Let it Glow! Frozen Lights Up Newcastle
- Liane Morris
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
One of the biggest entertainment phenomena in Disney history is about to take centre stage in Newcastle. Frozen became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, launching a global phenomenon that has generated billions at the box office and produced one of the most recognisable Disney songs ever recorded.
Now, that global phenomenon is making its way to Newcastle, with Disney's Frozen The Broadway Musical coming to the Civic Theatre for a strictly limited season from 10 to 25 October, opening on the final weekend of the September - October school holidays.
With its spectacular sets, lavish costumes, magical special effects, live orchestra and a cast of 30 performers, this is Frozen on a scale that promises to be very different from settling in to watch the beloved animated film at home.
The Broadway musical, which opened at New York's St James Theatre in 2018, expanded the original story with an entirely new score, additional songs and a much greater emphasis on the emotional journey of its central characters. The production received three Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical for Jennifer Lee and Best Original Score for Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
For Executive Producer Daniel Stoddart, there is much more to this stage production than simply bringing the Disney classic to life.
“This isn’t a small-scale children’s show. It is a major musical theatre production designed to give families the same scale, spectacle and theatrical experience they would expect from some of the biggest productions on our stages,” said Daniel.
“It is certainly the most ambitious production The Very Popular Theatre Company has produced to date, featuring the biggest and most technically complex set we’ve ever created, alongside an extraordinary cast, live music and all the theatrical bells and whistles you’d expect from a production of this scale.”
It is also a production built around a story that, beneath all the Disney sparkle, is surprisingly human.
At its heart are two sisters... Elsa has been born with a power she cannot control. Anna has grown up desperately wanting to reconnect with the sister who has been shut away from her. Around them is a world of fear, expectation, love, loss and, ultimately, acceptance.
Director Madison Thew-Keyworth is determined that those emotional layers should not be lost beneath the spectacle.
“I’m keen to delve deeper into the story, the emotion, and to not just rely on the wonder and magic of Disney, which can sometimes become two-dimensional,” she says.
“For me, Frozen is a very special story about two people and the sacrifices they make to serve their love for each other. No matter who you are, there is something to relate to about this fundamental story; it becomes personal for everyone.”
“The themes of the show are love in all its many forms and what makes a family. Family are the people who love and protect you and who you choose.”
It is a perspective that may surprise audiences who remember Frozen primarily as a tale of princesses, talking snowmen and an earworm of a power ballad.
And there is plenty of that too. Musical Director Dan Wilson knows exactly how powerful the nostalgia factor will be.
“If you love the movie, seeing Frozen on stage is a whole new ballgame,” he says.
“You get all your favourites, including Let It Go, For the First Time in Forever, Love is an Open Door, and there are some brilliant new songs thrown in.”
Those songs include Dangerous to Dream, Monster and Colder By The Minute, while I Can’t Lose You gives Anna and Elsa a new musical moment that explores their relationship in a way the film could not.
The Newcastle production features a 14-piece orchestra, with the musicians collectively playing more than 30 instruments.
“Live music makes a huge difference,” Dan says. “It feels more exciting and real when you hear the sound of the orchestra filling the theatre. It definitely adds to the wow factor.”
For a musical director who has spent decades working at the highest levels of Australian musical theatre, including productions of Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, and & Juliet, the score of Frozen represents a particularly satisfying challenge.
“The music literally never quits. It’s like the heartbeat of the whole story, with themes echoing every twist and turn. The opening number kicks off exactly like the movie with Frozen Heart, but then it dances through the cosmic musical journey, weaving all the familiar themes to tell Anna and Elsa’s childhood story.”
“Ten whole minutes of pure, unfiltered musical magic - bring tissues!”
If the music provides the heartbeat, the physical world of the production provides its soul, with set designer Harry Gill working on Frozen since late February.
“The process begins with where it’s set, what’s the time period, what did the world look and feel like,” he explains. “Plus, then there’s the fairytale element.”
The design is built around a fundamental contrast between the human world and the natural world.
“Both can be beautiful and dangerous.”
