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The word is out: “Frozen” mania will return to Aurora.
It first arrived in town in September when Tony Award-winning Idina Menzel, who turned the song “Let it Go” from Disney’s 2013 animated blockbuster into the anthem of a generation of kids worldwide, appeared at Holy Angels School in Aurora to promote the children’s book she wrote with her sister Cara Mentzel.
Menzel, even looking nothing like the animated ice queen Elsa, walked into that elementary school to a rock star welcome, then sprinkled her magic all over the gymnasium by singing that signature tune and inviting enamored students – and staff – to let it go, as well.
This year Aurora will be treated to the entire “Frozen” show. That’s because the Paramount Theatre just iced a deal with Disney that puts this iconic musical on next season’s schedule as its much-anticipated holiday production.
The news came from Paramount CEO Tim Rater at Tuesday night’s Aurora City Council meeting, preempting a big marketing splash that will take place at the end of the month announcing next season’s lineup, along with other exciting updates.
Can’t blame Rater for jumping the gun a bit. This is a very big deal.
That’s because “Frozen” truly is a pop culture phenomenon. The movie grossed nearly $1.3 billion worldwide, and the Broadway musical I’m told is spectacular. Even more compelling, children became so addicted to the characters and the music that parents – and yes, grandparents – developed a love/hate relationship with the show, as the video and merchandise quite literally dominated households throughout entire childhoods.
One cold hard fact: The amount of money I alone spent on Elsa and Anna dresses, jewelry, arts and crafts and who knows what could have given my bathroom a much-needed makeover.
What makes this announcement even more significant, however, is that the Aurora production will mark the regional stage debut of the hit Broadway musical.
It turns out over the last few years the Paramount has been building a close relationship with Disney. It started with “Little Mermaid” when Disney came to view the 2016 show in Aurora, continued through “Beauty and the Beast” a few years later and has only grown since.
For example, in the late summer of 2019, the Paramount was one of three theaters invited by Disney to dinner and to see “Hercules the Musical” - still in development - with its Public Theater Initiative at an outdoor theater in New York’s Central Park.
It hasn’t hurt, of course, that since then the Paramount has taken on the title of largest subscription-based theater in the country.
The goal, Rater told me, is to make Aurora “the home for Disney in the summer market,” by presenting one of its titles every year during those off-season months.
More so, “we want to be the theater that has such a great relationship with Disney that we don’t just do the shows they’ve already created but help them develop new ones,” the CEO continued.
Speaking of big deals, it turns out that in addition to “Frozen,” there will be yet another exciting debut during the Paramount’s next season. But Rater wisely kept mum about that show.
“‘Hamilton?’” I ventured.
“Not in my lifetime,” he lamented.
“‘Wicked?’” I asked.
“I wish,” Rater replied, adding that everyone is “trying to get” that one.
While this mystery regional debut won’t be as epic, he teased, “our subscriber will love it … it is a very big deal.”
Which brings me to the Paramount’s next major opening in downtown Aurora.
This July the theater hopes to raise the curtain on “Million Dollar Quartet” at its new Stolp Island Theatre. The Paramount is already in the process of converting 6,000 square feet of space in the first floor suite of the city’s parking garage into the intimate 98-seat venue that will take the audience “from the street outside Sun Records,” through a museum and into the “recording studio” where legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins took part in an impromptu jam session.
This is yet one more critical step in the Paramount’s march to its goal of 1,000 shows annually in downtown Aurora.
The Beacon-News
How close is it?
Rater puts the 2023 number at 500 shows in both the Paramount and Copley theaters, with the new Stolp Island venue adding another couple hundred by the end of 2024.
He predicts hitting a thousand within the next year or two.
“There’s so much more we want to do,” Rater said, promising more exciting news in the next few months to keep the applause going.
“Our long-term options are to make sure the Paramount remains in position to keep doing what it is doing,” he insisted.
“We are investing in stuff to make sure we are going in the right direction.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com