Review: DISNEY’S FROZEN at The Muny is Moving and Heartfelt Storytelling

Each week The Muny tells a story on a grand scale. One of the weeks each season the treasured Tony winning regional theater produces family-oriented fare. Often, that show brings animation to life. It takes truckloads of talent, skilled puppetry, dynamic stagecraft, more than a bit of Muny magic, and most importantly a gifted storyteller to lead the charge.  

For the eighth time in nearly as many seasons Emmy winning and Tony nominated John Tartaglia has returned to direct Disney’s Frozen. The actor, director, puppeteer, and producer is an innovative dreamer who has wowed Muny audiences helming memorable productions of Mary Poppins, Disney’s Beauty and The Beast, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and others. 

This season, Tartaglia has teamed up with his long-term Muny collaborators choreographer Patrick O’Neill and costume desinger Robin L. McGee to turn The Muny into a winter wonderland. Their teamwork with sound designers John Shivers and David Patridge, lighting designer Jason Lyons, and video designer Kylee Loera create multi-sensory storytelling unlike anything you have seen before on The Muny Stage. You will feel the frigid chill of a frozen Norwegian winter even on a hot and humid St. Louis summer night. 

Disney’s Frozen the Broadway Musical has an expanded narrative but has all the elements of the movie that an audience expects including a lifelike reindeer and snowman. Through a bit of stage magic, experienced puppeteers and actors Andrew A. Cano and Kennedy Kanagawa animate Sven and Olaf with precise movement and emotional expression. That’s not a surprise considering their vast puppetry experience and that of their director who has built an award-winning career as a puppeteer. You forget you are watching puppets. Cano and Kanagawa, while physically visible on stage, disappear into Sven and Olaf.   

The theatrical version of Disney’s Frozen relies heavily on Princess Anna to drive the narrative as the main protagonist. Anna is on stage in nearly every scene. Tartaglia and The Muny’s Michael Baxter, in collaboration with their casting partner Rachel Hoffman of The Telsey Office, cast Muny regular Patti Murin as Anna in the role she originated on Broadway. In a Broadway World interview prior to opening, Tartaglia called Murin “one of the brightest and most intriguing talents on Broadway with an ability to swing instantly between heartbreaking and hysterical.”  

Murin is adorable as the plucky, socially awkward princess. Her connectedness to the entire cast is palpable and her on-stage relationships with Hannah Corneau (Elsa), Bobby Conte (Hans), Jelani Remy (Kristoff), Sven, and Olaf are beyond genuine. She is a gifted comedienne and a soulfully raw, unfiltered actor who leads this company with panache, confidence, and flair.  

Her optimistic “For the First Time in Forever,” playful “Love is an Open Door” with Bobby Conte, and comedic “Hygge” with Mark Saunders (Oaken) and Jelani Remy are musical comedy gems, but it's her “I Can’t Lose You” duet with Hannah Corneau as Elsa that conveys the lost connection between sisters longing for the relationship that was taken from them. Their heartwarming duet is brilliant in its aching desire for the stripped familiar bond and shows Murin and Corneau’s depth of range as actors. 

Hannah Corneau is equally brilliant as the ice queen Elsa who is burdened with an unwanted superpower. Her presence is regal. She emotively conveys Elsa’s heaviness of heart knowing that she has harmed the one person on earth she loves most. It is her portrayal of Elsa’s mature awareness that creates empathy for the exiled princess. Her rich vocals are a stunning blend of resonant head voice and soaring belt. Her “Let it Go” is more than a moment. It is a goosebump inducing close to act 1. Corneau, Tartaglia, and his creative teams created an indelible Muny memory that will last a lifetime.  

Thirteen-year-old Maliah Strawbridge and 11-year-old Isla Turner impress as Young Elsa and Young Anna. Strawbridge, in her professional principal debut, and Turner in her return to the Muny, have talent and stage presence beyond their years. They heartfully portray the adoration for one another and the confusion of being pulled apart by their parents Queen Iduna (Ann Sanders) and King Agnarr (Jonah D. Winston.) Both sing, dance, act and hold their own working alongside the experienced talent of Sanders and Winston. 

Tartaglia uses a cast of 80 including a gifted ensemble of outstanding actors, singers, and dancers, plus dozens of young actors from The Muny Teen and Youth Ensembles. Patrick O’Neill’s intricate choreography marvelously fills the vast Muny stage with a company outfitted in Robin L. McGee’s regally exquisite and playfully colorful costume designs.

This Muny production is technologically heavy using cutting-edge projection and laser technology. The show relies on striking projections that are supported by Tijana Bjelajac’s minimalistic set design. While generally not a fan of a minimal set design, it worked in this production because the new effects are visually magnificent and awe-inspiring. Although there was a missed opportunity for a fully built out set of the castle interior, exterior, and the town square of Arendelle. 

Early in the first act there was a short pause in the show due to a “technology reboot.” The story interruption was unfortunate, but it did not have a material effect on the overall enjoyment of an outstanding show.  

The Muny’s Frozen is filled with endearing performances, gasp-inducing stagecraft, beautiful musical direction by Darryl Archibald, and loveable puppets created by Puppet Kitchen’s Eric Wright. But it's not the many wow moments that make Frozen special. Frozen is touching because of John Tartaglia’s moving storytelling that takes the audience on a journey beyond Arendelle to explore a sister’s love and the basic need for human connection.  

The Muny’s magical production of Disney’s Frozen continues at The Muny through July 14, 2025. Visit the Muny box office in Forest Park or click the link below to purchase tickets.  

PHOTO CREDIT: Phillip Hamer