Arts Bonita Actors Theatre has cast Shennan Nelson and Landon Maas in the roles of Princess Anna and Prince Hans of the Southern Isles in its upcoming production of Disney’s “Frozen: The Broadway Musical.” In their duet “Love is An Open Door,” Hans and Anna meet and instantly fall in love. But, says Maas, if you read between the lines, he’s actually telling her he intends to supplant her and her sister, Elsa, on the throne.
“In the very beginning with Anna, he's very vulnerable,” Maas noted. “He speaks about his life and how it affects him and how it keeps him down.”
Hans also uses the artifice of vulnerability to gain the people’s confidence.
“I say, I'm only the 13th son of a king,” Maas explained. “I don't know why your princess trusts me, but that I'm willing to lead you through these times of trials, that is why you should trust me. And that sort of edge of vulnerability that I'm willing to show towards everybody instantly gets their trust.”
Only then does he reveal his true motives and malice.
“With royal characters, there's this mask you have to put on them,” Maas added.
We’ve all been fooled by people who aren’t whom they appear to be. But, says Maas, you have to look beyond the show’s charm and campiness to mine the musical’s numerous life lessons.
“At the end of the day, everybody is going to see the same show and take away little pieces that maybe other audience members might not take away,” he said. “That's what gives it such strong integrity.”
“Frozen” is onstage in the Hinman Auditorium July 17-26.
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Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez created most of the musical numbers for “Frozen,” including “Love Is an Open Door.”
During the song, Anna is led to believe that she has finally found true love as she and Hans visit various sights around Arendelle. At the end of the song, Hans proposes to Anna, with her excitedly accepting.
Since its release, the track has earned over 215 million plays on the streaming platform Spotify.
“Love Is An Open Door” also became a critical storytelling milestone, marking the first time a villain sang with a Disney princess.
As Maas noted, part of what makes Frozen such a powerful musical is the emotional core of many of its songs. In addition to “Love Is An Open Door,” songs such as “Let It Go,” "For the First Time in Forever" “Monster” and even "In Summer" delve into the characters’ innermost desires and motives and advance their characters' arcs over the course of the story.
‘Love Is An Open Door’ foreshadows Hans’ villainy
“Love Is An Open Door” is also a classic example of the use of the literary tool of foreshadowing.
Because she’s been sequestered behind closed doors her entire life, Anna is beyond excited about Elsa's coronation. She’s proud of her sister, of course. She can’t wait to reconnect with Elsa, to be sure. But Elsa’s coronation will also bring people to the castle for the first time since their parents’ death when Anna was three. So, in the song, she expresses her eagerness to meet new people … and even fantasizes about meeting the love of her life.
And in due course, she meets Hans. The random encounter leads to “Love Is an Open Door.”
On its surface, “Love Is An Open Door” appears to be a meet-cute in which Anna and Hans fall in love. Hans really turns on the charm and at the end of the number proposes marriage, which Anna readily accepts.
Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have been roundly panned for having Anna fall head over heels for Hans within moments of meeting him. The songwriters themselves acknowledged that the premise is absurd. They actually poked fun at themselves by having both Elsa and Kristoff comment at different points in the play that Anna's instant attraction to Prince Hans is more than a bit ridiculous and unrealistic.
Anna is in a heightened emotional state. Her sister is being coronated. It’s the first time she’s seen her in 13 years. In fact, it’s the first time she’s seen anyone in 13 years. Because of her isolation, she’s been denied any opportunity to deal with the grief and pervasive sense of abandonment she’s experienced after not only losing her parents, but at being shut out by her sister and confined to a dark, isolated castle through puberty and her teenage years.
Then along comes Hans. He’s the first person to show her any interest that … well … she can remember … ever.
Anna’s just 16. Her hormones are raging. She has no idea what love is. And he showers her not just with attention, but affection. And that’s the reason she so easily succumbs to his charm and the “connection” they share. These feelings culminate in her asking Hans, "Can I just say something crazy?" at the inception of the song.
The song, as any good musical theater number should, expresses both characters' deepest desires. On the surface, it seems like just another silly love song. But as Maas noted, the song is a warning to Anna and the audience that Hans’ emotions are not authentic. He has an ulterior motive.
Anna sings, "All my life has been a series of doors in my face, and then suddenly I bump into you," referencing the doors she’s been locked behind since her parents’ deaths. The implication is that she’ll do just about anything to have a real life.
But there are clues that all is not what it seems.
Anna sings “I see your face.” That’s code for the reality that she’s blinded by the façade he presents and doesn’t know his heart.
And what is in Hans’ heart?
Spoiler alert!
Hans is making a power grab.
He told her he’s 13th in the line of succession to his father’s throne and has “been searching his whole life for his own place.”
Anna’s naïve heart melts at this seeming vulnerability but, said Maas, Hans is using vulnerability to gain Anna’s trust. It’s a tool of manipulation.
The place he’s been searching his whole life for is Arendelle, and he figures that if he plays his cards right with Anna, he can be king there.
Maas used his script analysis class at Pace University to gain this and other insights into his character and the fatal flaws Hans finds in Anna and in the people of Arendelle.
