Frozen - Live at the Hyperion / Tips & Review
- Thread starter WebmasterMaryJo
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I thought the actors handled the glitch well (2nd show of the day, right?). There were two glitches during the show. I'm interested in how they work all of this out and make their parts their "own."
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ckb_nc
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Second show Sunday - yes they did handle the glitch well and very professionally. I heard that they did not actually finish the very first show on Friday. I may have seen the actual full first public performance on Friday.
I think the show is great but it becomes a big part of they day at DCA now.
figment_jii
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I saw the second show on all three days (Fri, Sat, Sun) and it was the same Elsa all three days, but other performers varied. I wonder if they change the cast between shows (e.g., the 12:30 Elsa is different from the 2:35 Elsa) or if it's the same cast the entire day (barring any unexpected illness or issues).
ckb_nc
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Saw the same show Friday and Sunday - Same Elsa, different Elsa, different Christoph, different Duke, same Hans, same mother and father.
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I saw the show Thursday evening and show #2 on Sunday. I've seen the same Elsa, two different Annas, Hans, Kristoffs, Olafs, Dukes, and parents. I saw one Sven perform, but the other Sven took over when I did the interview (& is on the video above). I asked him if he was excited for his first show on Friday & he said yes. 
The first Sven actor is Mark, I think, and the second actor is Armando, I think.
The first Sven actor is Mark, I think, and the second actor is Armando, I think.
figment_jii
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I saw one Elsa, two Annas (Fri and Sat/Sun), two Olafs (Fri/Sat and Sun), two Kristoffs (Fri/Sat and Sun), two Dukes (Fri/Sat and Sun), and one Hans. I think I saw two parents (Fri/Sun and Sat) and two Svens (Fri/Sat and Sun), but I'm not as sure about those.
Disney Kidd
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I might be going to the parks this coming Thursday, but probably won't get there until around 2:30. I'm not betting on getting a fastpass for the 5:10 show, but was wondering what time they allow non-fastpass holders to line up. Thanks!
figment_jii
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Frozen: Live at the Hyperion
I was lucky enough to see Frozen: Live at the Hyperion on its debut day (Friday, May 27) and again on Saturday and Sunday. I saw the second show all three days using a FP collected in the morning (around 8:40 am each day).
Overall, I really liked the show (probably pretty obvious given that I went three times in as many days!). The staging was really good and most all of the performances were outstanding.
The show itself is basically a re-telling of the Frozen movie. Almost all of the music is there (all of the songs were, I think), but the plot itself is condensed.
As a frame of reference, I liked Frozen, but it's not one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. So I'm not adverse to Frozen, but I'm also not a die-hard Frozen fan.
(The review and synopsis below do contain spoilers.)
I do think this is a show that can be seen by people that are not familiar with the movie Frozen, but knowing the story does help (otherwise, for example, how Kristoff knew to take Anna to the trolls is not explained in the story). Overall, the show is very faithful to the movie, with a few exceptions . It includes all of the songs (I think) and mostly cuts down on the non-musical scenes from the movies (either by eliminating them entirely or condensing them). Having seen the movie will help, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.
I've watched a few of the YouTube videos and mostly they don't do justice to the show (I think that's the case with most YouTube videos). So I wouldn't make a decision about seeing the show based on those videos. Unless you absolutely can't stand Frozen, I think it's almost always worth seeing a show once. That's my general feeling about all stage shows (be it in Disney, on Broadway, or a touring production); it's worth it see things once so you can decide for yourself if you like it.
The cast is likely to vary from day-to-day and possibly from show-to-show, so it's not necessarily helpful to review the performances (but I'm still going to). Overall, I thought all three casts I saw were excellent. The voices were very good, as were the performances. The only performance I didn't really like was the Duke of Weaseltown. The one I saw really played up the comic elements (think like the dancing peacock sequence in the movie). It's a fine line between being comic and being over-done and unfortunately, he was going overboard. Other than that, I liked the performances (and interpretations). The Elsa I saw did a very good job on "Let It Go" - she put her own interpretation on the song, so it wasn't a direct copy of Idina Menzel's version from the movie.