The result is ambitious. The physical set itself is enormous, complemented by a giant LED screen, projection technology and images projected beyond the stage and into the theatre.
“The scale will blow people away,” Harry says. “The theatre will be transformed and the audience transported to a fairytale world. It’s completely immersive.”
“We’ve also had to navigate how to make the world feel enormous with big, vast spaces and landscapes while still allowing for tighter spaces for more intimate, human moments.”
For Harry, there is an added sense of personal significance.
“Frozen was the last Disney movie I saw at the cinema as a child, and I’ve always really loved it. I never imagined I would have the opportunity to design an original production, and it’s wonderful that it’s an Australian creation.”
The production’s visual motif is the snowflake, specifically tessellated snowflakes, which became the starting point for the wider design.
That creative freedom extends to the mysterious Hidden Folk, the supernatural figures that are meant to embody the Northern Lights.
“In most productions they are presented as rocky and mossy. In ours we see them as ‘of the sky’. It’s quite original and will be different to what people typically see.”
Madison says the creative team has researched Norwegian folklore, the Sámi people and the Northern Lights to establish a world grounded in nature before adding the unmistakable Disney sparkle.
“We create a reality to the world and then build the Disney sparkle over the top, so that it’s underpinned in nature, landscapes and the real world.”
The effect, she promises, will be magical precisely because it has a sense of reality beneath it.
The impressive creative team behind this magical world is rounded out by Choreographer Lochlan Erard, Lighting by Melbourne-based award winner Zac Krause, and Costume Design by Lainey Donnelly.
Bringing all of this spectacle to life are two performers who know a thing or two about commanding the Civic Theatre stage.
Newcastle favourite and two-time CONDA Award winner Zoe Walker takes on the role of Elsa, while Central Coast performer, NIDA graduate and CONDA Award winner Felicity Beale plays Anna.
Madison describes Felicity as “bright, bubbly and vivacious”, while Zoe brings something different to Elsa.
“There’s an honesty about her that will enable her to make the character her own,” Madison says. “She’ll bring a bit of herself to the role, and I really love that.”
That is particularly important in Elsa’s defining moment.
“I can’t wait for her Let It Go moment,” Madison says. “Sometimes the character of Elsa is played in a way that can be unlikeable with too much martyrdom, but Zoe has a really thoughtful quality that will shine through. Our audience will believe in the sacrifices she’s making.”
Then there is Luke Aspinall as Olaf.
“Luke just has the perfect voice for Olaf and a great playfulness,” Madison says. “He is the Disney magic. He can disappear and exist largely through the puppet, and that takes real skill.”
The principal cast also includes Nicholas Langthorne as Kristoff and Tom Kelly as Hans, while a large ensemble of local and interstate performers helps create the production’s grandeur and scale.
For Madison, that shared experience between performers and audience is what makes live theatre so special. She remembers seeing The Secret Garden on stage when she was just four years old and being completely captivated.
“That magical experience of feeling the emotions together, the laughter, the crying, that’s all part of live performance, and it changes every night,” she says.
The production also features young performers as Anna and Elsa, with Mylah Sams and Isabelle Kelty sharing Young Anna, and Layla Klinkenberg and Makenzie Warren sharing Young Elsa.
Beneath the snowflakes, projections, costumes, puppetry and soaring music is something much more enduring: a story about sisters, family, fear and courage, and discovering that love does not always look the way we expect it to.
As Dan Wilson puts it: “It’s a story about what true love really means and that sometimes it’s not a person or a grand gesture, but everyday kindness and appreciating what’s right in front of you.”
And perhaps that is why Frozen continues to resonate across generations. The film may have introduced audiences to Arendelle. But this October, Newcastle audiences have the chance to step inside it.
WHAT | Disney’s Frozen The Broadway Musical, presented by The Very Popular Theatre Company
WHERE | Civic Theatre Newcastle
WHEN | 10–25 October 2026
TICKETS | www.frozennewcastle.com.au
Source: intouch Magazine, Issue #122, Spring 2026, pp. 16–18.
