It’s a tale as old as time, to steal a phrase from another Disney musical—or at least a tale that dates back to 1972: a girl and her mother, at odds with each other, swap bodies and have to spend a day walking in each other’s shoes. Younger generations will be familiar with the 2003 movie, starring a pre-scandal Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, but that Freaky Friday was a reboot of the 1976 movie (starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris). The movies, in turn, were based on Mary Rodgers’s 1972 book of the same name (yes, that Mary Rodgers, who wrote Once Upon a Mattress and was the daughter of Richard Rodgers).
Given that pedigree, it’s no surprise that Disney turned the movie into a musical—it’s more surprising that it took them so long to do so. The House of Mouse has been developing the show for over five years, but the show has finally made its West Coast debut at the La Jolla Playhouse, near San Diego, following its premiere last fall at Signature Theatre, near Washington, D.C.
This version follows Katherine (Heidi Blickenstaff), an uptight caterer who’s planning her wedding to Mike (David Jennings)—a wedding that’s supposed to take place tomorrow. Katherine’s daughter, Ellie (Emma Hunton) is an angsty, awkward high school junior who lashes out at her mother and younger brother (Jake Heston Miller) because she’s still hurting over the death of her father, five years prior. Ellie and Katherine argue for the umpteenth time while holding an hourglass Ellie’s dad left her, and just like that, everything goes topsy-turvy. Ellie’s inhabiting the carb-free and decidedly grown-up body of her mother, while Katherine is dismayed to have to navigate the world through the body of her messy daughter. From there, the show follows the standard Disney pattern: mother and daughter learn that each other’s lives aren’t as easy as they’d previously thought, and come to appreciate each other in the process.
The musical is charming, if not terribly innovative. The score, by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, has some seriously peppy songs, but it sounds like most other contemporary musical theater scores—notably, the most-reprised song, “Just One Day” seems like it’s just begging for a mashup with Wicked’s “One Short Day.” Still, the score has its shining moments, like “Busted,” a song about parents and children learning each other’s secrets, or “All of This and Everything,” where Ellie realizes how much she loves her family—and how much they love her. There are some missteps, though, like “Biology,” where Katherine sings about her hormonal feelings for Ellie’s crush, Adam (Chris Ramirez). Though Katherine is singing from Ellie’s body, the whole thing just feels creepy and pedophilic. Similarly, the presence of a song called “Women and Sandwiches,” which compares women to sandwiches, is questionable. Though the comparisons are favorable, it’s still cringe-inducing, especially given that Men’s Rights Activists enjoy reminding women to go back into the kitchen and make them a sandwich.