I was asked whether it was as good, better, or worse than Aladdin (the show it replaced) by several people (including some CMs). For me, I liked Frozen better than Aladdin. Aladdin was fine, but I felt like the show relied to heavily on the Genie (i.e., a good Genie made the show, a bad Genie ruined the show). I liked that Frozen is a better distributed show and think this will work to Frozen's advantage in the future (as casts change). So all in all, I think Frozen is a worthy replacement for Aladdin.
I hope that Frozen will remain at the Hyperion for several years to come. I look forward to seeing it again on my next trip to Disneyland!
I was lucky enough to see Frozen: Live at the Hyperion on its debut day (Friday, May 27) and again on Saturday and Sunday. I saw the second show all three days using a FP collected in the morning (around 8:40 am each day).
Overall, I really liked the show (probably pretty obvious given that I went three times in as many days!
). The staging was really good and most all of the performances were outstanding.The show itself is basically a re-telling of the Frozen movie. Almost all of the music is there (all of the songs were, I think), but the plot itself is condensed.
As a frame of reference, I liked Frozen, but it's not one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. So I'm not adverse to Frozen, but I'm also not a die-hard Frozen fan.
(The review and synopsis below do contain spoilers.)
The Hyperion Theater exterior looked largely the same, except it now features Frozen. T he show times for the day are posted. Right now there are three shows per day. The show is supposed to be 58 minutes long, but all three shows I saw ran long. They are still experiences technical glitches, so hopefully those will be worked out soon.
As guests find their seats in the theater, the stage is empty except for the video screen projection of the castle and surrounding area. The show relies on the video screens pretty heavily, but that didn't detract from the story to me. Otherwise, there weren't a lot of sets in the production. It had a minimalist feel, which is consistent with other theater shows I've seen. They did have a few "big" set pieces (e.g., the staircase).
The show starts with young Kristoff and "Frozen Heart". The performers do (at times) enter the theater from the orchestra wings, so if you sit on the main floor, be sure to glance to the sides once in a while.
The scene then shifts to young Anna and Elsa. The girls have fun (lots of sparkly effects) until Elsa strikes Anna with her magic. (To consolidate the storytelling, Pabbie (the troll) comes to the castle when the King summons him with a glowing rock. So, they don't show Kristoff and Sven meeting the trolls.) Pabbie heals Anna and removes all memories of magic from her.
The scene then shifts to Anna and Elsa growing up. Anna sings "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" The King and Queen leave for the fateful voyage (I liked how they handled their deaths - very theatrical, all they needed was a bright white light on them).
Then it's Coronation Day! "First Time in Forever" is a cute, fun number (it kind of reminds me of Be Our Guest in Beauty & the Beast).
Anna and Hans met and sing "Love Is An Open Door" and everything goes great until they tell Elsa. Elsa flees and Anna goes after her.
Then comes the big "ohh" moment of the show..."Let It Go". I liked how they did the scene. The staircase was a good set piece and the dress transformation is very well-done. It took me quite a while to figure out how they do the dress transformatio on stage, but it's a cool looking effect.
Meanwhile, Kristoff thrown out of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and "duets" with Sven ("Reindeers are Better Than People"). I liked how they did Sven. Anna finds him, and hires him to take her up the north mountain. On the way, they encounter the wolves.
They escape the wolves by jumping over the gorge. Kristoff, Anna, and Sven are all suspended in the air and fall back to the stage in slow motion. It's a fun effect.
On the way to meeting Elsa, they find Olaf, who dreams of summertime ("In Summer"). I really liked the way they did Olaf. It reminded me of Timon in the Lion King.
Anna then finds Elsa in the ice palace ("For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)"). Again, things don't go so well and Anna is forced to leave. Because there is no Marshmallow, it's not as dramatic a scene. The reddening of the "ice" is a good effect, but it doesn't have the same level of intensity as the chase with Marshamlow. As the screen comes down, Hans and company arrive at Elsa's ice castle. They don't show the actual confrontation.
After being struck by Elsa's ice, Kristoff takes Anna to see his "family". During the scene transition, a rock rolls around the stage. I have to admit, it reminded me of a green, headless BB-8! The trolls think Kristoff has brought a girlfriend ("Fixer Upper"), but then Anna collapses and Paddie tells her that her only hope is an "act of true love." So it's off to find Hans...
Back at the castle, Hans turns out to be the villain of the story and leaves Anna to die. Luckily for her, Olaf shows up.
