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music & lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez, book by Jennifer Lee, directed by Jeremy Webb

Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton

November 21-December 28, 2025

Elsa: “A kingdom of isolation / And it looks like I’m the queen"

Theatre Aquarius’ presentation of Frozen has such high production values and such powerful performances that it could easily take its place on Broadway or the West End. The 2018 stage musical of Frozen is based on the extraordinarily popular 2013 Disney animated movie of the same name with a book by Jennifer Lee and songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the same team involved with the movie. Yet, even for a fairy tale musical, Frozen the movie had such significant flaws in everyday logic and consistent storytelling that it’s a pity Disney did not encourage Lawrence to correct these flaws for the musical. Nevertheless, so much about the Theatre Aquarius production is so right that children and most adults will happily ignore them.

As most people will know, Frozen is about the relationship of two royal sisters, Elsa and Anna, who live in the fictitious Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle. The show begins with the sisters as children. Elsa realizes she has the magic power of shooting ice from her fingertips. When, in play, she almost fatally injures Anna, the girls’ father decrees that the two should remain separated. The sisters’ parents die during a shipwreck when they were in search of a cure for Elsa’s condition. Elsa, as heir to the throne, is crowned, but when Anna announces that she wants to marry Hans, a royal guest she has only known for part of a day, Elsa reacts with such wrath that she plunges Arendelle into an eternal winter.

Up to the point of Elsa’s coronation, the story makes sense, but why Elsa should have such a massive overreaction to Anna’s announcement of marriage is unclear. From here on, logic is thrown to the winds. With her countrymen believing she is a witch, Elsa flees the castle. Anna, believing she is the only one who can talk to Elsa, also flees and, rather incredibly, leaves Arendelle in the hands of the foreigner Hans. Is there no one from Arendelle that Anna could put in charge?

Anna plunges totally unprepared into the snowy mountains to find Elsa and runs into Kristoff, who helps to equip her better for her journey. As turns out, Anna’s encounter with Elsa only leads to Elsa once more almost fatally injuring her. The function of Anna’s journey is to inform Elsa of how much damage she has caused. When Anna returns to Arendelle, she finds that Hans, whom she planned to marry has suddenly turned evil. In no way has the book writer Jennifer Lee prepared us for this turnabout. This change feels like Lee has got three-fourths of the way through the story and realized that it had no villain. We feel as if the plot has turned not just against Anna but against for liking Hans so much in Act 1. Making Hans the villain also seems odd since Lee has already set up the misogynist dandy, the Duke of Weselton, in that role and then seemingly forgets about him.

In the end, when the nearly glacified Anna is ready to sacrifice herself to save Elsa, Elsa realizes that with love she can control her powers. Um, and how exactly did she not realize this before? Did she not love her parents or Anna? Didn’t she unwillingly stay away from Anna because she loved her and didn’t want to hurt her?

In no other Disney musical does the plot fall apart so completely as it does in Frozen. The stage version of the movie adds 12 new songs to the original’s eight, but most of these are merely filler, needless padding the show out to a 2½-hour running time including intermission. Most of this padding occurs in Act 2 of the musical when the only task that has to be done is for Anna to bring Elsa back to Arendelle.

The worst example is the song “Hygge” that begins Act 2. In the movie Anna and Kristoff visit a supply store to stock up on needed items. In the musical the store owner, Oaken, is given a terrible song which turns into a big production number including people in a sauna. Although all the show’s characters are Scandinavian, Oaken is the only one made to speak in a faux-Scandinavian accent. The concept of hygge, a Danish word meaning a combination of coziness and conviviality was big in 2016 when books about it appeared, but, post-Covid, people could care less. And, after all this, the song does not move the action forward and Oaken is never seen again.

In the Theatre Aquarius staging what helps us overlook these various flaws is the show’s outstanding performances and impressive design. In fact, the current production is the most elaborate that I’ve ever seen from this company. Brian Dudkiewicz constructs an asymmetrical proscenium with the theatre’s proscenium featuring outlines of the type of Norwegian rowhouses one sees in the Bryggen area of Bergen, Norway. The set pieces that roll on and off all feature Scandinavian folk motifs.

On the back wall are Corwin Ferguson’s ever changing dramatic projections that set the scene taking us from inside Arendelle Castle to various spaces indoors and outdoors in the city to the snowy mountains, Elsa’s ice palace and the land of the Hidden Folk. These gorgeous projections function just like painted backdrops did in 19th and 20th-century theatre. Ferguson also uses animation for twinkling stars or swirls of snow, but he ensures that their movement never distracts from the stage action.

Luckily, director Jeremy Webb does not rely on projections to create magical effects. One of the best effects is Elsa’s blasting of Arendelle with ice. This Webb accomplishes with a combination of Steve Lucas’s lighting and a series of confetti canons that fire in rapid sequence from left to right across the perimeter of the stage apron.

