Freaky Friday began as a children's novel in 1972 written by Mary Rodgers, daughter of composer Richard Rodgers (Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Sound of Music). Her early career began with writing children's music. Later she would collaborate with lyricist Marshall Barer and write the music for the comedy Once Upon a Mattress which opened off Broadway in 1959.
Rodgers wrote the screenplay for the 1976 movie starring Jodie Foster, the Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis film followed in 2003. Disney's musicalized play adaptation premiered in 2016 at the Signature Theatre followed by a run at La Jolla Playhouse. Most recently, the musical movie premiered on Disney Channel in 2018 based on the book by Mary Rogers and the Disney Theatrical Stage Production.
The central concept has always been the same. Mother and daughter switch places, discover the particular difficulties they both face on a typical weekday, and ultimately reach emotional closure via mutual understanding. But watching the Freaky Fridays in chronological order, you see the great world spinning forward around the central archetypes. A happy marriage becomes a divorce, becomes a remarriage, becomes an entrepreneurial media event. Cheap analog thrills like skateboarding and junk food evolve into garage pop-punk and glorious smartphone apps. But Mary's book is the "mama" of all body-switch stories. “You would understand me if you could walk in my shoes" has become the mantra for all mother/daughter relationships and their profound need for unconditional love and acceptance.
So what does it take to really understand someone else's reality?
The theme of walking in someone else's shoes resonates more potently now than ever before. It's so hard to really understand what's happening in someone else's reality, inside someone else's head, and there's something enduringly powerful about the idea that for a day you can live someone else's life, inside someone else's body and be inside their viewpoint. I think that concept is really important right now in our society. We tend to live in our own personal bubbles surrounded by people who are like minded. And to step out of our bubble and see the world through somebody else's eyes hopefully, will open up the conversation and maybe we can start to find more common ground.
I Hope you enjoy our interpretation of the beloved story.
Kylie Sjolie
Director/Chreographer
