ELY- After more than a year of buildup, the weekend of “Frozen in Ely” is finally here.
Ely Memorial High School was the only high school in Minnesota to win the rights to perform “Disney’s Frozen, The Broadway Musical” and the school’s three performances are set for Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., along with matinees on Saturday, at 2 p.m., and Sunday, at 3 p.m.
Tickets are available online at frozeninely.org until 6 hours before each performance. If the shows don’t sell out, the remaining tickets will be sold for cash or check at the door. The performances will all be at Washington Auditorium at the Ely School District Campus at 600 E. Harvey St. Parking is available in the district’s parking lots or along 4th Ave., Harvey St., and 7th Ave. Use the center door, labeled “Door 1,” into the new addition. Go through the double doors of the entrance and then turn right. The auditorium is at the end of the hallway.
As of Wednesday morning, the Saturday and Sunday matinee performances looked likely to sell out. “Consult the website before you decide to come to see if a show has sold out,” said Catherine Helm-Clark, who is the Frozen in Ely webmaster and manages the ticket sales for the musical. “We are listing how many tickets are left for sale on a frequent basis at frozeninely.org and will also post if we have sold out any of the shows on the website.”
Any questions and problems with tickets should be sent to admin@frozeninely.org, which is checked several times a day by volunteer “tickets wrangler” Sean Clark during this last week before the show.
Ely Memorial High School won a Disney-sponsored national competition called “The United States of Frozen.” The contest awarded the rights to the full Broadway version of the musical to just one high school in every state.
The musical has received widespread support from Ely and all the other communities in the area, all the way down to Virginia. Local businesses helped fund a trip for students to see the touring Broadway production of “Frozen” in Milwaukee last spring. The list of sponsors and volunteers are all listed on the Frozeninely.org website.
The cast of the production extends beyond just Ely and includes students in grades 6-12 from the Ely School District, Northeast Range School in Babbitt and area homeschoolers. The production really is bigger than just Ely in every way and it is this level of community involvement that was one of the factors that helped Ely win the rights to perform this show.