Porchlight Music Theatre announces the cast and creative team for the Chicago premiere of Disney’s Freaky Friday, A New Musical, April 10 – May 24, 2020 at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street. The musical comedy about a mother and her daughter who switch identities stars Cory Goodrich as “Katherine,” the mother, and Maya Lou Hlava as Katherine’s daughter “Ellie.” Tammy Mader directs, with music direction by Linda Madonia and choreography by Shanna VanDerwerker. Featuring music by Tom Kitt, lyrics by Brian Yorkey and books by Bridget Carpenter, Freaky Friday, A New Musical is based on the novel “Freaky Friday” by Mary Rodgers and the Disney films.
Previews are Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 12 at 2 p.m. and Monday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Opening Night is Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. The regular run performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m. Saturdays at 3:30 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are Thursday matinees April 23 and May 14 at 1:30 p.m. There is no Thursday evening performance May 14. Tickets are $39 - $66 and are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or by calling the Porchlight Music Theatre box office, 773.777.9884.
Freaky Friday, A New Musical is based on the hit book and beloved films, and from the combined talents who created Once Upon a Mattress, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Next to Normal, American Idiot, High Fidelity, If/Then and Bring it On. This is the modern story of an overworked mother and her teenage daughter who magically swap bodies and, with hilarious results, have only one day to put things right again before Mom’s big wedding. Featuring a fresh, fun and high-energy musical score, this new Disney musical is a heartfelt, comedic and unexpectedly emotional take on an American classic for the young and young at heart.
The cast of Porchlight Music Theatre’s Freaky Friday, A New Musical includes: Maya Lou Hlava (Ellie), Cory Goodrich, (Katherine), Christopher Wayland (Mike), Ethan Warren (Adam), Ian Michael Pinski (Fletcher), Joe Scott (Fletcher), Ty Schirmer (Parker, Ensemble, US Adam), Derek Fawcett (M1: Grandpa George, Mr. Blumen, Señor O’Brien), Ziare Paul-Emile (Savannah, Teen Ensemble), Erin Parker, AEA (W1: Grandma Helene, Mrs. Luckenbill, Mrs. Time, US Katherine), MacKay Whalen (Gretchen, Teen Ensemble, Us Ellie), Myrrh Gobenciong (Wells, Teen Ensemble), Jenna Schoppe (Torrey, Ensemble / Dance Captain), Jared D. M. Grant (M2: Pastor Bruno, Dr. Ehrin, Officer Kowalski, US Mike), Nina Jayashankar (Hannah, Teen Ensemble, US Savannah), Jayla Williams-Craig (W2: Ms. Meyers, Journalist, Officer Sitz, US Torrey), Natalie Wiley (Laurel, Teen Ensemble / US Gretchen, Hannah), Jonathan Warner (Louis (Photographer), Teen Ensemble, US Parker, Wells) Shane Roberie (male swing) and Catherine Reyes McNamara (female swing).
Porchlight’s Freaky Friday, A New Musical’s production team includes: Tammy Mader (director), Linda Madonia (music director/conductor), Shanna VanDerwerker (choreographer), Rueben Echoles (costume designer), Denise Karcewski (lighting designer), Kristen Martino (set designer), Robert Hornbostel (sound designer), Matthew Chase (sound design assistant), Jackie Robinson (production stage manager), Mary Zanger (assistant stage manager) Audrey Kleine (assistant stage manager), Sean Michael Mohler (assistant stage manager), Austin Kopsa (ASM swing), Bri Wolfe (child supervisor/ASM swing), Jamie Davis (audio engineer), Samantha Treible (wardrobe supervisor), Rachel West (master electrician), Catherine Allen (production manager) and Bek Lambrecht (technical director).
ABOUT TAMMY MADER, director
Tammy Mader is a proud member of SDC, the union of professional Stage Directors and Choreographers. Her credits include this summer’s The Spitfire Grill at American Blues Theatre and previously Bye Bye Birdie, Hairspray (Jeff Nomination) and Buddy; The Buddy Holly Story at Drury Lane Theatre; My One And Only (Jeff Nomination) at Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre; Buddy; The Buddy Holly Story and The Full Monty (assistant director/choreographer) at Water Tower Place. Mader is also a full-time faculty member in the theatre department at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.
