FREAKY FRIDAY Musical to Hit the Studio for Walt Disney Records

The world premiere studio recording of Freaky Friday, the new musical based on the beloved novel by Mary Rodgers and two hit Disney films, will be recorded later this year and released by Walt Disney Records in early 2017. The studio recording can be pre-ordered here.

Featuring 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 recently had its world premiere at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.

The world premiere 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), will reprise their "marvelously sung, resonantly comical" (The Washington Post) performances on the studio recording. Additional casting for the recording will be announced at a later date.

Music supervision is by Bryan Perri, orchestrations are by Tom Kitt and Michael Starobin, vocal arrangements are by Tom Kitt and Carmel Dean, and dance and incidental arrangements are by Tom Kitt.

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.

Freaky Friday was developed by Disney Theatrical Productions expressly for licensing via partner Musical Theatre International first to professional and then amateur theatres, with productions taking place at La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Play House and the Alley Theatre next year. It follows the trajectory of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is now available to professional theatres worldwide following acclaimed engagements at La Jolla Playhouse and Paper Mill Playhouse.

Photo Credit: Margot Schulman and Jim Saah