FREAKY FRIDAY Movie Musical in the Works for Disney Channel

By: May. 04, 2017
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From screen to stage to screen again! According to a Disney Channel spokesperson, Disney's new FREAKY FRIDAY musical adaptation is in development for TV, "contingent on casting."

No word yet who Disney Channel is considering for the lead roles, or a timeline for the project.

Disney's Freaky Friday, the new musical based on the beloved novel by Mary Rodgers and two hit Disney films, features a book by Bridget Carpenter (TV's "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood") and a score by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning team of Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics), creators of the celebrated Broadway musicals Next to Normal and If/Then.

Freaky Friday had its world premiere at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA in fall 2016. The production was directed by two-time Tony nominee (Rocky Horror Show and Memphis) and artistic director of the world-renowned La Jolla Playhouse Christopher Ashley and choreographed by Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys; On Your Feet!).

The two stars of the Signature Theatre production, Broadway performers Heidi Blickenstaff (Something Rotten!; [title of show]) and Emma Hunton (Next to Normal), played mother and daughter Katherine and Ellie Blake in D.C. and reprised their roles as the production traveled to La Jolla Playhouse (this spring), Cleveland Play House (now through May 14) and later at the Alley Theatre (June 2 - July 2, 2017). A studio recording was also released this year.

When an overworked mother and her teenage daughter magically swap bodies, they have just one day to put things right again before mom's big wedding. Freaky Friday, a new musical based on the beloved novel by Mary Rodgers and two hit Disney films, is a hilarious, contemporary update of an American classic in which a mother and daughter really see what it is to be a family and experience each other's lives first-hand, if only for a day.

Set in the present day, Freaky Friday features a tuneful pop-rock score, fittingly for a work that has effortlessly updated throughout its several iterations. The novel (1972), the first film starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster (1976), the second film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan (2003) and this new stage musical are all set in their respective present day.

Photo Credit: Jim Carmody



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