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[0:01] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: I think when people hear Freaky Friday the musical, they think, oh, this is going to be a children's musical. Like they automatically tag the word junior on it. Sure. And the reality is, is that it's really for everybody. I find it's really hard these days to find something that is family friendly without it being geared towards children. Freaky Friday was is that musical. I think we've all at one point or another after we've grown up, have realized just how little our parents actually knew and that we're all just flying by the seat of our pants.

[0:49] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Welcome, everybody, to A Musical Theatre Podcast where we discuss the cultural and emotional impact of some of our favorite musicals in theater history. My name is Jeffrey Scott Parsons. You can call me Jeff. Today, we are discussing the musical Freaky Friday. A listener request from a few of you, including Michael, who said he's been nervous about an upcoming audition for it. Break legs, Michael. So sweet. And Oliver, who said, quote, The show is so fun with some memorable music. And of course, there's plenty of folks from different generations with memories of the movie versions. I would love to tune in to an episode for it. Unquote. Thank you to everyone who wrote in. And I hope you're ready because I'm so excited about our guest.

Emma Hunton has spent some time being wicked. She's been next to normal. She's found herself in a lot of good trouble on Freeform. She also just so happened to originate the role of Ellie in Freaky Friday. Immortalized on a terrific cast recording. Everyone, please welcome to the podcast the amazing Emma Hunton.

[1:54] Emma Hunton: Yeah. Hello.

[1:58] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Emma, thank you for being here. I need to dig right in because there's so much I don't know.

[2:03] Emma Hunton: Yeah. No, let's do it.

[2:05] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: OK, I'm not totally sure about the chronology of your career. So when Freaky Friday comes around, are you already working professionally? Has next to normal already happened? When did you meet the show?

[2:16] Emma Hunton: Next to normal has already happened. Wicked's already happened.

[2:20] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: For real? OK, so then take us back.

[2:22] Emma Hunton: Yeah. So I was already living in L.A. I moved back to L.A. after I had ended the tour out in L.A. And my family's out here. So I was like, it's probably a good time to just like settle in Los Angeles.

[2:35] Emma Hunton: The first national tour of Wicked.

[2:37] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: OK. Oh, wow.

[2:39] Emma Hunton: Yeah. So I got a phone call from my agent. Christopher Ashley was the director of Freaky Friday. Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey wrote it, who I've worked with before on Next to Normal. And they were going into final callbacks for Freaky Friday. And she was like, they asked if you were interested, would you be willing to fly out and audition? And I was like, all right, but I got to fly myself out and I got to put myself up. So I'm only going out there if this is like a 50 percent at least like sure thing. And she was like, I think it's like a 70 percent sure thing. So I was like, all right. So I packed my stuff up. I went to New York for like 24 hours, auditioned. And by the time I flew home, I knew that I had the job.

And at this point, it was just a two week workshop that we were doing in New York. And it had been floating around for a couple of years. It had a different couple of writers sort of with the music and books. So by the time I was involved, Tom and Brian and Bridget were already like knee deep in rewrites and building the show that we know and love now.

[3:38] Emma Hunton: So I did a two week workshop with Ana Gasteyer playing Catherine.

[3:43] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Holy cow.

[3:44] Emma Hunton: I know that was really wild.

[3:46] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: I hope she didn't ruin things for you.

[3:49] Emma Hunton: She wasn't. She was on her best behavior then.

[3:52] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That's good to know. So, yeah. So then and then after that, you know, because we were doing a quick little GoPro tour, Ana rightfully did not want to go on tour. She had her kids were younger than. Yeah. And so when she backed out, Heidi then stepped in and the show became what we know it to be today.

[4:12] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: OK, OK. Thank you for the catch up, first of all. So when did you first work with Christopher Ashley? But which, by the way, for everybody who doesn't know, Tony Award winner, iconic director of Come From Away, longtime artistic director at La Jolla Playhouse. Anyway, Christopher Ashley, we love. So.

[4:29] Emma Hunton: Yeah. So my first show with Chris Ashley was a show called Chasing the Song. It didn't go anywhere, but they were doing a workshop of it in La Jolla. And someone there, their lead actress, had backed out because of the family emergency. So much like most of my career, I was in New York at my friend's house and I got a phone call from La Jolla Playhouse. And they were like, can you be out here in 24 hours?

[4:54] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Why are you always on the wrong coast, Emma?

[4:57] Emma Hunton: Always on the wrong coast. I can't figure it out.

[5:00] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: You better be getting points on some sort of credit card for these flights.

[5:04] Emma Hunton: I have so many flyer miles, which is great. That's why I can fly at the drop of a hat. So they asked me to come out to La Jolla, and that was my first time working with Chris Ashley. And it was such a wonderful experience. And La Jolla is, I always say there's something in the water there because the way that they treat their cast and their crew. And you'd be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn't return to La Jolla Playhouse just to do even a bit part. Because they just are so wonderful there. So I'm a teaching artist there, and I can say that even on the educational side of things, they treat you like a million bucks. They really do.

[5:39] Emma Hunton: We have a little retreat tomorrow, and there's going to be a sound bath to try and help teach self-care for the teaching.

[5:46] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: How sweet is that?

[5:48] Emma Hunton: That's so lovely. It's a great organization. Well, they're one of the few people that recognize that this is your job. And it's not just something you're doing for fun. And they pay you and treat you as if you're surviving off of this. And I think that's just, you know, everyone should model their process after La Jolla Playhouse. Because anytime they call, I say yes. And Chris had asked me after that, you know, I had a great working relationship with Chris. And he brought me in a couple more times in some readings and workshops at La Jolla. And so by the time Freaky Friday came around, he was like, you know who acts like an adult but looks like a child?

