Disney’s Frozen musical to close in the West End – but open in UK schools

Since the summer of 2021 it has drawn waves of excited theatregoers wearing Elsa dresses – alongside the occasional Anna or Olaf costume – but the West End musical Frozen is to close later this year.

On Monday, Disney Theatrical Group announced that the stage adaptation of the animated blockbuster was being extended for the final time. The show will complete its run at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 8 September, having been seen by more than 2.8 million people. Its closure comes as a surprise: the show received five-star reviews, including from the Guardian, and was hailed by critics as the perfect introduction to theatre for children. A second sequel to the 2013 film is destined for cinemas, suggesting “Frozen fever” is far from over. The North American tour of the Broadway musical has been running since 2019.

Theatre Royal Drury Lane, owned and managed by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s group LW Theatres, has one of Theatreland’s biggest capacities, with almost 2,200 seats to fill. Dozens of seats are available for performances this month, although Disney’s long-runner The Lion King has a similar level of availability and, since the Covid-19 pandemic, audiences are booking for the theatre at shorter notice.

Frozen was one of many shows to delay its opening by several months because of Covid. It started its run at the theatre, which had a two-year, £60m refurbishment, in August 2021 with Samantha Barks and Stephanie McKeon as sisters Elsa and Anna respectively. Michael Grandage’s production, which has songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, has an elaborate set and costume design by Christopher Oram and a giant LED well for the state of the art video design by Finn Ross.

Grandage said Frozen has been one of his happiest theatre experiences. “Frozen opened in the UK on the heels of the pandemic, and it was glorious to welcome back audiences, many of whom were coming to the theatre for the first time. To introduce so many to the power of theatre and hopefully cultivate a lifelong love for it, has been an immense privilege.”

In its statement, Disney Theatrical Group said a competition would soon be launched for UK secondary schools to be permitted to put on their own Frozen production. The United Kingdom of Frozen: Love is an Open Door will “give one school in every region across the UK the chance to win the stage rights and be the first to present the full-length version of the show”.