From that moment forward, Hans engages in subtle manipulation that would make Machiavelli blush. He tells her what she wants to hear. When she says they were meant to be together, he doesn’t just readily agree. He furthers her romantic inclinations, singing "we finish each other's..." So when Anna jumps in with "sandwiches," he responds with, "that's what I was gonna say!" The audience might think it's just a silly coincidence, but his response shows that he’s being disingenuous and would say anything to foster Anna’s belief that they are totally in sync with each other both mentally and emotionally.
The choreography underscores the disconnect between Anna’s belief and the reality of the situation. Superficially, Anna and Hans appear to dance in sync. In reality, that’s not the case at all. Hans is a half of a step behind. He’s the slightest bit off. That’s because he’s mirroring her movements. He’s shadowing her. While he’s pretending that they are dancing in unison, he's struggling to keep up, to anticipate her next movement. And it’s up to Maas to not just learn the dance routine that he and Shennan Nelson perform. He has to also convey that they’re not really in sync, subtly, to those audience members with a keen eye.
It’s all part of Hans’ charm offensive and feigned vulnerability, designed to blind Anna to his true motives.
While “Love Is An Open Door” may look like any other surface-level Disney dance number, the song is designed to alert the audience to Hans’ diabolical agenda, which is to claim the kingdom as his own. In this regard, the songwriters crafted Hans’ lyrics as an anthem of ignominy disguised as a love song to keep his villainous intentions a secret until the second act of the play.
So hats off to composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for this expert use of the literary tool of foreboding in the guise of a seemingly shallow Disney meet-cute.
The lyrics
Anna: Okay, can I just say something crazy?
Hans: I love crazy!
Anna: All my life has been a series of doors in my face
And then suddenly I bump into you...
Hans: I was thinking the same thing, 'cause like...
I've been searching my whole life to find my own place
And maybe it's the party talking or the chocolate fondue...
Anna: But with you...
Hans: But with you
I found my place...
Anna: I see your face...
Both: And it's nothing like I've ever known before!
Love is an open door!
Love is an open door!
Love is an open door!
Anna: With you!
Hans: With you!
Anna: With you!
Hans: With you!
Both: Love is an open door...
Hans: I mean it’s crazy...
Anna: What?
Hans: We finish each other's —
Anna: Sandwiches!
Hans: That's what I was gonna say!
Anna: I've never met someone —
Both: Who thinks so much like me!
Jinx!
Jinx again!
Our mental synchronization
Can have but one explanation
Hans: You —
Anna: And I —
Hans: Were —
Anna: Just —
Both: Meant to be!
Anna: Say goodbye...
Hans: Say goodbye...
Both: To the pain of the past
We don't have to feel it anymore!
Both: Love is an open door!
Love is an open door!
Life can be so much more!
Anna: With you!
Hans: With you!!
Anna: With you!!!
Hans: With you!!!!
Both: Love is an open door...
Hans: Can I say something crazy? Will you marry me?
Anna: Can I say something even crazier? Yes!
More on Maas
Maas is an incoming sophomore at Pace University in New York City, where he is pursuing a BFA in Acting.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” said Maas. “It really has. You meet a lot of amazing people who are going to school with you and our professors are Broadway, television, even audio book veterans who are basically retiring and going to teach the next generation.”
Maas is using what’s he learned in his classes when analyzing the script, his character and the plot.
“Even the memorization techniques they taught us, without even thinking about it.”
His script analysis course has proved most beneficial of all.
“I learned how to break down the structure of a play,” said Maas. “You look at characters and how they're written and their general arcs. Then you look at the structure of the play itself — rising action, conflict, all of your basic details. But one of the major tools that I learned is what my professor calls Brechtian Drama.”
Bertold Brecht was a German writer who played a significant role in the 20th-century development of theater. Brecht pioneered epic theater, in which the audience is encouraged to focus on the ideas expressed in a play rather than on the story that is being told.
While this is admittedly an oversimplification, it nevertheless works well within the context of an allegorical Disney musical such as “Frozen,” or even “The Lion King” or “Cinderella.”
“[Brechtian drama] breaks down a scene into different parts,” Maas explained. “It goes into how the scene starts, how other characters are introduced and how that affects your character in that moment. For Hans, it's very important because even though he is the villain in the end at the play, throughout most of it, he's this charming guy.”
During his freshman year at Pace, Maas also learned about Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey. It’s a method for structuring a story using Jungian archetypes such as mentors, shapeshifters, shadows and threshold guardians and stages that include a call to action, approach to the innermost cave, seizing the sword and the road back. Many famous stories follow the recipe spelled out by Campbell in the hero’s journey, including “Star Wars,” “Titanic,” “Pulp Fiction,” “The Full Monty,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
The principles of the hero’s journey are especially evident in Disney storytelling, including in “Beauty and the Beast,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White” and “The Lion King.”
In fact, Maas sees parallels between “Frozen” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
“Take ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and the journey of Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf to Elsa ice castle,” Maas pointed out. “There's a scene where the four of them stand and look up and see Elsa's castle and it's that Emerald City moment. And once they get to the castle and see Elsa, the altercation between Elsa and Anna has a similar effect to pulling back the curtain of the Wizard. It's this moment of truth that plays out a little bit differently than in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
