Let it go, James Corden: Idina Menzel is RIGHT THERE.
On Wednesday, “The Late Late Show” put on its latest “Crosswalk the Musical,” this one honoring “Frozen” just in time for Thursday’s “Frozen II” release. Josh Gad re-joined Corden’s rag-tag group of street performers to play his movie role of Olaf the snowman.
Who else could take on that iconic character? Plus, Gad’s got some experience here: He previously played with the intersection-centric theater company in a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, and on another occasion, to promote “Beauty and the Beast.”
Wednesday night, fellow “Frozen” stars Kristen Bell and Jonathan Groff also reprised their voiceover gigs of Anna and Kristoff, respectively. But Menzel, who plays Queen Elsa in the animated Disney movies, got bumped to the role of Sven the reindeer. Such ice-cold treatment never bothered her anyway.
That recasting was to accommodate Corden as his production’s female lead — because of course it was. Eventually he relinquished the wig and dress to Menzel, as nobody wanted to build a snowman with Corden’s Elsa.
We could certainly go on with the “Frozen” puns.
Instead, just watch the video above.
In “Frozen II,” Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land. They set out to find the origin of Elsa’s powers in order to save their kingdom.
Sterling K. Brown, Evan Rachel Wood, Alfred Molina, Martha Plimpton, Jason Ritter, Rachel Matthews and others join the voice cast for the sequel.
“Frozen II” skates into theaters tomorrow.