The Broadway lockdown has claimed a victim: Disney’s “Frozen.” The party’s over. The show is closing up shop and not returning when Broadway returns– whenever that may be.
“Frozen” opened officially on March 22, 2018 and was a hit with audiences and mostly with reviewers. It wasn’t a Tony Award winning production, though, and in time sales did slow a bit. If the pandemic hadn’t hit, the producers would have kept it going, no doubt, for tourists. “Frozen” played 825 performances and 26 previews.
The show was basically built around the one song from the movie that everyone knew, “Let it go.” And now, they will let it go for good.
I will miss the crowds of parents with little girls dressed like Elsa running up and down 44th St. to the St. James Theater while we adults were trying to make our shows. I’m sure there will be a new show next year that will bring back the next generation of burgeoning theatergoers.
“Frozen” won’t be the only long running show to announce a closing. Many of the Great White Way’s older shows won’t be able to wait out the lockdown, which now runs at least through Labor Day if not longer. Marginal shows will go. But things like “Hamilton” and “The Lion King” will no doubt return.
The lockdown is tough tough tough for everyone– the producers, the theater owners, the actors, musicians, crews. When things start up again, there will be partying in the streets.
