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It features dynamite performances by Broadway veterans Heidi Blickenstaff (Broadway\u2019s \u201cSomething Rotten\u201d and \u201c[title of show]\u201d) and Emma Hunton (Broadway\u2019s \u201cSpring Awakening\u201d and \u201cNext to Normal\u201d) as mother and daughter Katherine and Ellie Blake, respectively.<\/p>\n
The book is by Bridget Carpenter (TV\u2019s \u201cParenthood\u201d); music and lyrics by the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning duo Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (\u201cNext to Normal\u201d and \u201cIf\/Then\u201d); with choreography by Sergio Trujillo (\u201cMemphis\u201d and \u201cJersey Boys\u201d).<\/p>\n
The story is narrated by Ellie, who tells us that the freaky Friday in question was the eve of the widowed Katherine\u2019s wedding to the handsome and laid-back Mike (David Jennings), whom Katherine met when she hired him to do some cabinetry. A perfectionist, Katherine has planned and is catering her own wedding. The event has attracted the coveted coverage of Wedding Magazine, which sends a photographer and writer, who arrive on Friday.<\/p>\n
Midlife mother and 16-year-old daughter are involved in a wrestling match over an hourglass, one of two that are family heirlooms, when suddenly and surprisingly, they exchange bodies. The sloppy, slightly overweight and decidedly rebellious Ellie, who has wild, orange-tipped hair, inhabits her mother\u2019s neat, well-turned-out body, teetering in heels on the big day.<\/p>\n And Katherine is equally at sea in her daughter\u2019s turbulently emotional skin, thrust into a day at high school, unaccountably attracted to her daughter\u2019s heartthrob, Adam (vocally talented Chris Ramirez, splendidly performing this role, especially on choreographed hover-board).<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ellie, trapped in Katherine\u2019s body, must cope with last minute details surrounding the wedding, questions and photo ops with the magazine people, a ruined cake, her grandparents, and the broken and the missing hourglass, to say nothing of her missing preteen brother, Fletcher (played with disarming ease and clear vocalism by Jake Heston Miller).<\/p>\n Augmenting these principal players is a fine singing\/dancing company of mean teens, unbending teachers and dense police officers. They are Jeannette Bayardelle, Eean Cochran, Joseph Dellger, Jessie Hooker, David Jennings, Storm Lever, Mary Jo McConnell, Tony Neidenbach, Jennafer [sic] Newberry, Julian Ramos, Alet Taylor, Jason SweetTooth Williams, and swings Katie Banville and Jermaine R. Rembert.<\/p>\n The smooth, flawless vocalism of Hunton and Blickenstaff makes for pleasant, evening-long listening pleasure, with Blickenstaff providing some stunning turns of phrase-endings, especially in \u201cAfter All This and Everything,\u201d at the end of which she sings, \u201cI love you, I really do\u201d so unforgettably that she breaks a mother\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n The show\u2019s opening ensemble, \u201cJust One Day\u201d sets up the production and introduces most of the characters and dilemmas, which play out on Beowulf Borrit\u2019s off-kilter suburban Chicago landscape and a basic set that switches from living room and kitchen shelf-units to school lockers in the blink of an eye. I\u2019m sure that the rest of the score (I loved \u201cBiology\u201d), like that of \u201cNext to Normal,\u201d grows on one with additional hearings (the cast album release was Feb. 10). Emily Rebholz\u2019s costumes are eye candy, and so is Howell Binkley\u2019s lighting, all enhanced by Kai Harada and Brian Ronan\u2019s sound design, which seamlessly integrates singers, ensembles and nine-piece union orchestra.<\/p>\n Inhabiting one another\u2019s skin leads mother and daughter to the truth and the importance and love in their relationship. This underlies all the comedy and glitz in this warm, appreciable musical.<\/p>\n![\"Applause](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/web-l-r-Emma-Hunton-and-Heidi-Blickenstaff-.jpg\")
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