Theatre Review: Disney’s Freaky Friday the Musical

NOTE: This review does contain plot spoilers.

This past Wednesday, I had the chance of watching Disney’s Freaky Friday the Musical at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. Starring Broadway veterans Heidi Blickenstaff and Emma Hunton in the lead roles, Freaky Friday opened October 4, 2016 and runs through November 20th.

This re-imagining of the storyline (with book written by Bridget Carpenter) takes elements from the previous Disney versions of Mary Rodgers’ original book (of which there are three) but sets the story in modern-day Chicago and features an original take on the mother-daughter switch. Katherine (Blickenstaff) is a widowed caterer who micromanages her family and her staff to the extreme. Meanwhile, her daughter Ellie (Hunton) is a messy high-school slacker, who is about to flunk out of school. The musical follows a day in their lives, in which their bodies are switched on the eve of both Katherins’s second wedding, which she is being interviewed for a wedding magazine that could save her fledgling business, and “The Hunt”, a high school scavenger hunt that Ellie wants to be a part of in order to impress her crush, Adam (played by Jason Gotay).

Katherine (Blickenstaff) and Ellie (Hunton)

Once they figure out that a magical hourglass is needed to switch them back, they agree to live out each other’s lives while trying to locate the hourglass. This includes Katherine, as her daughter, going back to school, dealing with almost being expelled, and trying to navigate her re-discovered feelings of youth. At the same time, Ellie, as her mother, deals a disastrous interview with the magazine, destroys the wedding cake, and inadvertently causes her younger brother to run away after a very honest talk. There is also an interesting parent-teacher conference thrown into the mix. As the curtain comes down on Act 1, both of their lives are in shambles, and their son and brother is missing. However, because they are starting to understand one another more because of, literally, living in their shoes, they come together to fix the wedding, win “The Hunt”, find the kid and the hour glass, and figure out that love is what they need to change back… the love towards each other that they lacked.

I have seen both Blickenstaff and Hunton on the NYC stage before (Blickenstaff recently in Something Rotten! and Hunton a few years ago in RENT Off-Broadway), and their performances in Freaky Friday rank up there with those performances. The are both powerful and emotional not just as their main characters, but also in their role swaps. They take on the new personality very well, and I appreciated the fact that at times I actually thought that maybe they changed bodies.

Surrounding them is a group of very talented actors, singers and dancers, led by Gotay. The cast is a small one, with some adults playing a multitude of roles each, but they fill in the scenes and staging very well. Most characters have moments in the show where they are allowed to shine in the spotlight, even for a brief moment… and the actors and actresses do just that. I especially enjoyed watching Gotay whiz around the stage on a hoverboard, which took a lot of skill when dealing with a full fledged choreographed scene unfolding around him.

Adam (Gotay) and ensemble.

The choreography, by Broadway veteran Sergio Trujillo, known most recently for his work on On Your Feet, is very lively and sometimes seemingly ongoing. It matches the up-tempo songs by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, the Pulitzer Prize winning team behind the Next to Normal. Aided by a bold color palette and a minimalist but highly operational scene design by Beowuld Borritt (Rock of Ages), the stage came alive with memorable moments, lots of laughs, and even a few tears from the audience.

Overall, I really enjoyed the 2 hours of entertainment the Freaky Friday the Musical gave us at the Signature Theatre. While there is some work to be done if it is to see a Broadway stage, it is well on its’ way to becoming another Disney hit on the Great White Way.

For tickets to Freaky Friday and more information, you can visit the Signature Theatre website. Performances run through November 20, 2016, with multiple showings a handful of dates.