‘Frozen,’ four other shows with strong female leads make up Music Theatre’s 2024 season

Music Theatre Wichita will continue its longstanding relationship with Walt Disney next season, becoming one of only two regional theaters nationwide to stage a musical version of “Frozen.”

“They like what we do here,” artistic director Brian J. Marcum said, noting Disney Theatrical Group has given MTW early rights to musicals such as “The Little Mermaid,” “Newsies,” “Mary Poppins” and “Beauty and the Beast,” the latter of which was staged this summer.

The “Frozen” announcement was made before the curtain of “Beauty,” and the rest of the ’24 season is being rolled out before “Ragtime,” the penultimate show of the 2023 season, this week. While a “junior” version of “Frozen” has been done by children’s theaters nationwide, Disney is just now releasing the rights for regional theaters and high schools, Marcum said.

Angela Cassette, managing director, said MTW’s relationship with Disney, which will mark two decades next year, has been well-earned.

“Disney’s always very interested in you doing something that doesn’t mimic the Broadway production or the tour. I think we have a really great tradition of that,” she said. “We can be really distinct and still honor the story. This is different from Broadway, this is different from the tour, and it’s Disney magic all at the same time. That’s really that sweet spot that we manage to find every time we do a Disney show.”

Based on the animated 2013 movie hit, “Frozen” opened on Broadway in 2018 and was shut down at the dawn of COVID in March 2020. A tour at the time shut down as well, reopening in September 2021.

MTW is allowed to stage “Frozen,” Marcum said, while the original is still on tour. According to the tour website, the closest it comes to Wichita is in Denver in June 2024.

Marcum, who will direct the show, said he is already consulting with theater technicians on creating the show’s special effects.

“There’s lots of magic that has to happen on stage,” he said. “There’s snow that has to fall from somewhere, there’s a big reveal. The thing that every little kid knows is Elsa’s big change when she sings the ‘Let it Go’ number. We have some really great people working on some unique Broadway-sized magic.”

For the first time since the “Mermaid” encore in 2018, a show will run two weekends, July 5-7 and 10-14.

“Frozen” is in the middle of five shows that Marcum chose for the season that have strong, powerful female lead roles, he said, and that he was on the hunt for female directing staffs as well.

The other shows

The season opens May 22-26 with “Gypsy,” a Broadway classic about the rise of dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. MTW previously staged the show in 1978, 1992 and 2010.

“It’s one of my favorite shows of all time. It’s got, hands down, the best overture of all time,” Marcum said. “I love the story, I love the history of it, and we haven’t done it for a bit. It’s just quintessential Broadway – great writing, great music, great story, great characters.”

Already cast in the role of Mama Rose is longtime MTW player Karen Robu.

“She’s a powerhouse and a local phenomenon and people love her,” Marcum said, adding that the professional “Ragtime” cast was in awe that someone as talented as Robu was based in Wichita. “She’s just fantastic.”

The second show, June 12-16, will be “9 to 5,” with a score by Dolly Parton based on the 1980 movie where she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

“She’s always celebrating women and she’s such a strong personality herself,” Marcum said of Parton. “With three strong female leads, this fits into the category really well.”

“9 to 5” was previously staged in 2012.

Following “Frozen” will be “Matilda,” running from July 31 to Aug. 4.

“We’ve bandied about doing it for years, and just never found the right time to do it,” he said of the musical, based on the young Roald Dahl heroine. “It fits into the season really well, and we have such strong child actors at the moment in our community, it feels like it’ll be a really fun event for us.”

Marcum said there’s been renewed interest in “Matilda” since a Netflix version of the musical premiered last Christmas.

“It’s brought it around to peoples’ consciousness a bit,” he said. “The spectacle of it is really cool. I think it’ll be well-received.”

Cassette predicts “Matilda” will have the same draw as “Beauty and the Beast,” where many of those attending didn’t bring children.

“It’s a great story on the resiliency of childhood and how children can overcome, but it’s also a story for grownups,” she said. “ It helps people remember that with these fairy tales, there’s a reason they’ve been around for so long.”

The season will conclude Aug. 21-25 with “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” based on the life of the singer-songwriter.

“It’s somewhat of a jukebox musical, but it’s really got a lot of heart and the story is really poignant. You really learn so much about her journey and her career,” Marcum said. After seeing it, “I didn’t know some of the songs she had written and her tumultuous life. It’s a tour de force for that actress. You don’t really understand how great it is until you see it. It really blows you away.”

Back indoors

Marcum will only direct “Frozen” next year.

“While I love directing and choreographing, I have so many friends and great people I know from New York and in this business to bring in that have history with all these shows and can inspire and create new versions of these shows and educate the youngsters and all of us about these specific stories from their point of view,” he said.

Cassette said that some performances of “Beauty and the Beast” topped attendance numbers for the pre-pandemic numbers, the season subscribers are still lagging behind.

“We’re not at pre-COVID subscriber numbers, and that’s really going to be a focus going into 2024. We believe this is a really strong season, with five shows indoors,” she said.

The first two shows of the current season, “Rock of Ages” and “Red, White & Broadway” were performed outdoors to avoid conflict with the “Hamilton” performances in the MTW home of Century II. Cassette said that in surveys, the largest number of people dropped their subscriptions because they didn’t want to attend outdoor shows.

Along with the 2024 season, MTW is announcing a concert by Broadway star Beth Leavel, Oct. 14 at Century II. Leavel won a Tony Award for her role in “The Drowsy Chaperone,” and was with Marcum in the cast of “42nd Street” on Broadway. Most recently, she played Miranda Priestly in the Chicago world premiere production of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

“She is Broadway royalty and a really good friend of mine,” Marcum said.