"Frozen the Musical" Brings Tour Debuts to Two Broadway Cast Members (Ryan McCartan and McKenzie Kurtz)
When Broadway shuttered in 2020, these two actors were out of work. Now they both return to the last show they were in pre-pandemic on the national tour.
For the first time in… well, a week I saw Frozen the Musical at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. However, this was a special night for the show as three of the principal roles were covered by people joining the company or an understudy. McKenzie Kurtz, Ryan McCartan, and Caelan Creaser all took on the main roles of Anna, Hans, and Elsa respectively. Having reviewed the show a few nights beforehand, my initial reaction was utterly stunned by the production and the amount of Disney magic the show manages to infuse on the tour from its Broadway run.
During the onset of lockdown, I may have indulged in watching a “slime tutorial” of the Frozen on Broadway production that featured the show’s final cast with Ciara Renee as Elsa taking on in February 2020. The musical’s message of connection and freeing oneself from isolation inspired a spark of hope in me for the hopeful eventuality that I would be able to come back to live entertainment and feel the joy of the shared experience of the theater again. It was disheartening to find out the show would close on Broadway, but even more harsh was the reality of how many actors, musicians, and front of house staff would be out of employment from creating the entertainment that keeps our livelihood alive.
A few weeks prior to the opening of Frozen the Musical at Broward Center, it was announced that Ryan McCartan, the final Hans on the Broadway production would be joining the company for a few weeks as Austin Colby departed the production. Within days of the show opening it was reported that Caroline Innerbichler who plays Anna would leave Frozen permanently on the same day as Colby. In her place is the final Broadway Anna, McKenzie Kurtz who had only been put into the show with one solid rehearsal before the March 17th show. For comparison, Ryan had two weeks of rehearsals, learning the updated blocking with the new version for the tour that is scaled down from the Broadway version.
The minimal rehearsal time did not show at all with Kurtz, taking on a role that calls for a demanding amount of vocal, acting, and physical prowess. As Princess Anna, there is a minimal amount of time Kurtz is not on stage, with an acting range that portrays the characterization from naive and childish to a more mature, developed person as she deals with friendship, heartbreak and her relationship to her sister Elsa. As well as, a myriad of stunning costume changes and physical acting.
As Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, Ryan McCartan approaches the role with the deceitful charisma that has made his previous work in Wicked and more notably, Heathers as JD with “love interest with a twist” to be quite the forte for the actor. Also taking on a principal role in this show is Caelan Creaser, who is in the company as the Handmaiden as well as, the understudy for Queen Elsa. While Bowman’s portrayal definitely infuses her Elphaba background, Creaser approaches the snow queen with a paralleled level of depth and a mix belt that has a classical musical theater riff.
Frozen the Musical continues its tour of North America, currently at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, FL.