In Rehearsals With UK Premiere of Disney’s Freaky Friday Musical
Jena Pandya and Rebecca Lock in rehearsals for Freaky Friday. Photo by Mark Senior
Written by Wendy for Theatre and Tonic
Following the success of Heathers and 13 Going On 30, Andy Fickman has once again directed a musical adapted from a film - Freaky Friday. With book by Bridget Carpenter and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, the musical will arrive in Manchester at the end of November for a run of about six weeks. Before that, I had the good fortune of being invited to preview two songs from the show, “Oh Biology” and “After All This And Everything,” and to chat briefly with five of the cast members - Rebecca Lock (Katherine), Jena Pandya (Ellie), Catherine Millsom (Grandma Helene), James Stirling (Grandpa Joe), and Max Mirza (Adam) - as well as the director Andy, about their understanding and portrayal of the characters and their rehearsal process. During this conversation, I also discovered that this production of Freaky Friday introduces significant changes to the original movie.
The core of the story remains unchanged. Katherine, a single mother whose days are completely consumed by work, and her teenage daughter Ellie, argue endlessly about all kinds of things. But today is even more stressful than usual. Katherine’s wedding is tomorrow, and tonight is the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, Ellie believes she has something much more important to do this evening, and Katherine cannot understand her request at all. This time, however, the argument doesn’t end there. They soon find that their souls have entered each other’s bodies…
“What's interesting is Becky and Jena have to create two specific characters.” Andy said, “That first character has to be their base character and they got to own them. Then they swap. They have to remind themselves that all the other characters in the show is talking to them without any knowledge. Nobody at all at any given point knows the truth, except for those two. So I think that just gives you like a murder mystery, like you have a secret - and for any good acting, you always want the character to have that secret, so that's just been more joy than normal where you're just playing one character.
Ghaith Saleh and Max Mirza in rehearsals for Freaky The Musical. Photo by Mark Senior
After hearing that, I was particularly curious about how they managed to portray each other’s characters so precisely, so I quickly brought up the question. Andy, Rebecca, and Jena each responded from their own perspectives.
Andy: “We do a lot of spending time together and we do a lot of me saying, ‘Becky, show Jena how you would laugh.” And Becky will show her how she laughs, and I'm like, “Jena, now copy what she just did on that laugh”. And that becomes part of the process. So they each are able to educate the other one. It's a character study. Just the other day, there's a moment where Jena was sitting and it made me laugh how she was sitting, and I realized, that's how Katherine has to sit when she's Ellie.
Rebecca: “I'm seeing her body language and maybe stealing some moves that she does. The way she says something sometimes, I will definitely poach that. I think that's important.”
Jena: “I need to look and copy what she is doing as teenager to marry that which has been really interesting to do. Also, sometimes I have to check with myself especially when I'm with all of the other kids. I would be like ‘oh no, I should be quite concerned instead of finding it funny’, remembering that actually I'm a mum and I should be taking this seriously. Each time in rehearsal, I understand it more and bring new things into it.”
From the cast list, it’s clear that in addition to Grandpa Joe, who was already present in the film, the musical also adds the character Grandma Helene. When I asked Catherine whether the introduction of this character added anything unique to the story, her answer made me feel that Grandma Helene truly have her own purpose in the narrative.
Catherine: “There is the way that grandma and grandpa collectively treat Katherine, and then the way she treats Ellie, and the fact that Ellie would see when she's in her mum's body. You can see the way both mums treat their daughters.”
Aside from that, the relationship between the grandparents in the show is also quite interesting.
James: “We have a lot of fun. A lot of our moments together are filled with laughter, there's quite a back and forth as well, which is really enjoyable. They're a lively couple.”
I also like Catherine’s comment about the couple - “I don't think they're elderly, I think they're still quite sprightly in their brains,” she said with a smile.
In addition, some of the characters carried over from the original story have been reimagined. Max explained that although the role he plays - Adam - is adapted from Jake in the film and still serves as the boy Ellie has a crush on, he differs from the original in many notable ways. On top of that, even the characters whose core personalities remain unchanged are now given more room to reveal different sides of themselves. Max shared that Fletcher, the younger brother, has a much bigger presence in the musical than in the movie, adding that they often find themselves sharing the stage together.
Sam Ho, Beth Savil and Jena Pandya in rehearsals for Freaky Friday Musical. Photo by Mark Senior
I’m always very curious about the rehearsal process of every show, so my next question for them was what they enjoyed the most about this process.
Rebecca: “I think it's just it's really nice to create something from scratch, and to be in a room and play and be silly and find those characters rather than coming in and taking over from someone that you know you have certain things to hit for.”
Max: “We have a lot of creative freedom, to be creating these characters and putting our own spin on it. And it's so great to be able to come in with ideas about a character. Especially for me, the character Adam doesn't exist in the film, the romantic interests existed, but it’ is not too similar to that character Jake played by Chad Michael Murray, and I kind of get to come in and create that from the ground up. It's so much fun. The music is also so great to work on. And it's so I'm so excited for people to hear these songs.”
Catherine: “It’s about the way the way Andy directs as well. He described it to be a bit like a funnel, so it starts where we can all do almost whatever we got. And then he pinpoints and it gets more specific. And I really like that because we all have the ability at the beginning to play with our characters and see what works and what doesn't work.”
James: “He keeps telling us, we must trust the process.”
Because this is a very new production, there are always many changes during rehearsals.
Rebecca: “Something will be set and then we'll work it and make notes on it, and if that's not working we will change that. So things are changing all the time and they'll change in the technical rehearsals we will get into as well. Every change just makes everything better. Every time it tweaks, moves, everything just levels up.”
Jena: “Yeah, Alexzandra, our choreographer, would choreograph the whole thing - and it looks amazing - and she would look at it and just goes, ‘No, I don't want that to happen.’ And she just changes it. She tweaks it all the time. It's really cool to watch her paint her vision on all of us.”
Before wrapping up our conversation, I asked a few of them about their favorite scenes or songs in the musical.
Max said that Bring My Baby Home - a number he hadn’t paid much attention to when he first heard it - really shines during the show. As for Rebecca and Jena, they both singled out the scene where the two characters swap places and step into each other’s lives as their favorite moment.
Rebecca: “It's huge. And you're just exploring each other. It's like ‘whoa, whoa, how is this happening?’ And that's a really funny scene, and it's really fun to do. It's exhausting. I'm sweating at the end of it.”
Jena: “It's so heightened and it's the moment that I feel the most zoned into. And it's just funny to react to each other.”
Interestingly, Andy’s favourite scene is when they swap back to being themselves.
Andy: “At the beginning of the show, we see them being very antagonistic, mother and daughter fighting like cats and dogs. At the end of the show, there's a reunion that they have safely made it through the other side. And when that happens, it's so heartwarming that it gets me every single time.”
In addition, although I don’t yet know how this moment will be presented on stage, the cast mentioned another significant scene in the musical - one that marks a major departure from the film. The rock band competition that the daughter originally hoped to enter has been transformed into a scavenger hunt.
It’s rare to see such a substantial change in a musical adaptation of a film, and it makes me even more curious about what the final production will look like. Even though it now differs quite a bit from the movie, it sounds just as exciting, with the potential to be deeply moving. In James’s words: “It makes you laugh, it makes you cry. It's a beautiful piece of musical theater.” But for now, this is all they can reveal to us. The rest is something we’ll have to experience in the theater ourselves.
Freaky Friday runs at HOME Manchester from 27th November 2025 until 10th January 2026. Find out more and book tickets here.
