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Monday, September 18, 2017
The Broadway Production of Disney's Frozen Looks Predictably Beautiful
io9.gizmodo.com: Kids everywhere have imagined what Anna, Elsa, and the rest of the Frozen crew would look like if they were real. And soon, thanks to a new Broadway production, they can find out.
The set for this looks extremely beautiful. I was super excited when I saw this article. While I haven't always been the biggest fan of Disney, I am very excited to see how the animated world is translated onto a Broadway stage. From the images shown in the article, I cannot wait to hopefully see this show.
I have been watching this, and I'm so glad to see the set has evolved! The first production image I saw, very early on, was a bootleg video of Elsa's dress transformation with her ice castle in the background. The set looked tacky and very 'glitzy Broadway', but looking at what they have now they really diverged from the movie to give a realistic, textured look to the world. As for the costumes, I'm so happy they went with a more historical bent then trying to perfectly recreate the costumes - though it wouldn't have been hard to do, if that's what they wanted. There are differences that make the costumes not only more believable but more appealing. There are more textures and patterns, more authentic cuts of clothing, and richer colors rather than the highly saturated ones in the film. Yes, they are of course very, very similar, but looking at them you can see how the designer took what he was given and changed it to be so much more than a stage version of a popular movie, something I really appreciate seeing. Instead of doing what's easy, they're dong what's right for the show, which is fairly easy when you're working for Disney with a high budget and higher expectations.
I'm super excited for this show, and hope to see it one day - probably on tour, when tickets are less expensive then they are back home!
I am very curious to hear more about this show, and possibly to see it someday. The set appears to beautifully use color and intricate costuming to tell the story of the new age Disney movie. It is a difficult thing to translate animation to the stage, and the set appears to do that beautifully using gorgeous texture and construction techniques as seen on the bridge. Another way in which they properly demonstrate all this is in their costume construction. The costumes are so carefully constructed using furs for the snow outfits and they royal’s intricately patterned outfits show the fanciful grandeur that a Disney princess story is known for.
Diverging from the article a little, Kristoff is Black! I think this is great! I was recently having a discussion with my mom and my high school's director about how, even though some roles don't call for an actor of a specific race or gender, they're always cast the same way. In Newsies, the vast majority of the newsies are white and male. There were girls selling papers at this time, and probably many more Black kids than Newsie's cast represents. There's like, one girl in the gang. And she's so in the background. She's also very tomboyish. There's a tiny pinch of non-white characters in the giant pot of whiteness that is this show. We need to start working towards gender and race not mattering so much to us when it comes to casting. Who cares if there's a girl newsie selling papes in a raggedy skirt instead of pants? Why does Jack Kelly have to be white? Who cares if Kristoff is Black? That's why I'm so impressed with this choice from Disney. I'm usually anti-Disney and don't normally agree with their choices on portraying people, females especially. But it's nice to see they're working towards building more relatable and less stereotypical characters.
Not going to lie I am extremely excited for this musical to open up on Broadway. Seeing the small amount of pictures for the set has already blown my mind I love the icy background and the use of different materials and colors to make everything look incredibly cold. Though the scenes seem to mirror the movie exactly, I also notice some changes in the costumes and such to make a more practical exploration of living in an icy tundra.
I was certainly skeptic of Frozen the musical when I first heard it was being adapted, if I'm being honest. The pictures in this article have really shifted my attitude towards this show. I'm sure the designers were met with the challenge of contrasting the stage and screen version as much as possible. I think they succeeded. The set and projections are innovative, they're bare yet full of life and it easily catches your eye. Everyone knows this story by now, so making Frozen visually stunning and almost distracting was pretty much a requirement. I hope this show is as magical live as the pictures in this article make it out to be.
Disney’s history with sets and overall production design has been an interesting one. First, the company directly translated “Beauty and the Beast” to Broadway musical. As we all know so well, “The Lion King” did the exact opposite, showing exactly just how different a movie can be from the stage adaptation. There were some more animated movies that became turned into stage musicals that were typically a mix between “Beast” and “Lion King”, including “Tarzan” and “Aladdin”. In addition the animated films, there were a few live action movies that were adapted but these still stayed fairly true to the original film. I think that Disney Theatrical is going to define what it is with this production of “Frozen”. As we see in the photos, there are some puppets, but nothing quite like Michael Curry. The set is not a direct recreation of the movie, but still grounded in reality. There were some choices with costumes and casting that push it towards the present and future, but still grounded in retelling of the movie, not a new story.
I have actually work with this story for a little bit now. It was first introduced to children as a live entertainment even with a third party company call Feld Entertainment. This company is know for producing tours of Disney movies and doing mash-ups of Disney movies and going one step further and putting these stories on an ice rink, all while traveling the world. About a year and a half ago Feld opened a completely brand new show dedicated solely to the first movie. Since then they have added a portion of the movie to several of their shows across the world. These photo look amazing. I would say that Feld was not far off from the quality but working on ice changes a few things. I think the show was always envisioned for the stage. These picture prove that a picture box setting is what it was meant for. The Ice show is more of a 3/4 thrust.
