After a creative team shakeup, Frozen might just receive a jolt of "electricity." Billy Elliot Tony winner Stephen Daldry is in talks to replace Alex Timbers as the director of the Broadway-bound Disney musical, according to the New York Post. A spokesperson for Disney Theatrical Productions declined to comment.
Disney confirmed Timbers’ departure from the project on August 4. “Though we have chosen to go in another direction with this role,” Disney Theatrical President and Producer Thomas Schumacher said in a statement, “we are committed to seeing Frozen’s tremendous theatrical potential brought to life onstage.”
The show is currently scheduled to make its world premiere in August 2017 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts followed by a New York bow in spring 2018. The New York Post has previously reported that the musical would play the St. James Theatre—the current home of Something Rotten!. Jujamcyn Theatres recently announced renovations to the St. James to expand the back wall.
Daldry won Tony Awards for directing Billy Elliot and An Inspector Calls; he was also nominated in 2015 for Skylight. Among his many additional credits are The Audience and Via Dolorosa on stage and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Readers and The Hours on screen. Daldry is also attached to the forthcoming big screen adaptation of Wicked.
The stage adaptation of the Disney blockbuster will feature the beloved tunes (and several new ones) by married songwriting duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and a book by screenwriter Jennifer Lee. According to a recent Equity casting notice, Tony winner Christopher Gattelli will choreograph, filling in for the previously reported Peter Darling.