In "Frozen" musical, kingdom of Arendelle re- created for Broadway By Peter Marks, Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff on 03.01.18 Word Count 652 Level 870L Patti Murin as Anna and John Riddle as Hans in "Frozen." Photo by: Deen van Meer Michael Grandage has won major awards for his theater productions, but none of his experience prepared him for his latest project. Now, he has to deal with a character with a carrot nose who's likely to melt. That's because his latest project is Disney's "Frozen." Performances of the play began on February 22. Grandage's stage version is based on the 2013 animated Disney film that made $1.3 billion around the world. Grandage and his team have been hard at work for more than a year. They hope their musical can live up to the movie. Disney Told Grandage To Be True To The Movie Grandage is new to Disney and had never directed an original musical until now. He has the difficult job of meeting the high expectations set by the "Frozen" movie. He must create new magic using whimsical characters like Olaf the Snowman and Sven the Reindeer from Elsa and Anna's kingdom of Arendelle. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. No pressure! Disney challenged Grandage to be true to the original movie while still coming up with novel surprises. Which brings us back to Olaf. In the movie, he's drawn by Disney's animators as three balls of heartwarming snow. "That's your first question when you do a stage version," Grandage says. "Do you do Olaf as a man in a costume?" he asks, laughing. "Or do you do a puppet?" The answer, as often evolves in the best of Disney's stage adaptations of its animated movie musicals, is a fusion of ideas. They settled on a real person, actor Greg Hildreth, set up behind a puppet. Pre-Broadway Showing Of "Frozen" Held In Denver Disney likes to hire theater experts who can do more than bring the movies to the stage. They want directors to think up fresh ideas for the fairy tales. One popular example is "The Lion King." The visually dazzling musical lived up to the company's artistic mission. It added something new instead of just copying the movie. Now "Frozen" hopes to continue this tradition. Kristen Anderson-Lopez writes music. Along with her husband, Robert Lopez, she wrote the music for the movie version of "Frozen." They added more than a dozen other songs for the Broadway version. The musical, of course, keeps the Oscar-winning song "Let It Go." "It's too soon to tell how "Frozen" will compare to Disney's other musicals. Grandage and his team did a tryout run of the show in Denver, Colorado, last September. Jesse Green is a critic at the New York Times. He reviewed the tryout. Green wrote that he liked some aspects of the play, but came away feeling mixed about the story. He said that the "Frozen" play will have to make its dark character less boring and its light character more interesting. Grandage had never had a trial run before, yet says he found the response "very helpful, actually." "Frozen" Rewritten After Tryout Showing Audiences will see a show that's about 30-percent different from what was seen in Denver, Grandage and the Lopezes say. "We changed the opening, we changed the closing," Grandage explains. He says the goal of the changes was to make the play clearer and more poetic. We totally rewrote the ending, says Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Everyone agreed that "Frozen's" teary final plot twist had to be perfect. It's a statement about looking past pain to gain an understanding of what's most important in life. It's about remaining open to the possibilities of reuniting with people in ways that you're not always prepared for. Grandage says he thinks they've found the sweet spot in the story. He says he likes to do things in their simplest form. "Frozen" is no different. He wants the story to shine through, rather than the special effects. In some of his best work, Grandage says, "I have no effects whatsoever, except the imagination of the audiences and the brilliance of the actors and the light." This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Quiz 1 Read the section "'Frozen' Rewritten After Tryout Showing." Select the sentence from the section that shows WHY parts of the play were redone. (A) Audiences will see a show that's about 30 percent different from what was seen in Denver, Grandage and the Lopezes say. (B) He says the goal of the changes was to make the play clearer and more poetic. (C) It's a statement about looking past pain to gain an understanding of what's most important in life. (D) He says he likes to do things in their simplest form. 2 Read the section "Pre-Broadway Showing Of 'Frozen' Held In Denver." Select the paragraph from the section that shows what Disney expects from its directors. (A) Disney likes to hire theater experts who can do more than bring the movies to the stage. They want directors to think up fresh ideas for the fairy tales. One popular example is "The Lion King." The visually dazzling musical lived up to the company's artistic mission. It added something new instead of just copying the movie. Now "Frozen" hopes to continue this tradition. (B) Kristen Anderson-Lopez writes music. Along with her husband, Robert Lopez, she wrote the music for the movie version of "Frozen." They added more than a dozen other songs for the Broadway version. The musical, of course, keeps the Oscar-winning song "Let It Go." (C) "It's too soon to tell how "Frozen" will compare to Disney's other musicals. Grandage and his team did a tryout run of the show in Denver, Colorado, last September. Jesse Green is a critic at the New York Times. He reviewed the tryout. Green wrote that he liked some aspects of the play, but came away feeling mixed about the story. He said that the "Frozen" play will have to make its dark character less boring and its light character more interesting. (D) Grandage had never had a trial run before, yet says he found the response "very helpful, actually." 3 Read the sentence from the section "Disney Told Grandage To Be True To The Movie." He must create new magic using whimsical characters like Olaf the Snowman and Sven the Reindeer from Elsa and Anna's kingdom of Arendelle. What is the meaning of the word "whimsical" as it is used in the sentence above? (A) boring (B) singing (C) unusual (D) standard 4 Read the sentence from the section "Disney Told Grandage To Be True To The Movie." Disney challenged Grandage to be true to the original movie while still coming up with novel surprises. Which sentence uses "novel" in the SAME way as the sentence above? (A) She read the novel while sitting by the window. (B) The show was strange but had some novel ideas. (C) His novel was rejected by the publishing company. (D) The novel sat on the bookshelf for years before being read. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com..