‘Frozen’ brings new wave of families to Disney on Ice

Many parents already know the "Disney on Ice" drill. But this time it's "Frozen," so more of you are about to learn it.

You hope those Halloween costumes still fit your little Elsas and Annas as they suit up for a drive to the Thomas & Mack Center. There, you are barely out of the car before you start saying "Aww, how cute" at all the other princesses headed for the arena stairs.

Inside, the concourse. A state fair midway if your state fair was an autocracy of the Walt Disney Company. A theme park's worth of exit-through-the-gift-shop merch stores unraveled into one continuous loop around the arena. Unless you have the iron will to say no again and again to the spinning, blinking wands, Elsa dolls, Sven plush toys and Olaf snow cones, you realize the actual ticket prices were just the start of it.

Then, the show, broken into two tidy 40-minute chunks — with a generous intermission to buy more loot — pantomimed to the original motion-picture soundtrack by wildly gesticulating skaters. Parents start checking text messages or NFL scores on their phones — at least until those gravity-defying solos, when they are reminded that this is one of the few places where champion figure skaters can still do their thing once their Olympic careers are behind them.

All of this you can safely envision in advance. Except that this year, again, it's "Frozen."

First, that means there will be a lot more of you when Disney on Ice opens Wednesday for 10 shows through Jan. 11. "This is probably the most successful ice show in the history of ice skating," says David Sutton, company manager for the production.

The ice show has been on the road more than a year, selling more than 3.3 million tickets. The producers, Feld Entertainment, expect to sell 5.4 million when the second U.S. lap and a Mexican tour are done.

This is way beyond the last few Disney on Ice productions to play Las Vegas. Those compilations — "Let's Celebrate!," "Treasure Trove," etc. — raided the costume warehouse to reinforce Disney's animated catalog but weren't based on the $1.2 billion-grossing, most successful animated feature of all time.

And if Mom and Dad aren't sneaking as many looks at their phone? Hey, "Frozen" was big for a reason.

Sutton sees fathers who he knows would "rather be watching the football game, and at the end of it say, 'You know what? This is a terrific show.' "

And this is the rare Disney on Ice in which "Frozen" takes up the bulk of the running time. The other Disney animated stars turn up at the beginning and end, but no edition has been largely devoted to one title since "High School Musical" on ice.

And another thing about "Frozen"? The title is your first clue. "It's almost like it was made for the ice," Sutton says.

Most of the characters get to show their real faces, instead of skating in giant costume heads. The sisters (Taylor Firth as Anna, Becky Bereswill as Elsa) have a genuine chemistry. "They are personal friends and it shows up on ice when you see them work together," Sutton says.

There's a 12-ton ice bridge, a sled and Olaf's snowman parts moving apart and together with remote-control help. "And when Marshmallow comes out, I can see all the adults are surprised at how big he is," Sutton says of the giant snow monster.

Sutton is technically a Las Vegas resident of 18 years but sees his house less than a month of each year.

Supervising an ice show this popular brings Sutton full circle. The Canadian spent most of his career either skating in ice shows or supervising them.

After he was part of the 1970 Canadian world team, the Ontario native joined Holiday on Ice.

"Ironically for me, when I took the show as a skater, they asked me to sign a two-year contract and I said 'No, I'm only staying for one year.' And now, 44 years later, I'm still here."

Sutton was part of the last wave of ice spectaculars, the tail end of the era in which Holiday on Ice slugged it out with both the Ice Capades and Ice Follies.

"When ice shows first came out, back in the '30s and '40s, there was nothing else coming to all the cities," he says. "That was one of the biggest events that would ever come to the city in a year."

But other entertainment, primarily the touring concert industry, matured and caught up. In 1979, Holiday on Ice was bought by the Feld family, which helms the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and produced the Siegried and Roy show at The Mirage.

Feld consolidated Holiday and Follies and in 1981 approached Disney for what became a monumental win-win for both companies. (Remember, Disney was at a low ebb in those years before "The Little Mermaid" reinvigorated the studio in 1989).

Sutton's skating days are far behind him. He bested throat cancer, which he somehow got even though he never smoked, but hasn't skated since Santa Fe Station still had an ice rink. "I feel like I could go out and do that, but then I think, 'You know if I fell now, it would hurt.' "

Some of the current skaters know his history; some don't. "I don't really say much about it," he says.

And, he adds, "you watch some of these kids, what they can do today and they make it look so easy. They work hard and they look terrific out there. They make it look like someone in the audience could put their skates on and go out and do the same thing."

What he does tell them is this: "Time flies by. I try to tell them to enjoy every minute and make the most out of it, because it goes by so quick."

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.