Considering Jonathan Groff’s extensive and decorated history in musical theatre, it was odd that his character didn’t get a solo song in the first Frozen. Instead of telling fans to “let it go,” this oversight was corrected for the sequel – and how! For Frozen 2, Kristoff is given a chance to live out his yacht-rock, ‘80s-feathered hair power ballad fantasy on “Lost In The Woods.” In the song, Jonathan — as Kristoff — belts about “growing apart” and being totally lost without his companion, who is making their own way, going down a path Kristoff doesn’t “know” they are on.
The song features a slew of epic piano and guitar moments, with Jonathan crooning along to the music. As the music swells for the first chorus, the track features Jonathan harmonizing with other singers! The tone of the song is quite forlorn, as Kristoff wonders, “Who am I? If I’m not your guy.” For the record, Kristoff could be our guy, any day. The epic song is solely centered on Jonathan’s incredible voice and the beautiful harmonies that occur throughout the tune. If the song sounds this good, we can only imagine what it will be like to see it performed in the film on the big screen!
As fans will recollect, in the first Frozen, of the four main characters, Kristoff was the only one who didn’t really get his own song. He did sing “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People,” but ScreenRant describes it “more of a throwaway joke than anything important to the story.” This was odd because Jonathan Groff starred in Broadway musicals Spring Awakening and Hamilton. He’s won numerous Broad.com Audience Choice awards, took home a Grammy in 2016 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and was even nominated for a Tony Award. Oh, and some fans might know him as Jesse St. James on Glee. So, yeah – it was weird that he didn’t have a song in Frozen.
Perhaps it was all worth the wait. Kristoff’s story in Frozen 2 addresses a more significant issue, according to Idina Menzel, per USA Today. The movie’s directors, Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, are “sort of fighting this toxic masculinity and making [Kristoff] really comfortable with his emotions, making him be real supportive of the women in his life and not telling them what to do.” Central to this narrative is Kristoff struggling with how to express his love while figuring out a way to properly proposing to Anna.
“We’re so used to a man sort of leaving a woman behind and having her sing a sad song about it,” said Jon Groff, per USA Today. “This is like the inverse where Anna has gone off on her own to take care of herself and her sister, and the man is left behind with his feelings of frustration and feelings of repressed love that he gets to sing about.”
Right before Kristoff delivers this power ballad, sung in a dream sequence, his reindeer friend Sven tells him, “Your feelings are real. Feel what you feel. Let your guard down and let your feelings out.” To Jon Groff, there’s no better message to deliver than that. “I love that men and boys are getting the invitation to express themselves as well in the second movie.”