The hometown actor has returned as a genuine stage star.
Caroline Innerbichler, who practically grew up onstage in the Twin Cities, triumphs as one of the leads in Disney's "Frozen: The Musical," which finally had its much postponed, comeback-from-COVID opening Saturday at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.
True, the audience had her back, applauding the Eagan native's entrance and swooning at her first number, "For the First Time in Forever." Delivered with joy, the number was as much about her character coming out of icy isolation as it was about theatergoers gathering again — masked and vaccinated — in a 2,600-seat auditorium.
Innerbichler proved that she is worthy of such warmth and adulation with a witty and gorgeous performance that tickles the funny bone and touches the heart.
Anna, the character she plays, is an atypical Disney princess — a self-described "tornado in pigtails" who can be her quirky, genuine self as she's the spare to the real heir, sister Elsa.
But with her self-effacement and just-little-ol'-me attitude, Innerbichler made Anna less a stuffy princess than a regular Minnesotan.
Innerbichler is part of a large and capable cast, playing the comic foil to Caroline Bowman's Elsa, who has the unfathomable gift of turning things to ice. That power causes unintended injuries and ultimately gets Elsa labeled — and hunted — as a monster.
Elsa, taught from an early age to "conceal, don't feel," is constrained both by her gift, which must remain a secret, and her role. That explains many of Bowman's artistic choices and her restrained singing, which occasionally sounded a touch flat early in Saturday's performance.
