Reviewed by Cate Prestidge
Riverlea Theatre’s Christmas production of Disney’s Freaky Friday is a hugely entertaining showcase of talent.
It’s so good I’m going to break
with the standard convention of a final recommendation and say upfront that the show is a terrific night out and absolutely worth popping on your pre-Christmas calendar.
The story follows a day in the life of busy mum and wedding planner Katherine Blake and her teenage daughter Ellie.
The pair are not seeing eye to eye about much, complicated by Ellie’s continuing grief at the loss of her dad, and the stress of Katherine’s own upcoming wedding.
The plot, based on Mary Rodgers’ novel of the same name, is well known from several popular movie adaptations, so it’s not a spoiler to say there is a big argument, a magical intervention and a body swap.
A Friday then gets properly freaky for them both and for all their extended family, and friends.
From the opening song Just One Dayit was obvious we were in safe hands.
The performances and characterisation were polished, with excellent music and singing from leads, and the wider ensemble.
The lead actors, Beth Vickers (Katherine) and Kyra-Mae Wilson (Ellie) were terrific.
It’s the first time I’ve seen Vickers perform and she demonstrated great control and nuance in her performance, creating a lively and likeable character and nailing the teenage angst with comic timing.
Wilson has been steadily growing into bigger roles and while her singing has always been good, I really enjoyed seeing her shine in a lead role.
She took on the more complicated characterisation with confidence, great energy and stagecraft.
Andy Derby has been impressive in everything I’ve seen him in and was a good foil as Katherine’s sincere and baffled fiancé Mike, while Brooke Ottaway also played an excellent “straight guy” role as stressed-out assistant Torrey.
Arnah Currie was great as school meanie Savannah and Alxyz Adove was super cool and confident as the popular “king of the hunt” Adam.
On opening night, Spencer Keelty was sweet as young Fletcher, wielding hand puppets and dropping jokes in an important role that connects the lead characters and themes.
He and Adove also made a treat of the very silly Women and Sandwiches song.
The fine supporting cast took on roles of best friends, school mates and enemies, local residents, teachers and family and were all well developed and focused.
The teenage group’s rendition of Oh, Biology and Busted was great, while Moshe Merz as a teacher and police officer threatened to steal the scene with his physical comedy at every turn.
The creative team are a new and very successful combination.
First-time director Jonathan Hawthorne brings his stage experience and training to the fore in a confident debut.
Leading the live music is Todd Rohan Smith, an accomplished band performer and composer who guided the seven-piece band and two backing singers beautifully.
Choreographer Emelia Hawthorn impressed me with her work in Saturday Night Fever and Young Frankensteinand she has delivered here as well.
Vocal director Dane Moeke’s work with the singers elevated the show, with literally not a duff note all night.
Stage design was effective and unobtrusive, with set changes enhanced by clever multipurpose set pieces, photographs and lighting to support the story.
An experienced production team behind the scenes had everything running smoothly.
Overall, a truly entertaining and fun night out.
Cate Prestidge is a principal academic and co-ordinator of journalism and communication programmes at Wintec. She has been writing theatre reviews for NZME since 2021.
