Independent Arts News Reporting The Wilma Theater Magical New Production of The Snow Queen by Evgeny Schwartz Now Available to Stream On Demand Through December 21
Reported on Friday, December 12, 2025.
Pictured Above: Wilma Artistic Cohort Lindsay Smiling, Morgan Green, and Yury Urnov. Photo Credit: Johanna Austin, austinart.org.
NEWSROOM POST: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
The Tony Award-winning theater’s first family presentation is a bold adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, where the warmth of friendship and love conquers evil.
Philadelphia, PA – Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater (265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107) now offers audiences an on-demand, digital presentation of its first family production, The Snow Queen, by renowned Russian playwright Evgeny Schwartz, and translated by Mike Lion and Ethan Gotlieb Wilcox. Directed by Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov, the play is a mesmerizing adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale about the power of love and courage to defy a world turned cold. The cast features Wilma HotHouse Acting Company members Ross Beschler, Taysha Marie Canales, Sarah Gliko, Suli Holum, Justin Jain, Melanie Finister, Anthony Martinez-Briggs, Bi Jean Ngo, and Brandon J. Pierce. The Wilma’s digital presentation of The Snow Queen is available now through December 21, and can be purchased online for $35.
The Wilma’s first family production received glowing critical praise for Urnov’s creative direction and the HotHouse actors’ performances. Theatermania hailed The Snow Queen for “the strong acting and smart production choices that make [the Wilma] such a staple of Philadelphia’s theater scene.” Broad Street Review was similarly impressed by the theater’s take on Schwartz’s adaptation, praising it as “a social commentary/fairy tale mashup that will warm many hearts.”
“Evgeny Schwartz knew how to speak to children as grown-ups without condescension or simplification while addressing every adult’s inner child with kindness, care, honesty, and depth,” shared Urnov. “His adaptation of The Snow Queen is a funny, mysterious, and emotional adventure of a little girl trying to save her brother from the world of cold order, cold hearts, and cold minds. This is why the Wilma chose Schwartz’s adaptation of Andersen’s fairy tale, and what we will emphasize through our staging and brilliant HotHouse Company actors.”
Siblings Gerda (Ngo) and Kay (Pierce) live peacefully with their grandmother (Finister) until the greedy Councilor of Commerce (Beschler) and his ally, the Snow Queen (Gliko), freeze Kay’s heart and spirit him away to a realm of cold logic. To save him, Gerda ventures from her warm attic home through bustling cities, flower-filled meadows, shadowy forests, and the frozen tundra to the Snow Queen’s glittering palace. Along the way, she’s aided by talking crows, kind strangers, a loyal reindeer, and a fierce Bandit Queen and her daughter, discovering that courage and compassion are her greatest powers. The Snow Queen proves that warmth, friendship, and humanity can overcome even the coldest evil, serving as a magical adventure for children or the inner child in each of us. As the theater’s first family production, it also invites a new generation of theatergoers to experience the company’s signature blend of imagination, movement, and bold storytelling, planting the seeds for the Wilma’s audiences of tomorrow.
The Snow Queen is based on the 1844 fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, one of his longest and most acclaimed stories. In 1938, Schwartz adapted the fairy tale to the stage, cleverly blending Andersen’s story with sharp satire to disguise his subversive social commentary from Soviet censorship to tackle themes such as bureaucracy, oppression, and human nature. In staging Schwartz’s take on the Andersen fairy tale, the Wilma presents a political parable disguised as a children’s story, where love and loyalty stand against a world built on greed, fear, and control. The production draws clear parallels to today, where misinformation, division, and the pursuit of power threaten empathy and truth. Through movement, imagination, and humor, The Snow Queen reminds us that compassion and courage can still break the ice that divides us.
That spirit of imagination carries into the performance itself, brought to life by the resident members of Wilma’s acclaimed, award-winning HotHouse Acting Company. Through their physical and inventive artistry and stunningly intricate costumes, the ensemble transforms the stage into a living storybook, where a menagerie of talking animals and fantastical characters accompany Gerda on her journey through icy palaces and riotous dreamscapes.
Leading the cast are siblings, Gerda and Kay, played by Bi Jean Ngo (The Good Person of Setzuan) and Brandon J. Pierce (Archduke, Fat Ham), with Anthony Martinez-Briggs (Fat Ham, The Half-God of Rainfall) serving as the narrator. Sarah Gliko (The Comeuppance, Archduke) performing as the titular Snow Queen and Mrs. Crow, Ross Beschler (The Good Person of Setzuan, Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard) as Mr. Crow and Councilor, Melanye Finister (The Good Person of Setzuan, Archduke) as Grandmother and Bandit Queen. Rounding out the cast is Justin Jain (Twelfth Night, Kiss, The Cherry Orchard) as Prince and Deer, Taysha Marie Canales (Fat Ham, The Comeuppance) as Princess and First Bandit, and Suli Holum (Archduke, My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion) as King and Little Bandit.
Wilma Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov directs the upcoming production of The Snow Queen. Born in Moscow, Russia, Urnov graduated from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in 2000 and has lived and worked in the United States since 2009. He joined Woolly Mammoth, his first artistic home in America, as a company member in 2014 and directed its productions of You for Me for You (2012), Marie Antoinette (2014), and KISS (2016). In addition to serving as Co-Artistic Director at The Wilma, Urnov also directed the theater’s productions of Mr. Burns (2018), Minor Character (2021), Twelfth Night (2023), and A Summer Day (2025). He also directed the Helen Hayes Award-winning co-production of My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion by Sasha Denisova, presented by Wilma and Woolly Mammoth in the 2023-24 season.
To immerse audiences, Urnov devised elaborate and whimsical set designs with its stellar production team, reuniting with several designers he’s collaborated with on previous productions, including Set Designer Misha Kachman, known for his work on My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion (2024) and A Summer Day (2025). He is joined by Costume Designer Ivania Stack, Lighting Designer Thom Weaver,
Sound Designer Michael Kiley, and Puppet Designer Ksenya Litvak. They will be supported by Stage Manager Danielle Sellick and Assistant Stage Manager Sloane Duzy. The production team also features movement consultant Dominic Moore-Dunson, who is currently serving as the Wilma’s Lloyd Richards New Futures Resident this season.
Ticket Information
The digital presentation The Snow Queen is available for $35 from November 27 to December 21. The stream can be purchased at www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the Wilma’s box office at 215-546- 7824.
The Snow Queen has an estimated two-hour runtime including a 15-minute intermission, and is recommended for ages 7 to 107.
About the Wilma Theater
Established in 1979, the Wilma Theater (265 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19107), recipient of the 2024 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, is a non-profit theater company creating living, adventurous art, engaging artists and audiences in imaginative reflections on the complexities of contemporary life. The theater presents bold, original productions representing a range of voices, viewpoints, and styles in order to develop the form and push existing conventions. Many of the roles in the Wilma’s productions are cast from its acclaimed, award-winning resident artists, the HotHouse Company, who meet weekly to train, read plays, and develop their artistry. The organization is currently led by a creative cohort of three co-artistic directors, Morgan Green, Lindsay Smiling, and Yury Urnov, and Managing Director Leigh Goldenberg. In 2024, the Wilma became the first Pennsylvania theater company to receive the Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre. Learn more about The Wilma Theater and purchase tickets at www.wilmatheater.org.