Helena Marriot has designed a host of costumes, many with intricate designs, for the many roles that the chorus plays from townsfolk to Hidden Folk. Marriot also creates magic with her use of the kabuki technique of hikinuki to effect an instant costume change for Elsa as she stands right in front of us. Also delightful are the puppets created by Dayna Tietzen. Her puppet for Olaf the snowman is very clever allowing the puppeteer to manipulate Olaf’s feet with his feet and Olaf’s head and eyes with his hands. Her puppet for Sven, Kristoff’s trusty reindeer, has an actor standing in the middle of the near life-sized reindeer, his feet costumed to match the back feet of the puppet while his hands control the reindeer’s head.

Theatre Aquarius has mustered an ideal cast. Kaleigh Gorka and Jessica Gallant are the Elsa and Anna you could have dreamed of. Gorka presents Elsa as constantly perplexed by her growing magical powers and perturbed by the harm they can do. Gorka’s face and gestures reveal even in silence the struggle Elsa feels in having to repress a part of herself. Gorka’s technique in delivering the movie’s most famous song “Let It Go” and the musical’s new song “Monster” is to begin quietly and gradually to reach full volume by the first refrain. This technique has the advantage of de-emphasizing the songs as stand-alone hits and making them feel more like the musings of a real person. With “Let It Go” in particular, Gorka smooths the harshness of Idina Menzel’s version in the movie and makes us listen to the words more closely.

Gallant is charming as Anna. Just as Gorka’s Elsa is serious, reserved and cold, Gallant’s Anna is gleeful, boisterous and warm. Though the musical gives Anna no solo numbers, Gallant lends her bright, open voice to her many duets – “For the First Time in Forever” with Elsa, “Love Is an Open Door” with Hans and “What Do You Know About Love?” with Kristoff – in each case blending perfectly with her singing partner. Gallant convincingly portrays a sheltered young woman who knows she can be silly and naïve but is enjoying her new unfettered life too much to care about how she is perceived.

It’s good to see Gabriel Antonacci, who has played many minor roles in his 12 seasons at the Stratford Festival have chance to play a larger role like Hans. He has a full, rounded tone and fine sense of comedy. Antonacci makes Hans appear to be just as playful and genuine as Anna in their duet “Love Is an Open Door” that he charms the audience as much as Anna. After so presenting Hans in Act 1, it is even more unbelievable in Act 2 when the plot reveals Hans suddenly as a villain. Antonacci acts this sudden volte face well, but we really long to have the Hans of Act 1 back again.

Another performer we are pleased to see in a major role is Taurian Teelucksingh as Kristoff. In his four seasons at the Shaw Festival, Teelucksingh did have the chance to play Freddy in My Fair Lady in 2022, but Kristoff is more than a one-song role. Teelucksingh, sporting a strong, agile voice, wonderfully details how Kristoff’s initial derisory attitude toward Anna gradually changes into love. Teelucksingh can put across a goofy song like “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People” with complete sincerity and sing the “Kristoff Lullaby” with touching gentleness.

Adam Francis Proulx is ideal as the Olaf, the snowman magically come to life. As in his show Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, Proulx easily infuses the puppet he manipulates with his own vivacity. Olaf has only one song to sing, “In Summer”, in which Olaf in all innocence hopes to see the onset of summer, unaware of what will happen to him. Proulx is so good at projecting that naïveté that it’s a shame the simple song turns into a production number.

The musical begins with a view of Elsa and Anna as children and you could hope for no one better in these roles than the talented pair of Naomi McIntyre as Young Elsa and Addison Wagman as Young Anna. Mention should also be made of Stephen Gallagher who well distinguishes his role as the kindly King from that of the overtly male chauvinist Duke of Weselton. David Andrew Reid is a fine Pabbie, leader of the Hidden Folk, who uses flowing movement and striking gestures to embody a supernatural being with power beyond that of humankind.

Unlike other Disney musicals like Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid, Frozen has a plot that doesn’t bear close examination. Nevertheless, the handsome design and its first-rate performances of Theatre Aquarius’ production make the show visually and aurally an exciting entertainment that should please both parents and children. It’s a production of such high quality that one could easily imagine transferring intact to one of Toronto’s larger theatres.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Jessica Gallant as Anna, Kaleigh Gorka as Elsa and David Andrew Reid as the Bishop; Kaleigh Gorka as Elsa; Jessica Gallant as Anna, Kaleigh Gorka as Elsa with ensemble; Jessica Gallant as Anna and Taurian Teelucksingh as Kristoff; Stephen Gallagher as the Duke of Weselton and Gabriel Antonacci, as Hans. © 2025 Dahlia Katz.

For tickets visit: theatreaquarius.org.