Disney is planning another reboot of the family-friendly classic Freaky Friday. The comedy about a mother and daughter who swap bodies for a day will return to the screen in a made-for-television musical adaptation based on the Tom Kitt-Brian Yorkey stage musical that premiered last fall.
Based on Mary Rodgers' 1972 novel, Freaky Friday first hit screens in 1976, starring Barbara Harris and Jodi Foster. The popular franchise has been remade on screen twice since then, as a 1995 TV movie with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffman, and again in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
Disney Theatrical Productions developed the contemporary stage musical adaptation, which has a book by Bridget Carpenter (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) and a score by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winners Kitt and Yorkey (Next to Normal, If/Then).
The musical premiered in October 2016 at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, and played the La Jolla Playhouse this past winter. That production starred Heidi Blickenstaff (The Little Mermaid, [title of show]) and Emma Hunton (Next to Normal, Wicked) as the mother-daughter duo.
According to a casting notice, Disney is adapting the stage production for television, with Carpenter, Kitt, and Yorkey on the creative team. No director was named in the casting release. The stage production was helmed by Christopher Ashley, a Tony Award nominee this year for Come From Away. Casting for the TV film is by Stewart/Whitley. Filming is slated to begin this fall.
The cast album of the stage production was released in February. Freaky Friday is currently playing the Cleveland Playhouse through May 20, with an additional engagement slated for June 2–July 2 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas.
