Broadway actress gets ‘Freaky’ with Disney
You can stay home this weekend to have a new Disney experience based on a familiar Disney story. A musical version of “Freaky Friday,” a fantasy about a mom and a daughter who switch bodies, premieres at 8 p.m. Friday on Disney Channel.
Broadway actress Heidi Blickenstaff says her casting as the mom is “sort of miraculous.”
“This really is the first time I’ve done anything substantial on television,” said Blickenstaff, 46. “It doesn’t often happen that the theater actor graduates to play the part they created to the film or TV version.”
Her casting, she adds, is “a little bit like finding a unicorn.”
“Freaky Friday” was first a novel by composer Mary Rodgers (“Once Upon a Mattress”). It became a 1976 Disney comedy with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster as the mother and daughter. A 1995 Disney TV movie for ABC featured Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann in the roles. A 2003 Disney remake cast Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as mom and daughter on the big screen.
This time around, Blickenstaff plays mom Katherine, and Cozi Zuehlsdorff (“Dolphin Tale”) portrays daughter Ellie. Their version comes with songs from Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics), the Broadway team best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Next to Normal.”
A Disney connection was crucial in her casting, COMMENTARY Blickenstaff said.
“I had been working inside the Disney Theatrical family for almost a decade because my first endeavor with Disney was ‘The Little Mermaid’ on Broadway,” she said. “What I have learned to be true, no matter what arm of Disney I’m working for, they are an incredibly loyal company.”
She has performed concerts and readings for Disney Theatrical Productions. She has sung in group and solo shows for Disney Cruise Line, and there’s a bonus.
“I get to take my family on a vacation,” she said. It was the Mediterranean last year, the Caribbean this year.
Yet for most of her career, she has been a devoted musical theater actress. She caught the Broadway bug early as a kid in Fresno, Calif., who would listen to Barbra Streisand albums over and over. Blickenstaff ’s first Broadway show was “The Full Monty.”
Her break was “[title of show],” a 2004 musical about her professional struggles and those of friends. That intimate, one-act show made it to Broadway. “My career has sort of been a series of small miracles,” she said.
She played Bea Bottom in the original Broadway production of “Something Rotten!” in 2015.
She originated her role in “Freaky Friday” in a version made by Disney Theatricals. She had taken part in a first reading of the show more than five years ago and felt a psychic vibe pulling to her character.
“It’s the biggest part I’ve ever played and the hardest thing, but nothing has ever felt more right,” she said. “And I’ve played myself on Broadway.”
Disney Channel saw the production in La Jolla, Calif., and wanted to make a film. She tested with several younger actresses and was sure she would be replaced by a TV actress.
“But lucky me. I got to be the girl,” she said.
She heard from many people in the Broadway community when she was cast. She summed up the feeling: “A win for you is a win for all of us.”
She hopes her career options will open up. “We’re going to surf this Disney Channel wave and see what happens,” she said. “I’ve devoted 20 plus years of my career to being on Broadway. We’re going to see where this goes.”
She went in not knowing how her theatrical style would translate to TV, but credited director Steve Carr with helping her make the jump.
“I thought I was going to suck at it, but turns out I didn’t,” she said. “I would love to do more of it.”