Garrett Barry, Centretown News
Cast members of Freezing strike a pose during a rehearsal at the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society.Ottawa families will get the chance to help start a new tradition this year when The Gladstone theatre hosts Freezing, an original family musical, for the first time.
The production, running Dec. 18 to Jan. 4, is a winter-themed musical about a queen, two princesses, and a villain by the name of Hans. Sound familiar? The play is inspired by the popular Disney film, Frozen, but reinvented for an Ottawa audience – even featuring a character named Beavertail.
“What we are really aiming towards are families, but the show is designed for babes in arms all the way up to great-great-grandma,” says Matt Cassidy, who is co-producing the show with his wife, Sarah Cassidy.
Freezing is a panto-style musical. Panto is a British theatre tradition that takes a fairytale and twists the story, adding modern music, political humour and pop culture references.
The panto-style also encourages the audience to “boo the villain and cheer the hero,” says Cassidy.
The couple, who are both professional actors, moved to Centretown early this year and noticed a lack of family holiday entertainment.
“We want to do this as an annual tradition, so this is our first kick at the can,” he says.
The couple hired a writer, Ken MacDougall, to create the Frozen-inspired, panto script, and then went about hiring actors, musicians, and choreographers to join them.
“One of our goals was to make the production truly local – hire as many people and work with as many people from the Ottawa community – to make it more significant to the community,” says Cassidy.
The couple has been very successful in their goal, hiring artists who were either Ottawa residents, had family in the city, or grew up here, says Cassidy.
“Pretty much everyone in the cast has some connection to Ottawa,” he says.
Musical director Wendy Berkelaar is a Centretown resident, and Jonathan Evans, a local musician, created original songs for the show.
After the production, all artists and actors involved will be paid through an equitable division of the profits, says Cassidy.
He says some of the artists have turned down paid gigs to join the show and that everyone involved is taking a risk on his ability to produce Freezing.
To support the production, the Cassidys have also partnered with the community. The Preston Street BIA is sponsoring the musical financially.
“The more entertainment we can provide to our patrons, the more reasons they have to come down to Preston Street, and that’s really what our job is, to get people to the street,” says Lori Mellor, the executive director of the BIA.
Mellor says the Preston Street BIA board of directors felt the family musical was a unique addition to the usual events in the neighbourhood.
“We do have a growing family community in our area,” says Mellor. “They’re looking for ways to entertain their kids at Christmas and starting new traditions of how to celebrate the holidays.”
David Whiteley, the season co-ordinator for The Gladstone, agrees that this show will broaden the audience of the theatre.
“I’ve been mindful that there’s an importance to programming family-friendly content. A lot of the shows that have been and are being produced here tend to target adult audiences,” says Whiteley.
Whiteley says he scheduled the Cassidys into the Gladstone’s lineup early this year, before the title Freezing came along, believing in their dream of a family musical production for the Christmas season.
“It seemed like it was filling an important need. That aspect of it I was really keen on,” says Whiteley.
Whiteley says he is excited about the Cassidys goal of making the holiday production a tradition for Ottawa families.