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Disney’s “Frozen – The Musical” will premier on Oct. 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Times spoke with Dominic Dorset about portraying the role as Kristoff in his first Broadway show.
As a University of Michigan musical theatre major Dorset is ready to leave a lifetime of learning on Disney’s stage. He explains, “Frozen has two things that are really going for it. Crazy insane spectacle elements. If you’ve seen the movie, you’d imagine it’d be an incredibly hard story to put on stage because of all the special effects, but they do it great. Secondly, it has the simplicity of a really good story.”
Dorset offers insight into his approach to acting, “I look at the script and fill in the holes that need filling. I think of it like ‘connect the dots’ and I connect them using the dialogue the writers have written.”
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“I bring my entire self to the stage every night,” says Dorset.
“I started out in community theater and found a lot of friend groups and because of that, I stuck with it through high school and college, seeing Disney shows come through the theater in Detroit, I’ve seen Mary Poppins, Lion King, Aladdin there and thought, ‘it’d be pretty cool if I could do that one day’ and here we are now.”
Asked why he believes 2013’s Frozen remains so popular nearly a decade later, Dorset remarked, “The music is excellent. Everybody loves a good Disney musical. One of the reasons the show is also great is because the writers wrote a lot of new material for it, there’s about a dozen new Broadway songs that aren’t in the original movie. Also the story is so universal of love and acceptance within yourself and from people around you.”
Dorset acknowledges home is where the heart is
“I have been very very blessed because this opportunity was not something that was easy to get to. I had a huge support system back home, a lot of friends and family were very supportive of me to get here. I was very excited to get this part; I’ve been grinding for years now, throughout college and community theatre. I am very grateful to get here, it came from hard work and a support system.”
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Crediting Saline, his hometown just outside of Ann Arbor, MI, Dorset values a diversity of lifestyles which has in turn naturally helped him as a thespian. Dorset says, “If you are a people person and you see the lives of many people growing up, that makes you a more well-rounded actor because you have a wider wealth of experience to draw from. I knew a lot of people growing up and I saw a lot of different lifestyles that I look back on fondly.”
Dorset wants the universal story of “Frozen” to be represented by people of the universe
Dorset says, “I think it’s important to see people of the world represented on stage. I see little boys that look like me that I didn’t necessarily see when I was a kid.” Speaking of a Black actress playing Elsa, “It gets me so excited to know that those little girls are going to look on stage and also be inspired. It really inspires you to keep going and keep fighting for the people that are going to be the next generation.”
You can grab tickets for October shows at the Chapman Music Hall at Tulsa Performing Arts Center here.
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