ABOUT LINDA MADONIA, music director
Linda Madonia has been musical directing in the Chicago area for more than 25 years. At Porchlight, Madonia has been music director on numerous mainstage and Porchlight Revisits productions including the most recent production of A Chorus Line. Other credits include Cabaret and Man of LaMancha for Light Opera Works; Forbidden Broadway: SVU at The Royal George Theater; Grand Hotel and Nunsensations at Drury Lane Water Tower Place and A Chorus Line, She Loves Me and Me and My Girl at Theater at the Center. For the past seven years, Madonia has been the musical director for Chicago’s Equity and non-union Joseph Jefferson Awards. Madonia owns American Eagle Productions, a touring theater that, for twenty years, has presented 300 shows a year in Chicago area schools.
ABOUT SHANNA VANDERWERKER, choreographer
Shanna VanDerwerker is an inaugural recipient of The Rachel Rockwell Memorial Fund supporting fierce women behind the table at Porchlight Music Theatre. VanDerwerker choreographed Sunset Boulevard for Porchlight as well as Porchlight Revisits Can-Can. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Point Park University and is a Chicago-area choreographer and educator. Locally, she has been the associate choreographer of Pippin at Venus Cabaret Theater as well as Beauty and the Beast and Joseph at Drury Lane Oakbrook. VanDerWerker received a Jeff Nomination for her choreography on Lysistrata Jones for Refuge Theater Project. Other choreography credits include: My Fair Lady, Newsies, 42nd St, South Pacific, Beauty and the Beast and Singin’ In The Rain at The Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, WI. VanDerwerker was Christopher Gattelli’s associate for over 10 years, working on Broadway’s Amazing Grace, High Fidelity, and Silence! The Musical at the NY Fringe Festival. In the summer of 2018 she set his Tony-winning Broadway choreography of Newsies at NewArts in Newtown, CT. Performing credits: Beauty and the Beast at Drury Lane, “Lady in Green” in Singin’ In the Rain at the Fireside Theatre, swing in the Broadway company of Wicked, dance captain of the 1st National Tour of Wicked, company member of dre.dance with directors Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs and several other shows at The Fireside.
ABOUT CORY GOODRICH, “Katherine”
Cory Goodrich is making her Porchlight Music Theatre debut in Freaky Friday, A New Musical. Goodrich is a Jeff Award-winning actress for her roles as “Mother” in Ragtime (Drury Lane Oakbrook) and as “June Carter Cash” in Ring of Fire, (Mercury Theater Chicago). A five-time Jeff nominee, Goodrich is also a writer, artist and mother of two, a children’s composer with her two award-winning CDs, “Hush” and “Wiggly Toes,” and singer/songwriter with two albums: “W.O.M.A.N” and “Wildwood Flower” and producer of six volumes of “Season of Carols, Holiday Music to Benefit Season of Concern.”
ABOUT MAYA LOU HLAVA, “Ellie”
Maya Lou Hlava makes her Porchlight Music Theatre debut in this production. Hlava’s Chicago credits include The Killing Game and The Nether (A Red Orchid Theatre); Zurich (Steep Theatre); Oklahoma (Marriott Theatre); Violet (Griffin Theater); Trevor (Writers Theatre); White Christmas and Bye Bye Birdie (Drury Lane Theater); Jake's Women (Spartan Theatre Company); The Secret Garden (Court Theatre); The Talking Cure (Idle Muse Theatre Company); Jane Eyre (Lifeline Theatre) and The Wheel (Steppenwolf Theatre). Her television credits include “Chicago Med” and “The Chi.”
