“I Can’t Be What You Expect of Me”: Power, Palatability, and Shame in Frozen: The Broadway Musical

Robbins, Hannah

Abstract

This article combines critical, cultural, and musical analysis to situate Frozen: The Broadway Musical as a distinct work within Disney’s wider franchise. In this article, I consider the evolution of Elsa’s character on stage and the role of additional songs in the Frozen score. In so doing, I demonstrate how the stage adaptation distances itself from the feminist potential in the original animation. Using the lenses of palatability and gendered shame, I argue that Frozen: The Broadway Musical forces patriarchal modes of behaviour onto its heroines.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 13, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Mar 20, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 20, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 24, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 25, 2020
• Journal: Arts
• Electronic ISSN: 2076-0752
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts9010039
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4198411
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/1/39