Blickenstaff in San Diego’s ‘Freaky Friday’: just a road trip away

I was on vacation last week and shared this news on Facebook, but I want to alert Fresno-area fans of Heidi Blickenstaff in case they missed it: The Broadway star (and proud Good Company Players alum) is definitely reprising her starring role in the musical “Freaky Friday,” which opens Jan. 31 at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse. This offers a rare West Coast opportunity to see Blickenstaff on the professional stage.

Road trip to San Diego, anyone?

Blickenstaff, who returned to Fresno in early December for a holiday concert with the Fresno Philharmonic, in November finished up the world premiere run of “Freaky Friday” at Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C.

When I talked to her in late November, she was almost certain she and co-star Emma Hunton would be reprising their mother-daughter roles in San Diego, but the contracts hadn’t been signed.

“We’re this close,” she told me.

When the Disney-financed show opened in Washington, the entertainment giant was saying that Broadway is not in the musical’s future, according to the Washington Post:

The entertainment giant says that Broadway is not in the musical’s future. Post-Signature, “Freaky Friday” has already been “widely licensed” for regional productions around the country.

The licensing route was also supposed to be the trajectory for “Newsies,” the only other live-action Disney movie to be turned into a stage musical. But after its positive reception at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse in 2011, that strategy was put off, and “Newsies” went right to Broadway, where it ran for 29 months and 1,004 performances.

Blickenstaff can’t offer any insights into the show’s ultimate future, but she told me she’s excited to continue on the second phase of the adventure.

“It’s a great project, and the parts that Emma and I get to play, it’s like a gymnasium for an actor. Playing an overworked mom in her 40s and then switching to a moody teenager with a chip on my shoulder I think I underestimated what a huge acting challenge this was.”

More good news for Blickenstaff fans: She just finished up recording the original cast album. UPDATE: Instead of January, the release date is now March 10. (Thanks, Heidi, for letting me know!)

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Blickenstaff in San Diego’s ‘Freaky Friday’: just a road trip away."