It's time for the climatic confrontation! Elsa has escaped from the dungeon, Kristoff is racing back to Anna, Anna is trying to get to Kristoff, and Hans is trying to take over the kingdom. Just as he is about to strike Elsa, Anna steps between them and at that moment, she turns to solid ice. I was curious to see how they'd do the turning to ice effect. Anna has to wear an all white cape/dress, which looks a little odd at first. The ice effect mostly works, except when Elsa goes to hug her because the spotlight on Elsa over-powers the blue lighting on Anna.
But of course, that was the act of true love needed to thaw her frozen heart!
The cast gather for the finale. In a departure from the movie, the King and Queen reappear (as spirits) and bring the story full circle. The show closes with a reprise of "Love Is An Open Door".
As guests find their seats in the theater, the stage is empty except for the video screen projection of the castle and surrounding area. The show relies on the video screens pretty heavily, but that didn't detract from the story to me. Otherwise, there weren't a lot of sets in the production. It had a minimalist feel, which is consistent with other theater shows I've seen. They did have a few "big" set pieces (e.g., the staircase).
The show starts with young Kristoff and "Frozen Heart". The performers do (at times) enter the theater from the orchestra wings, so if you sit on the main floor, be sure to glance to the sides once in a while.
The scene then shifts to young Anna and Elsa. The girls have fun (lots of sparkly effects) until Elsa strikes Anna with her magic. (To consolidate the storytelling, Pabbie (the troll) comes to the castle when the King summons him with a glowing rock. So, they don't show Kristoff and Sven meeting the trolls.) Pabbie heals Anna and removes all memories of magic from her.
The scene then shifts to Anna and Elsa growing up. Anna sings "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" The King and Queen leave for the fateful voyage (I liked how they handled their deaths - very theatrical, all they needed was a bright white light on them).
Then it's Coronation Day! "First Time in Forever" is a cute, fun number (it kind of reminds me of Be Our Guest in Beauty & the Beast).
Anna and Hans met and sing "Love Is An Open Door" and everything goes great until they tell Elsa. Elsa flees and Anna goes after her.
Then comes the big "ohh" moment of the show..."Let It Go". I liked how they did the scene. The staircase was a good set piece and the dress transformation is very well-done. It took me quite a while to figure out how they do the dress transformatio on stage, but it's a cool looking effect.
Meanwhile, Kristoff thrown out of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and "duets" with Sven ("Reindeers are Better Than People"). I liked how they did Sven. Anna finds him, and hires him to take her up the north mountain. On the way, they encounter the wolves.
They escape the wolves by jumping over the gorge. Kristoff, Anna, and Sven are all suspended in the air and fall back to the stage in slow motion. It's a fun effect.
On the way to meeting Elsa, they find Olaf, who dreams of summertime ("In Summer"). I really liked the way they did Olaf. It reminded me of Timon in the Lion King.
Anna then finds Elsa in the ice palace ("For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)"). Again, things don't go so well and Anna is forced to leave. Because there is no Marshmallow, it's not as dramatic a scene. The reddening of the "ice" is a good effect, but it doesn't have the same level of intensity as the chase with Marshamlow. As the screen comes down, Hans and company arrive at Elsa's ice castle. They don't show the actual confrontation.
After being struck by Elsa's ice, Kristoff takes Anna to see his "family". During the scene transition, a rock rolls around the stage. I have to admit, it reminded me of a green, headless BB-8! The trolls think Kristoff has brought a girlfriend ("Fixer Upper"), but then Anna collapses and Paddie tells her that her only hope is an "act of true love." So it's off to find Hans...
Back at the castle, Hans turns out to be the villain of the story and leaves Anna to die. Luckily for her, Olaf shows up.
It's time for the climatic confrontation! Elsa has escaped from the dungeon, Kristoff is racing back to Anna, Anna is trying to get to Kristoff, and Hans is trying to take over the kingdom. Just as he is about to strike Elsa, Anna steps between them and at that moment, she turns to solid ice. I was curious to see how they'd do the turning to ice effect. Anna has to wear an all white cape/dress, which looks a little odd at first. The ice effect mostly works, except when Elsa goes to hug her because the spotlight on Elsa over-powers the blue lighting on Anna.
But of course, that was the act of true love needed to thaw her frozen heart!
The cast gather for the finale. In a departure from the movie, the King and Queen reappear (as spirits) and bring the story full circle. The show closes with a reprise of "Love Is An Open Door".
