For the first time in forever, 52 high schools across the country will perform Frozen: The Broadway Musical. Tosa West Theatre will be the first and only Wisconsin high school to perform the show this fall, Nov. 10-18.
“This is the full Broadway show. So it’s not a junior version or a high school version. This is what they did in New York and on tour,” director Adam Steffan says.
The production is part of United States of Frozen: Love is an Open Door, a national competition from the Educational Theatre Association, Music Theatre International and the Disney Theatrical Group that granted the exclusive rights to the Broadway musical to one high school in each U.S. state and territory.
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“It’s such an incredible honor that my overall feeling to this day is just being so grateful to have the opportunity, and to have the students and support to be able to pull it off,” Steffan says. “Tosa West is a shining example of what can happen when a program is well supported by principals and superintendents.”
Tosa West Theatre partnered with local artisans and designers to help bring the show to life, including local puppet designer Lyn Neuenfeldt, who created the Sven and Olaf puppets. And the Tosa West art department created a lobby display.
“That’s one thing that we’ve kept in mind as well, throughout this whole process is how are we reaching out to our school community and our broader community to help make those creative connections. Which ultimately is going to make our production stronger,” Steffan says.
Marcus Performing Arts Center was another connection central to bringing this production to life. Steffan and the Tosa West Theatre students saw the professional production of Frozen when it was here in April. “We had a pre-show talk with the cast and crew. We kind of got a behind the scenes look at everything,” Steffan says.
The cast and crew have been in rehearsals for about four weeks – they’ll rehearse for a total of eight – but they already started working on the show over the summer, with workshops for music, dance, choreography and even tech, all before auditions and casting.
“It’s been so fun. You know, there’s been a sense of excitement that has sort of woven through our rehearsal process and journey with Frozen,” says Steffan. “I’ve been joking with people that this is our Frozen era.”
Tickets for the show go on sale Oct. 11 and can be purchased online. The show is at Wauwatosa West High School (11400 W. Center St.) and runs Nov. 10-18.
