Review Roundup: Heidi Blickenstaff and Emma Hunton in FREAKY FRIDAY in Houston

La Jolla Playhouse presents Freaky Friday, book by Bridget Carpenter (TV's "Friday Night Lights," "Parenthood"), music and lyrics by the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal, If/Then), based on the novel "Freaky Friday" by Mary Rodgers and the Walt Disney motion pictures, to be directed by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, running tonight, January 31 , through March 12, 2017 in the Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Broadway veterans Heidi Blickenstaff (Broadway's Something Rotten, [title of show]) and Emma Hunton (Broadway's Spring Awakening, Next to Normal) will reprise their roles from the recent Signature Theatre production, as "Katherine Blake" and "Ellie Blake," respectively, in this uproarious new musical. Complete casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

Disney's new musical Freaky Friday is based on the celebrated novel by Mary Rodgers and two hit Disney films. The classic story of a mother and daughter who magically swap bodies for 24 chaotic hours has been given a contemporary spin with a hilarious new book by Bridget Carpenter ("Parenthood," "Friday Night Lights") and "a driving pop?rock score" (DC Metro Theatre Arts) by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winners Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal, If/Then). With inventive staging by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley (Come From Away, Memphis) and sharp choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Memphis, Jersey Boys), this dynamic production is "delightfully spunky" with "timeless appeal" (Variety).

Let's see what the critics have to say!

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Houston Press (Jessica Goldman): But what about today? With racial, religious and political divides dominating our news feeds, even among our young adult population, certainly a story about understanding someone else's truth is vital. But should that message be delivered via a narrative between a well-enough-off white mother and her equally white daughter, as is the case in this production? Is this the big divide that our teens and their nostalgic parents need to consider at this moment as they bop in their seats to, and laugh their way through, a story about an important lesson learned?

ABC 13: The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey were seemingly the perfect choice for crafting the magical score expected from every Disney musical. They succeeded in their toil, with rich showstoppers like "Oh, Biology," "Go" and "Just One Day" the most likely ear worms you'll leave with after the show.

Houston Chronicle (Wei-Huan Chen): "Freaky Friday" isn't great, per se. It has only droplets of the heartbreak in "Waitress" or the dazzle in "Wicked." Composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey's musical is too precise and commercial to be a cult hit and too corny to be capital "T" theater. And seeing a teenager trapped in her mother's body stumble her way through a hilariously lame approximation of high school could never be a transcendent experience. Yet it finds a perfect middle-ground, then burrows deep into it. As in "Pitch Perfect," casualness is key. "Freaky Friday" makes charm its sole ambition.

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