Q&A with Oscar-Winning Songwriters of Disney’s Frozen

Kristen Anderson-Lopez is part of the Oscar-, Grammy-, and Emmy-winning songwriting team behind the Disney animated films, Frozen and Frozen 2, with her husband, Robert Lopez. Together they also wrote the Oscar-winning song “Remember Me” from Pixar’s Coco, as well as songs for Marvel’s WandaVision and its spin-off series Agatha All Along. They adapted Frozen for the Broadway stage, and are co-creators of the Hulu original series Up Here.

Robert co-conceived and co-wrote the hit musicals Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon, both earning him Tony Awards. Kristen’s show In Transit made history as the first all a cappella musical to run on Broadway after an award-winning Off-Broadway run. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez have written for television, film, and stage, including Finding Nemo: The Musical, songs for The Wonder Pets (two Emmy Award wins), and the Winnie the Pooh animated film. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez both serve on the Dramatists Guild Council. Graduates of Yale University and Williams College, respectively, they now reside in Brooklyn with their family.

CTC: What was the most rewarding aspect for adapting Frozen for the stage? 

Kristen and Robert: The joy of creating live theatre is that every show creates a special community of people that comes together for an intense period of time. Though the community is only temporary, the connections made during the show stay with you for a lifetime.

CTC: What character in Frozen do you most identify with and why?

Kristen: I’m definitely an Anna with a hidden Elsa inside.
Robert: I’m definitely an Elsa with a hidden Anna inside.

CTC: Do you have a favorite song written specifically for the Broadway musical? 

Kristen: I have to say the answer to this changes with every production. I recently saw a production in Florida and the moment young Anna sings “let the sun shine on” during the opening number brought tears to my eyes. We were channeling our youngest child when we wrote that in 2017.

Robert: For me it’s “I Can’t Lose You.” We wrote it after the show had officially opened on Broadway, which is unusual. But we couldn’t stop writing for these characters. It was the only true, full duet we’ve written for Anna and Elsa where they’re singing the same thing in harmony and in retrospect we realized the show needed it. Now it always surprises me how much ferocity of the sisters’ love comes through that music. We hoped it would be like our version of a Puccini duet.

CTC: What was it like the first time you watched an audience experience Frozen live on stage?

Kristen and Robert: Honestly? Terrifying. Seven years later I can recognize that there was a tremendous amount of pressure on us to get this right.

Why are you excited for Minnesota audiences to see the stage version of Frozen?

Kristen and Robert: Every production brings its own magical ingredients. Each production is a dialogue between the specific cast the producers bring together and the values and challenges every audience brings to the experience. I imagine Minnesotans know something about extreme cold and will bring their own understanding of those stakes to the story. When I was texting with Jill Anderson, CTC’s managing director, about the priorities I look for when casting Anna, I said something about how she has to be able to tell a good joke, can’t be afraid to eat a cheeseburger, and has a giant heart she wears on her sleeve. Jill wrote back “Oh, so she’s a Big 10 gal” (which apparently attributes for a certain swath of upper Midwesterners). It’s these kinds of specific references that will deepen the local experience.

The CTC Original Production of Disney’s Frozen The Broadway Musical is on stage April 15-June 15, 2025. Learn more and get tickets today!