London Children's shows

Frozen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 On my Sixty Fifth birthday with my wife and two grown up sons, we knew we were not the target audience for the UK premiere of Disney’s Frozen but the chance to see the refurbished Theatre Royal in Drury Lane where we have seen so many spectacular shows over the years from Billy, Chorus Line, 42nd Street, and Sweeney Todd in the last century to Oliver, Shrek, Lord of the Rings and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this century it seemed an obvious choice to celebrate the milestone. We knew the songs from the movie and the basic story but could see we were surrounded by mothers and daughters dressed as Elsa, who were serious fans. It proved to be a thoroughly entertaining afternoon gloriously set and dressed, with a sprinkling of magical effects to recreate the key moments. 

The challenge of turning an animated film into a stage musical is how to create the magical creatures like Sven, the reindeer and Olaf, the snowman and how to execute the transformations from Arendelle to the frozen landscapes. The fact that the production  garnered What’s On stage awards for best set design, best costume design and best video design confirms that the creative team have delivered on this challenge. Sven is an impressive looking character played by Ashley Birchall and Mikayla Jade in what must be a back breaking and calf aching role and Olaf was comically created by as a puppet handled by Craig Ormson with a slightly bizarre song, “In summer” .

But is the physical design that is most impressive with the excellent false proscenium and grand interiors of the Palace contrasting beautifully with the icy scenes on the bridge and in Elsa’s palace assisted by the excellent video projection including a wonderful representation of the Northern Lights.

 

The scene in Oaken's Trading Post & Sauna adds a touch of comedy with an incongruous Sauna scene in the song, “Hygge” with a naked cast covering themselves with Sauna Whisks. However, the most magical moments when Elsa’s is transformed to the ice maiden and when Anna is frozen into block is very well done and both draw gasps of delight.

The show belongs to Samantha Banks as Elsa who looks and sounds amazing especially in her songs ,”Dangerous to Dream”, and of course “Let it go”. On the afternoon we saw the show Sarah O’Connor played Anna, confidently filling the shoes of Stephanie McKeon with charm and good stage presence and gloriously punching Hans, Oliver Ormson, in the final scene. Obioma Ugoala plays Kristoff and Jak Skelly plays Oaken both providing good support to the grown-up sisters. It is the younger actresses who get to sing the charming “I want to build a snowman” and surely win over the audience.

Michael Grandage proves he is a very safe pair of hands in directing this conversion from screen to stage in creating a show that extends the life of the film characters and introduces the young audience to live theatre.

This may not have the enduring appeal of Disney’s Lion King but it’s a fine entertaining show which attracts a young audience and as the introductory voiceover says will hopefully set them on a path to a lifetime of theatre going just as my first visit to see Michael Crawford in Billy in 1974 has done for me. 

 Nick Wayne

 Four stars

Adrian Mole 

We missed out on Sue Townsend famous book series which was 1st published in 1982 as we were too old to read them as children and our children were Harry Potter era kids so although I know the story, I am not familiar with the original works. It meant I was new to the stage show with no expectations of preconceived ideas of the characters. I found the new musical version of the show a bit of a mess and the energy and effort of the cast could not hide the flaws in the production.

No attempt has been made to update the stories for the thirty seven years that have passed since Adrian was 13 3/4 so the story is full of dated references that must be lost on a new young audience (Thatcher , Lady Diana and British Home Stores) and the appeal of diaries and porn mags to teenage boys has long been replaced by the I phone! Even the attitudes displayed seem outdated as when Bert says " Women are like horses , you need to whip ‘em, slap ‘em and ride’ em" or Pauline being told to "shut your legs " and Adrian 's call for equality at the end feels like an afterthought !

The production has then decided to cast the adults as children to fill out the scenes lead by the 4 principal child actors. This feels odd and makes the show feel like a regional Pantomime doing the old routine in the school room with the usual amount of adult innuendo throughout the show.  When shows like Matilda and Billionaire Boy (at NST Southampton) have so successfully used young actors to portray children it is an odd decision, presumably for economic reasons. Indeed, the show's director, Luke Shepherd directed Billionaire Boy and created a much more coherent, flowing show than the disjointed clumsy staging here.

 The set on arrival in the auditorium looks impressive, a large box set of Adrian's bedroom framed by rulers (for measuring his "thing") but soon proves to be too cumbersome for the multiple scene changes. The cast gamely push different settings on and off through the various cupboards, but each takes time and distracts from action taking place downstage. As the show progresses less is set as if the director has given up trying to create the settings. It simply is too complex to work; again, the Billionaire show did this in a much slicker way.

Of course, this is a musical and the band of seven set high against the back wall bash out the tunes which are largely instantly forgettable and Adrian himself seems to speak the lyrics rather than singing them. Only occasionally do the songs and routines hit a West End standard as in "Look at that Girl" when Pandora arrives at the school. At other times the routines are simply awful as in "Royal Wedding” and "If you'd lived “. 

All these flaws distract from the wonderful effort of the cast who throw themselves into the show with plenty of energy and enjoyment. Amy Ellen Richardson stands out amongst the adult cast as Pauline, Adrian’s Mum for some reason attracted to the obnoxious next-door neighbour rather than her drunken husband …not much of a choice. On the night I saw it, it was Rebecca Nardin as Pandora who stood out amongst the four child parts (a team of 16 perform the roles).

The Ambassadors theatre is a small compact venue and the limited run to 12^th October should find an audience from friends and family alone but this show is not the next Matilda and I would rather have seen a Billionaire Boy transfer in to the West End.

Nick Wayne

Two stars