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE AS RUTH PAGE ARTIST IN-RESIDENCE
Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to be a member of the vibrant Ruth Page Center for the Arts community and an Artist In-Residence. Central to the Ruth Page Center for the Arts’ programming is the Artists In-Residence program, which is designed to serve organizations looking for a home base while they grow or expand their artistic and organizational capabilities. The Center is committed to nurturing and assisting dance and other performing artists, allowing for exchange and collaborative relationships to develop within the artistic community. The Ruth Page Center for the Arts is a destination for quality performing arts, accessible to a wide community regardless of race, gender, age, education or disability. An incubator of artistic energy and excellence, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts carries forward the vision of its founder, legendary dance icon Ruth Page, to be a platform for developing great artists and connecting them with audiences and community.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
As the home for music theatre in Chicago now in its 25th season, Porchlight Music Theatre is nationally recognized for reimagining classic productions, developing new works and showcasing musical theatre’s noted Chicago veterans and rising stars. Porchlight elevates the genre by providing intimate and powerful theatrical experiences of music theatre through the lens of the “Chicago Style.” The 2017–2018 year marked a milestone for Porchlight as the company became an Artist In-Residence at the historic Ruth Page Center for the Arts in Chicago’s Gold Coast. Porchlight’s rich history includes the staging of more than 70 productions with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Through Porchlight’s “Off the Porch” new works program, the musicals of the next generation are developed and given a first audience. The School at Porchlight is Chicago’s center for music theatre training in the areas of performance, writing and appreciation including the launch of a youth summer “Make Your Own Musical” Camp in 2017. The company’s many accolades include 30 Black Theatre Alliance nominations and 12 awards, as well as a total of 167 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations resulting in 42 Jeff Awards including five consecutive Best Production awards for The Scottsboro Boys (2017), Dreamgirls (2016), Sondheim on Sondheim (2015), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (2014) and A Class Act (2013).
Porchlight Music Theatre announces the cast and creative team for the Chicago premiere of Disney’s Freaky Friday, A New Musical, April 10 – May 24, 2020 at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street. The comedy about a mother and her daughter who switch identities stars Cory Goodrich as “Katherine,” the mother, and Maya Lou Hlava as Katherine’s daughter “Ellie.” Tammy Mader directs, with music direction by Linda Madonia and choreography by Shanna Vanderwerker. Featuring music by Tom Kitt, lyrics by Brian Yorkey and books by Bridget Carpenter, Freaky Friday, A New Musical is based on the novel “Freaky Friday” by Mary Rodgers and the Disney films.
Previews are Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 12 at 2 p.m. and Monday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Opening Night is Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. The regular run performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m. Saturdays at 3:30 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are Thursday matinees April 23 and May 14 at 1:30 p.m. There is no Thursday evening performance May 14. Tickets are $39 - $66 and are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or by calling the Porchlight Music Theatre box office, 773.777.9884.
Porchlight Music Theatre’s 25th anniversary subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. Discounted subscriptions are available for the mainstage productions (Sunset Boulevard, Sophisticated Ladies and Disney’s Freaky Friday). Single tickets are on sale for special events including The Ruffians’ Burning Bluebeard and the New Faces Sing Broadway series (NOW and 1987).
The 2019 – 2020 25th Anniversary Season is dedicated to the memory of long-time Board Member George K. “Kim” Sargent.
The Bayless Family Foundation is a 2019 – 2020 25th Anniversary Season Sponsor.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, Actors’ Equity Foundation, Allstate, Bayless Family Foundation, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, Chapman | Spingola, Attorneys at Law, the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Elegant Event Lighting, Elevate Energy, James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation, Hearty Boys, Hopsmith, A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at the Prince Foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation, The Saints, Dr. Scholl Foundation, the Stuart Family Foundation, the Topfer Family Foundation and Walton Street Kitchen. The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Porchlight Music Theatre
Disney’s Freaky Friday, A New Musical
Based on the Novel “Freaky Friday” by Mary Rodgers and the Disney films
Music by Tom Kitt
Lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Book by Bridget Carpenter
Directed by Tammy Mader
Choreographed by Shanna Vanderwerker
Music Directed by Linda Madonia
April 10 – May. 24
The Ruth Page Center for the Arts
1016 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago
Previews: Friday April 10 and Saturday April 11 at 8 p.m.; Sunday April 12 at 2 p.m. and Monday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Opening Night is Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.
The regular run performance schedule is Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m. Saturdays at 3:30 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Added Thursday matinees: April 23 and May 14 at 1:30 p.m. *
Open Caption Performance: Saturdays, May 2 and May 16 at 3:30 p.m.
Ticket Price: $39 – 66
Website: PorchlightMusicTheatre.org
*There is no evening performance Thursday, May 14