Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I shared some helpful British history videos from the Useful Charts YouTube channel. Tina enjoyed The Dark Wives, a Vera Stanhope novel, by Ann Cleeves.

Disney filmed a stage production of Frozen during its run in the West End, releasing it on Disney+ in June. At the beginning, they pan the theater and the audience — what a beautiful place. The Theatre Royal Drury Lane is on a site that has been a theater since 1663. The current building is from 1812. The theater is  owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber who has overseen an extensive recent renovation.

I enjoyed spotting the differences between the Frozen film and the musical. Some are there to streamline costume and set changes. Others, though, feel like the sort of revamp that creators would choose to make when given a second chance at a story. I suspect they may have felt some influence from Frozen 2, which was in development at the same time.

The relationship between the sisters is more pronounced in the musical. I love how Olaf, the snowman, gains depth by being constructed during a song called “A Little Bit of You” about how they’re making him with a little of Elsa’s personality and a little of Anna’s. Their personalities, from the beginning, are more separate than in the film — Elsa is more focused on quiet dreams and Anna brings some naughtiness to their lives. The most poignant song is one that wasn’t in the film. “I Can’t Lose You” is a duet where the sisters are saying the same thing out of love for one another, but with opposite views of how to accomplish the goal.

The Theatre Royal Drury Lane hosted Frozen for three years, ending in September 2024. This year’s production is another Disney film turned stage show, Hercules.

I thought it would be fun to check what else is going on in the West End theater district in 2025.

• The Lion King. If we want to stick with the Disney theme, the Lion King is at the Lyceum Theatre.
• Oliver! For a show with a London setting to watch in London, we can see this Charles Dickens’ story at the Gielgud Theatre.
• Hamilton. I’ve been curious how Hamilton plays in the country of King George III. It’s playing at the Victoria Palace Theatre.
• The Mousetrap. This play based on an Agatha Christie story is the longest running play in the world. It plays six nights a week plus matinees on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at St. Martin’s Theatre.
• Romeo and Julie. The classic Shakespeare play is at the Globe Theatre, replicating the experience from the Elizabethan period, except that this version is set in the American Wild West.

And many more! When I was in London, I met a retired teacher from Tennessee who came to the city twice a year just to see the shows. I can see why that would work so well.