Frozen on Ice

I remember when I was a kid back in the seventies watching commercials for the Ice Capades. I never got to go see stuff like that, although I did get to see the Philadelphia Flyers fight to the Stanley Cup on my big brother's black and white TV on UHF channel 29. So tiny and blurry, it was hard to tell they were on skates. Ice skating escaped my youth because of the lack of a lake I suppose, but I remember sliding on ice puddles in my sneaks.

Yeah, so no background in ice skating here, and the Olympics barely count because they were so boring, to me at least. I think the final nail in the coffin for me was more than two decades ago, I was invited by The Bride and her parents to go see Starlight Express, their favorite show, on ice in Philly. I embarrassed myself badly by dozing off for most of the show. Ice was not my thing.

Jump ahead to now, and The Bride loves the movie Frozen, so when she saw "Frozen on Ice" was going to be at the Wells Fargo Center, former home of the Philadelphia Wings, we made plans to go. Upon sitting down, the first thing I noticed was that the Wings banners had been removed, the team since last season having moved to Connecticut and renamed the New England Black Wolves. So not happy.

Frozen being the little girl phenom it is, we were the only adults I saw there. Perhaps we should have brought a niece or two as a cover, but no one seemed to say anything or stare. The merch was out of this world and everywhere. The Bride got a plastic mug made of Olaf's head to eat a sno-cone out of, and I got Chickie & Pete's Crab Fries. The fries, like the parking, was noticeably jacked up much higher than they ever were when we were Wings season ticket holders.

Despite a barely enthusiastic yogurt commercial for an opening sequence (the one host sounded like. a. robot. as. he spoke.), the show was amazing, even the post-commercial pre-show with the regular Disney characters was cool. The players, through dead on lip sync, brought the movie Frozen to life on the ice. And ice is key here. Everyone was on skates, including seemingly blind animals with no eyeholes.

It's like what folks say about Ginger Rogers. She did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in heels. Here it was ice. These players did everything on ice, in skates, and usually fast, while acting, dancing, running, etc. They were very good. As I mentioned, previously I was not an ice skating guy - now, I would do this again. Great show, and it was fun too.

For more on "Frozen on Ice," check out the latest episode of The Make Mine Magic Podcast right here.