a little loopy — kicks, lifts, cartwheels — and seeing if a dance associate will go there with you.

For these of us who grew up on Disney princesses, whose teloi drove unswervingly towards heterosexual marriage, “Frozen,” which has a e book by Jennifer Lee, opens refreshing prospects in mass-market fairy story storytelling. The life-defining real love right here isn’t between a person and a lady however between sisters. Elsa (Caroline Bowman as an grownup), who has magical powers she doesn’t perceive and struggles to manage, and Anna is likely to be opposites, however their contrasting qualities are each virtues. Elsa pursues cool, rational deliberation and self-sacrifice, the higher to maintain her powers at bay; whereas Anna is all openhearted candor. Elsa solves issues by isolating herself in her bed room or an ice palace of her personal sorcerous making, whereas Anna is aware of the sisters may determine all the things out if they may simply be collectively and speak.

One power of “Frozen” is that neither sister is absolutely proper or unsuitable. One other is how deeply it understands what it’s prefer to be a child — the best way a sibling’s shut bed room door each forbids and tantalizes in its thriller; the best way that bedtime, after the dad and mom end up the lights and go away, is its personal magical hour with particular, kid-only guidelines.

To Christopher Oram’s entrancing set and luxurious costumes — which in a single delectable case embody trousers that seem like manufactured from wolf pores and skin and fur — the present provides ingenious puppet design by Michael Curry that interprets the animated motions of snowman Olaf to the stage. By way of a trick of wires hooked up to operator Jeremy Davis’ toes, his totally different physique elements seem to bob independently, and Davis’ wide-eyed efficiency means yet one more pleasure of “Frozen” is ping-ponging your eyes from the puppet’s face to his, believing within the puppet’s actuality, then the puppeteer’s.

Chapman as Anna wields a standout singing voice, imbuing her phrases with the inviting heat of a glowing fireplace, and comedian daring that makes awkwardness right into a characteristic, not a bug. As Elsa, Bowman has eyes as expressive as melting swimming pools of ice. Even performers in smaller roles are darling sufficient to be animated characters, and their numbers — reminiscent of Olaf’s misguided fantasy about summer time or the ensemble’s ode to hygge (the Scandinavian phrase for coziness) — are pleasant flights of caprice to which the present offers full imaginative life.

If like me you had been one of many final people alive to not have seen “Frozen,” you don’t must be a small youngster carrying a Disney costume to understand this one. Princesses are available in all ages and genders.

N“Frozen”: Ebook by Jennifer Lee. Music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Directed by Michael Grandage. By way of Dec. 30. Two hours, quarter-hour. $40.50-$199.50, topic to alter. Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., S.F. 888-746-1799. www.broadwaysf.com