International NewsAhead of Sydney Opening, Australia’s Frozen Eases Social Distancing MeasuresThe capacity limit at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre has been increased to 85 percent.
By
Dan Meyer
November 23, 2020
Caissie Levy
Deen van Meer
The Australian production of Frozen will now play to 85 percent capacity at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre when it opens in December after getting the OK from New South Wales’ Health Minister Brad Hazzard. As previously announced, the production was originally set to open in July but pushed back due to the pandemic.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the move to expand capacity is an attempt to inject some financial viability to an arts and culture industry ravaged by shutdowns or audience caps, but so far is the exception to a rule rather than a new standard.
Venues are currently limited to 50 percent capacity with a maximum of 1,000 people for any seated or ticketed event, or one person per four square meters. As has become the norm worldwide, masks are required for most patrons (children under the age of 12 are exempted) and audience traffic flow protocols will help enforce social distancing.
While the Capitol, owned by Foundation Theatres, can move forward with opening next month, other productions and performance groups were left waiting for approval. Pippin at the Lyric Theatre (also owned by Foundation) and a string holiday concerts at City Recital Hall with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra are still waiting to hear back from NSW’s ministry in regards to reopening.
After Broadway shutdown in March due to the coronavirus, Disney Theatrical Group announced it would not reopen Frozen on the Main Stem but focus instead on a national tour and international productions of the property, which also include a West End bow.
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Looking Back at Frozen’s Journey on Broadway
Looking Back at Frozen’s Journey on Broadway
53 PHOTOS
Caissie Levy and Patti Murin
Jenny Anderson
Jelani Alladin
Greg Hildreth and Kevin Del Aguila
John Riddle, Caissie Levy, Patti Murin, and Jelani Alladin
The musical, a reinvention of Tim Burton’s cult classic film Edward Scissorhands, uses the pop music of Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Alanis Morissette, and more.
Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, the production played the Chichester Festival Theatre this past summer and will arrive in London in December.
The play comes on the heels of a broader cultural conversation about Dahl's work and the prejudice that was embedded in many of his most beloved stories.