8 comments:
The set for this looks extremely beautiful. I was super excited when I saw this article. While I haven't always been the biggest fan of Disney, I am very excited to see how the animated world is translated onto a Broadway stage. From the images shown in the article, I cannot wait to hopefully see this show.
I have been watching this, and I'm so glad to see the set has evolved! The first production image I saw, very early on, was a bootleg video of Elsa's dress transformation with her ice castle in the background. The set looked tacky and very 'glitzy Broadway', but looking at what they have now they really diverged from the movie to give a realistic, textured look to the world. As for the costumes, I'm so happy they went with a more historical bent then trying to perfectly recreate the costumes - though it wouldn't have been hard to do, if that's what they wanted. There are differences that make the costumes not only more believable but more appealing. There are more textures and patterns, more authentic cuts of clothing, and richer colors rather than the highly saturated ones in the film. Yes, they are of course very, very similar, but looking at them you can see how the designer took what he was given and changed it to be so much more than a stage version of a popular movie, something I really appreciate seeing. Instead of doing what's easy, they're dong what's right for the show, which is fairly easy when you're working for Disney with a high budget and higher expectations.
I'm super excited for this show, and hope to see it one day - probably on tour, when tickets are less expensive then they are back home!
I am very curious to hear more about this show, and possibly to see it someday. The set appears to beautifully use color and intricate costuming to tell the story of the new age Disney movie. It is a difficult thing to translate animation to the stage, and the set appears to do that beautifully using gorgeous texture and construction techniques as seen on the bridge. Another way in which they properly demonstrate all this is in their costume construction. The costumes are so carefully constructed using furs for the snow outfits and they royal’s intricately patterned outfits show the fanciful grandeur that a Disney princess story is known for.
Diverging from the article a little, Kristoff is Black! I think this is great! I was recently having a discussion with my mom and my high school's director about how, even though some roles don't call for an actor of a specific race or gender, they're always cast the same way. In Newsies, the vast majority of the newsies are white and male. There were girls selling papers at this time, and probably many more Black kids than Newsie's cast represents. There's like, one girl in the gang. And she's so in the background. She's also very tomboyish. There's a tiny pinch of non-white characters in the giant pot of whiteness that is this show. We need to start working towards gender and race not mattering so much to us when it comes to casting. Who cares if there's a girl newsie selling papes in a raggedy skirt instead of pants? Why does Jack Kelly have to be white? Who cares if Kristoff is Black? That's why I'm so impressed with this choice from Disney. I'm usually anti-Disney and don't normally agree with their choices on portraying people, females especially. But it's nice to see they're working towards building more relatable and less stereotypical characters.
Not going to lie I am extremely excited for this musical to open up on Broadway. Seeing the small amount of pictures for the set has already blown my mind I love the icy background and the use of different materials and colors to make everything look incredibly cold. Though the scenes seem to mirror the movie exactly, I also notice some changes in the costumes and such to make a more practical exploration of living in an icy tundra.
I was certainly skeptic of Frozen the musical when I first heard it was being adapted, if I'm being honest. The pictures in this article have really shifted my attitude towards this show. I'm sure the designers were met with the challenge of contrasting the stage and screen version as much as possible. I think they succeeded. The set and projections are innovative, they're bare yet full of life and it easily catches your eye. Everyone knows this story by now, so making Frozen visually stunning and almost distracting was pretty much a requirement. I hope this show is as magical live as the pictures in this article make it out to be.
Disney’s history with sets and overall production design has been an interesting one. First, the company directly translated “Beauty and the Beast” to Broadway musical. As we all know so well, “The Lion King” did the exact opposite, showing exactly just how different a movie can be from the stage adaptation. There were some more animated movies that became turned into stage musicals that were typically a mix between “Beast” and “Lion King”, including “Tarzan” and “Aladdin”. In addition the animated films, there were a few live action movies that were adapted but these still stayed fairly true to the original film. I think that Disney Theatrical is going to define what it is with this production of “Frozen”. As we see in the photos, there are some puppets, but nothing quite like Michael Curry. The set is not a direct recreation of the movie, but still grounded in reality. There were some choices with costumes and casting that push it towards the present and future, but still grounded in retelling of the movie, not a new story.
I have actually work with this story for a little bit now. It was first introduced to children as a live entertainment even with a third party company call Feld Entertainment. This company is know for producing tours of Disney movies and doing mash-ups of Disney movies and going one step further and putting these stories on an ice rink, all while traveling the world. About a year and a half ago Feld opened a completely brand new show dedicated solely to the first movie. Since then they have added a portion of the movie to several of their shows across the world. These photo look amazing. I would say that Feld was not far off from the quality but working on ice changes a few things. I think the show was always envisioned for the stage. These picture prove that a picture box setting is what it was meant for. The Ice show is more of a 3/4 thrust.
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