I do think this is a show that can be seen by people that are not familiar with the movie Frozen, but knowing the story does help (otherwise, for example, how Kristoff knew to take Anna to the trolls is not explained in the story). Overall, the show is very faithful to the movie, with a few exceptions . It includes all of the songs (I think) and mostly cuts down on the non-musical scenes from the movies (either by eliminating them entirely or condensing them). Having seen the movie will help, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.
I've watched a few of the YouTube videos and mostly they don't do justice to the show (I think that's the case with most YouTube videos). So I wouldn't make a decision about seeing the show based on those videos. Unless you absolutely can't stand Frozen, I think it's almost always worth seeing a show once. That's my general feeling about all stage shows (be it in Disney, on Broadway, or a touring production); it's worth it see things once so you can decide for yourself if you like it.
The cast is likely to vary from day-to-day and possibly from show-to-show, so it's not necessarily helpful to review the performances (but I'm still going to
). Overall, I thought all three casts I saw were excellent. The voices were very good, as were the performances. The only performance I didn't really like was the Duke of Weaseltown. The one I saw really played up the comic elements (think like the dancing peacock sequence in the movie). It's a fine line between being comic and being over-done and unfortunately, he was going overboard. Other than that, I liked the performances (and interpretations). The Elsa I saw did a very good job on "Let It Go" - she put her own interpretation on the song, so it wasn't a direct copy of Idina Menzel's version from the movie. I was asked whether it was as good, better, or worse than Aladdin (the show it replaced) by several people (including some CMs). For me, I liked Frozen better than Aladdin. Aladdin was fine, but I felt like the show relied to heavily on the Genie (i.e., a good Genie made the show, a bad Genie ruined the show). I liked that Frozen is a better distributed show and think this will work to Frozen's advantage in the future (as casts change). So all in all, I think Frozen is a worthy replacement for Aladdin.
I hope that Frozen will remain at the Hyperion for several years to come. I look forward to seeing it again on my next trip to Disneyland!
AZMermaid
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- Oct 28, 2006
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Do you, or anyone, know what time it switched over to the third show? We are trying to get that one for a week from today... I was originally thinking I needed to be in line around 9, but now I'm rethinking that!
We left the 2:30 show and went back to try to find something i left in the theater. They were letting standby for the 5:30 show in a little past 4pm. And it appeared to me that standby was only being allowed in the balcony line. I could be wrong though.
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Also my 2:30pm fast pass said to arrive between 1:35-2:15. People were lined up earlier than 1:15 inside the queue area. We got in line around 1:25 and got seats orchestra 4 rows back in the center area.
Great show! I thought the staging and effects were excellent.
Great show! I thought the staging and effects were excellent.
I'm not sure but I have a feeling that we were toward the tail end of the 2:30 show. I was happily surprised that we got the time we did.
ckb_nc
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Standby appears to be balcony to me as well
Epek
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I got in line yesterday (June 1) around 8:35. I wanted the 2nd show and quite frankly was afraid I wouldn't get it based on the line! I got through about 8:50 and they were still on the 2nd show. The line was still pretty long. By 9:15, we were passing through after having seen the Zootopia characters, and there was virtually no line, but fp's were still available. I'm guessing they were on the 3rd? I'm not sure, though. I think 9 would be fine.
Pls Stand Clear
Earning My Ears
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We just saw the show through standby yesterday and really enjoyed it! For the 5:10 PM show, we were told to return for standby around 4:10-4:15 PM. We went to line up around 3:45 and the beginning of the standby line was already forming. While we were warned we may or may not get in, I would say they let at the least 250-300 standby people in for that particular show. We were all directed to balcony, which really wasn't a bad spot! Hope this helps anyone looking to go for standby.
For those that have been at DCA to get Frozen fastpasses- any estimated time that they run out on a weekday? I realize it can change daily, but I'm just
trying to make a plan. Ideally, we would like to see the last show. Just wondering if anyone has experience with what times the fastpasses switch to the next show. Thanks.
trying to make a plan. Ideally, we would like to see the last show. Just wondering if anyone has experience with what times the fastpasses switch to the next show. Thanks.
DollBabyKG
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I've been wondering if we need to be at DCA at rope drop to get passes next week, or not as well!
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