World Premiere Studio Recording Of Disney Freaky Friday A New Musical

BURBANK, Calif., Feb. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The world premiere studio recording of Disney's Freaky Friday, the new musical based on the beloved novel by Mary Rodgers and two hit Disney films, is released digitally by Walt Disney Records today, February 10, 2017. The album is available now wherever digital music is sold (http://disneymusic.co/FreakyFriday) and streamed (http://disneymusic.co/FreakyFridayW).

Physical CDs will be available beginning March 17 and can be pre-ordered here: http://disneymusic.co/FreakyFridayAMP.

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 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!).

Buzzfeed named the show one of the best musicals of 2016, raving, "Freaky Friday captures the best of great Disney musicals. The catchy, surprisingly deep score by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey is their best work since Next to Normal." The Washington Post calls the show "a polished, peppy, modern fairy tale" with "up-to-the-minute pop cultural relevance," and Variety hails its "timeless appeal" and "rousing, up-tempo score with stirring melodies."

The two stars of the Signature Theatre production, Broadway performers Heidi Blickenstaff (Something Rotten!; [title of show]) and Emma Hunton (Next to Normal), reprise their "marvelously sung, resonantly comical" (The Washington Post) performances as mother and daughter Katherine and Ellie Blake on the studio recording. The studio cast also features Jason Gotay (Bring It On The Musical) as Adam, Alan H. Green (Sister Act, School of Rock) as Mike, Ann Harada (Avenue Q, 9 to 5, Cinderella) as Torrey, and Jake Heston Miller as Fletcher, with Shayna Blass, Tyler Bowman, Sherri Edelen, Katie Ladner, Jess LeProtto, Storm Lever, Thaddeus McCants, Tanisha Moore, Julian Ramos, Preston Sadleir, Bobby Smith, Jason Sweettooth Williams and Natasha Yvette Williams.

Music supervision for Disney's Freaky Friday Studio Cast Recording 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.

The Freaky Friday Studio Cast Recording was recorded in Manhattan at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in December 2016.

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 this 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. 

For information on licensing Freaky Friday, contact MTI by phone at (212) 541-4684 or by email at [email protected].

SOURCE Walt Disney Records