Tear Jerker / Frozen (2018)

• As if the deaths of the king and queen weren't heartbreaking enough, the show retools their tragedy by killing them off while Anna and Elsa are still kids! Elsa's tragic inner struggles are only worsened by this new layer of childhood trauma. This means the sisters spend ten years with effectively no family, isolated from each other and with their parents dead, rather than just the three years of the film.
  • During the Denver production, Anna's final lines in "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" are sung when she’s still a young girl. In the Broadway production and cast album, after the funeral, the song then time leaps from Young Anna at the door to now 18-year-old Anna at the door. Anna asks Elsa if she’s ready for coronation and if Elsa wants to take a walk or just sit and talk, and if there’s anything Anna can do for her before coronation day. On the other side, Elsa then quietly sings “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” to the audience, indicating her own sadness at not being able to connect with Anna.
  • In the film, at least a few years pass between Elsa's panic at her growing powers and the last time the king and queen interact with her. In the stage adaptation, the last interaction Elsa has with her mother is when the latter tries to comfort her with Elsa saying "I don't want to hurt you."
  • The last time we see the royal family together as a family? Anna's been saved but her knowledge of Elsa's powers erased and Elsa wearing her winter gloves to help control her powers. Their parents form a circle, gripping Anna's hand, singing a reprise of "Let The Sun Shine On" (the song that starts the show), having absolute faith that Elsa will be able to learn how to control her powers in a short period of time and they'd be able to face things as a family; together. Even though Anna and the Queen both offer their hands to Elsa, she stands away, afraid to take their extended hands. From then on (until the shipwreck scene) it's either Anna or Elsa with one parent or both. Never both daughters together with their parents.
• Some of the new songs are grade-A heartbreakers, since they dive deep into the psyches of our main characters.
  • "Dangerous to Dream": Elsa ponders on keeping her life a secret from Anna, and yearns for the day where she can finally open up and reconnect with her sister after all these years. But then she wonders; would it be too dangerous to free herself and act on her own will? Or is she doomed to spend her whole life behind closed doors?
    Elsa: I wish I could tell the truth, show you who's behind the door.
    I wish you knew what all this pantomime and pageantry was for.
    I have to be so cautious, and you're so extreme.
    We're different, you and I,
    And it's dangerous to dream.
    • In the Denver production, "Dangerous to Dream" has a Dark Reprise after Elsa blasts Anna, Kristoff and Olaf out of the ice palace but was cut before the show went to Broadway.
    Elsa: Why did I open up that door?
    I was so wrong to even try
    Look at how I've failed us, now I have to say goodbye
    And maybe, I am as cold as I seem
    Look at what I've done, it was dangerous to dream.
    • During the coronation ball (after Elsa managed to control her ice powers without the use of her gloves), Elsa excitedly proclaims "Father, I did it! Now what do I do? I can't stop smiling. How strange. Does this mean that things are different? Could they really change?" Given this is the first time since Anna's accident that we see Elsa smiling, you realize this poor woman hasn't had many occasions to be happy.
  • "Monster", Elsa's big BSoD Song. As the mob makes its way to the castle to hunt her down, Elsa wonders if her childhood fear is finally coming true: becoming a monster. Isolating herself with a barrage of icicles, she calls upon her dead parents and asks them if the only way to end the curse is to let the mob kill her, but even then, she's still unsure if it'll help vanquish the storm.
    • While the song ends with Elsa vowing "I cannot be a monster. I will not be a monster! Not tonight!" her lyrics beforehand ("If I'm a monster and it's true, then there's one thing left for me to do. But before I fade to white, I'll do all I can to make things right!") make it pretty clear that she's going to kill herself rather than let herself be a danger to anyone else. Thankfully (and it might be the only time it's used in conjunction with Hans), he and the soldiers arrive just in time to stop her before she can.
  • "True Love", sung by Anna after Hans leaves her to freeze to death. As the cold within her heart starts to slowly overcome her, Anna looks around and finds that she's in the same room where Elsa shut her out when they were still children. Realizing that her misguided understanding of true love put her in grave danger, she quietly accepts that she's doomed to die a "lonely girl with a desperate heart".
    Anna: I was looking for a fairy tale, and dove headfirst into his.
    Turns out you can't find love if you don't know what it is.
• The slow, sad reprise of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" that plays after Anna has been fully frozen.
  Elsa, sobbing: Anna, no!
  This is what I feared.
  This is why I shut you out so long ago.
  I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
  Look at what I've done to you.
• The long silence before the realization that Anna is hurt hits Elsa. Her screams for Anna and for her parents to come help can send chills down the audience's spine.
• Recent touring productions replace the reprise of "For the First Time in Forever" with the song "I Can't Lose You". Anna keeps insisting to Elsa that she's not a child anymore and wants to rebuild their relationship because now she knows why Elsa has shut herself away. Meanwhile, Elsa keeps trying to insist that she's dangerous to Anna and can't bear the idea of losing her a second time. Both characters are hearing each other...but aren't listening to each other.

  Anna and Elsa: I can't lose you, try to see!
  Anna: Why can't you turn to me?
  Elsa: I'm trying to tell you that...
  Anna and Elsa: I can't lose you like before!
  Anna and (Elsa): Why can't you open that door? (As much as I wish, I can't open that door.)
  Anna and Elsa: If you loved yourself the way I do, then you'd see why I can't lose you!

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