‘Let It Go’ songwriting duo adapts ‘Frozen’ songs for musical stage, heading to the FICA on Wednesday

Once artists have completed a project, something written, musical or visual, they can be reluctant to return to the work, having gotten whatever they needed to express out of their system.

But when Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were presented with the chance to turn the Disney hit “Frozen,” for which they wrote the songs, into a Broadway musical, they were all too happy to return to Arendelle.

“We had fallen in love with the characters and we didn’t want to leave the world, and it was a great excuse to stay there,” Lopez said.

Anderson-Lopez and Lopez already had two Disney projects under their belts when approached to write songs for “Frozen.” The pair wrote songs for the Walt Disney World production of “Finding Nemo: The Musical,” which ran from 2006 to 2020, and the 2011 film “Winnie the Pooh.”

Still, they were thrilled to be asked to write songs for “Frozen,” with Lopez saying a Disney princess movie was on their list of dream jobs. Lopez said Anderson-Lopez was born to write songs about the relationship between sisters after growing up helping to raise her twin sisters. The pair also have two daughters who inspired some of the sisterly bond between Anna and Elsa.

“I felt like this lightning strike of being in the right place at the right time with a lot to say about sisterhood, a lot to say about owning your power, about love and fear,” Anderson-Lopez said. “I had also been to college in the ‘90s and all the women’s studies classes where we were looking at ‘How do we give female protagonists more agency?’ So to be in this place where I was so excited to evolve the agency and the subjectivity of the princess to the place where they drive their own story and where true love comes in a completely surprising but equally valid form was a real gift.”

Once they signed onto the project, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez quickly got to work, bouncing song ideas off Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, who directed the film, and executive producer John Lasseter. Anderson-Lopez said, even with their previous Disney experience, the pair felt like they didn’t know what they were doing and followed their gut to create something that would satisfy their own needs for a princess story.

Lopez said over the course of the development of the film, the story of “Frozen” changed significantly. It was only after several iterations of the storyline that everything – the songs, animation and voice acting – started falling into place.

“I like to talk about musicals, especially animated musicals, are like putting together an incredibly complex piece of Ikea furniture where you finally get the shelf in but then you realize you have to loosen these screws to fix the pillar that’s holding it up and then the shelf falls,” Anderson-Lopez said. “It’s a constant readjustment of pieces until the second when those screws finally tighten and if you’re lucky, you get a real shelf.”

Along with songs that changed the listener’s perspective on what a female protagonist could be, Anderson-Lopez, pulling from her theater and psychology double major, and Lopez were also interested in the way “families in crisis get frozen into roles” as well as birth order research.

“Every first child could probably use a giant poster on their wall saying ‘Let it go. You are good enough,’ ” she said. “Every second child needs to be told ‘I see you. You are powerful.’ ”

The pair wrote around 20 songs during the development process, with eight making it into the film, including the Academy Award- and Grammy Award-winning “Let It Go.”

It was only about a year after the film’s release that Anderson-Lopez and Lopez began working on the musical adaptation. Lopez said the pair couldn’t use any of the songs that didn’t make the movie “because they were for a story that no longer existed.”

“You write it in a rush, the first version, and we had just found the characters and the story and this felt like an opportunity to correct it, to get it right, to do the version we would have done if we had more time,” he said.

“Frozen” opens at the First Interstate Center for the Arts on July 24 and closes Aug. 4. There is no performance on July 29.

“Frozen” features music and lyrics by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez and a book by Lee. The musical is, of course, based on the 2013 animated film, written by Lee, Buck and Shane Morris.

“Frozen” tells the story of sisters Elsa (Caroline Bowman through July 28, then Alyssa Fox will take over the role) and Anna (Lauren Nicole Chapman). Both princesses, Elsa has the power to freeze objects and people. After accidentally hurting Anna with these powers, Elsa isolates herself in the family castle.

Years later, Elsa is to be crowned queen of Arendelle. She is worried about the kingdom finding out about her powers, but the coronation goes smoothly, with Elsa and Anna spending time together for the first time in years. At the coronation, a handsome prince named Hans (Preston Perez) who Anna met the day before, proposes marriage, and Anna accepts. But when the lovebirds ask Elsa for her blessing, she accidentally reveals her powers to the community. Ashamed, Elsa flees Arendelle with Anna hot on her heels.

Ice harvester Kristoff (Nicholas Edwards) and his reindeer Sven (Collin Baja and Dan Plehal share the role) join the search party for Elsa, as well as Olaf (Jeremy Davis), a snowman Elsa and Anna created when they were younger.

Evan Duff plays the Duke of Weselton, and Avelyn Lena Choi and Savannah Lumar share the role of young Elsa, while Norah Nunes and Emma Origenes share the role of young Anna.

Though they had the eight songs from the movie as a starting point, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez still had some difficulties adapting their work for the stage. To replicate some of the visual effects in the film, for example, the pair had to turn to the ensemble.

“The swirling blizzard was very hard to do on stage, so we did it orally where we could create a huge whiteout through harmonies and the ensemble singing at the top of their lungs,” Anderson-Lopez said. “That was a fun, challenging opportunity to take the visuals and turn them into music.”

Whether on screen or on stage, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez think the songs and story of “Frozen” share a message about how we can let fear and shame keep us frozen and unable, or scared, to connect with others. If we turn to people we love though, they can help us get out of our own way.

The pair hopes audiences have that realization while watching “Frozen” at the FICA.

“We are so proud of the way that (the cast and crew) are preaching this story of light and love over cold and ice,” Anderson-Lopez said. “I’m excited for the people of Washington to come in and have an experience that makes them talk to each other and turn to each other and say ‘Did you ever feel that lonely?’ or ‘What’s your superpower?’ ”