Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre stages Broadway-scale Frozen at NIC

Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre brought Disney’s Frozen to the Schuler Performing Arts Center in Boswell Hall this summer with the kind of scale usually reserved for Broadway houses, not a campus venue in Kootenai County. The production opened June 26 and continues through Sunday, July 5, with evening performances July 2 and 3 at 7:30 p.m. and a 2 p.m. matinee July 5.

The show is built around a 1,159-seat theater at North Idaho College, a size that helps explain why CST is treating Frozen as a major draw rather than a modest summer staging. Tickets are priced from $50 to $192, seats are assigned first-come, first-served by ticketing specialists, and buyers can purchase online or at the venue beginning 90 minutes before each performance.

CST is pairing a nationally spread cast with local names to anchor the run. Performers came from New York, Washington, D.C., California, Florida, Alabama, Coeur d’Alene and Dalton Gardens, and Coeur d’Alene native Ashley Cleveland played Anna. Executive artistic director Chuck Ethridge said the appeal of Frozen comes from the story of two sisters and what real love looks like, and he has built the production to meet audience expectations with Broadway-quality set pieces, professional puppets and a Broadway-caliber creative team.

That approach fits CST’s long-standing identity. The company describes itself as Idaho’s oldest live performing arts company, sharing professional musical theatre since 1967, and says it presents three full-scale Broadway musicals each summer. It also operates the Musical Theatre Training Institute, which helps develop musical-theater talent for its stage and beyond.

The Broadway pedigree behind Frozen gives the local production added weight. The Internet Broadway Database lists Disney Theatrical Productions as the producer of the original Broadway run, which played at the St. James Theatre in New York after previews began Feb. 22, 2018, opened March 22, 2018 and closed March 11, 2020. That production featured a book by Jennifer Lee, music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, direction by Michael Grandage, choreography by Rob Ashford, scenic and costume design by Christopher Oram, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound by Peter Hylenski, video by Finn Ross and puppet design by Michael Curry.

CST’s version uses songs from the animated film along with new music written exclusively for the stage. Rated G, it is being presented as a polished summer event on the NIC campus, with local families and visitors seeing a familiar title staged at a scale that still has room to command premium prices and a full house.