[6:28] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: So how old were you at this point?

[6:32] Emma Hunton: This was 2014. So I think I was like 24, 25. Not super, super old, but definitely older than Ellie.

[6:43] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: OK.

[6:44] Emma Hunton: Yeah.

[6:45] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Cool.

[6:46] Emma Hunton: Yeah, I just finished Wicked. I was 23. So yeah, that makes sense.

[6:49] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That's young to be doing Wicked on tour, man. Good for you.

[6:52] Emma Hunton: Yeah.

[6:55] Emma Hunton: That's a lot. I think I'm still to this day the youngest Elphaba to have been in an English production of Wicked, which is wild.

[7:04] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Wild.

[7:05] Emma Hunton: I'm like, that's got to go in like a Guinness book somewhere. Put it on the Wikipedia, everybody.

[7:11] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That was hard. Let's talk about Freaky Friday then just in general as an IP. First of all, I'm so glad that this was turned into a musical. In its DNA is musical theater. People might not know. Freaky Friday started out as a novel in 1972 written by none other than Miss Mary Rogers, who we all love because she wrote Once Upon a Mattress, first of all. Already a musical icon as a composer there. But if that wasn't enough, she's actually the daughter of Richard Rodgers. So Rodgers and Hammerstein. There are not many musical theater dynasties. In general, this art form works like mentor to student. Hammerstein teaching Sondheim, Sondheim teaching Lin-Manuel Miranda. That's more of how things get passed down. It isn't really father to child. And yet within the art form, there is one dynasty, and it's the Rodgers dynasty. Richard Rodgers to Mary Rogers to then her son, Adam Gettle, who wrote Light in the Piazza. That is kind of our, you know.

[8:17] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: It's our royal family.

[8:19] Emma Hunton: It's our royal family musical theater 100%.

[8:22] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: But as I was prepping for this episode, I was like, you know what? I've seen all of the films. Just kidding. I don't want to lie. I haven't seen the Shelley Long one.

[8:31] Emma Hunton: I have.

[8:32] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: With Gabby Hoffman. Have you?

[8:34] Emma Hunton: Yes, of course. Gabby Hoffman, another young person who acts like an adult.

[8:38] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That started my love for Combat Boots.

[8:41] Emma Hunton: I mean, that's a milestone.

[8:43] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: I know. It was a very important moment in my life.

[8:46] Emma Hunton: That's fantastic. I've seen most of the films, but I had never read the original book. I had never read this novel. So I went to the library, and I checked out 1972 Freaky Friday. It starts just like the musical. You're not going to believe this. You know, that whole little monologue from the lead character. Who in the book is named Annabelle? Annabelle Andrews. I'm sitting there reading it, and it's not a children's book, but it's like a first kid's novel.

[9:18] Emma Hunton: Yeah. First stab at that. In fact, as I got through the book, I kept seeing little doodles from kids who had checked it out of the library. There was a heart around some boy's name. It was actually very cute.

[9:34] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Oh, my God. That's so cute.

[9:36] Emma Hunton: Isn't that so sweet? But as I'm reading it, I'm expecting, okay, this is all from Annabelle's point of view. At some point, we're going to switch to mom, because they've switched bodies, right? So we can find out what's happening in the other. It never happens. It doesn't happen. In the original book, it doesn't happen. It's all from the daughter's point of view. And it's not until maybe the last fourth of the book that she even realizes that her mom is in her body. She just kind of was walking around assuming that mom had disappeared, and she was living in both bodies at the same time.

[10:11] Emma Hunton: Yeah. It's actually a really beautiful story when you read it in that context, because you see this girl seeing herself from the outside, that kind of self-awareness that happens when you grow up, as well as seeing the world through someone else's eyes. So the empathy, it's a lovely little symbolic moment of growing up for this one person. The other thing that popped out to me, and this is bringing back to Once Upon a Mattress, Annabelle and Winifred really let you know what kind of a person Mary Rogers was growing up.

[10:46] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: 100%.

[10:48] Emma Hunton: I mean, you can imagine her growing up in this, once again, royal family. And if you know anything about the Rogers and the Hammersteins, I mean, they were New York elite. I'm sure that Dorothy Rogers had every curl in place and every speck of dust off of the carpet, and here comes Mary Rogers feeling like Princess Winifred. I swam the moat! And not really feeling like the perfect woman that her mother was. And she spent so much of those early years of her career kind of exploring, who is this girl? Who is this girl who doesn't feel like quite a woman yet? And what is the process of figuring that out? It's a really cool corner that she explored there in the 1970s.

[11:39] Emma Hunton: Well, and I think about all of the films and literature that we wouldn't have if Freaky Friday didn't exist. There would be no 13 going on 30. There would be no 17 again. She really created this sort of vehicle. It's almost a genre.

[11:53] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yeah, that exists because of Freaky Friday that I just don't think anyone else would have tapped into because she was brilliant.

[12:01] Emma Hunton: Absolutely brilliant. And funny. And I believe, I don't want to misspeak, but I do believe that Bridget and Tom and Brian had sent her a draft of the script and she had given her stamp of approval.

[12:15] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Oh, how sweet. I'd love to hear that. I feel like someone told me she came to a reading one time before I was involved in it.

[12:22] Emma Hunton: I do know that it was on her radar at the very least and that she had given her stamp of approval, which is very exciting because you always want to get the originator's approval before you sort of take over their story. Their IP. Yeah. Their story. I know. That was so corporate of me to be like IP. No, I almost said IP. But they own it, right? It's like their intellectual property. It came out of them. You were talking about how we wouldn't have any of these things. And I always, I think maybe wrongly assumed that she was, and this is going to sound horrible, just a composer, because she is listed on Once Upon a Mattress as the composer. But when you read Freaky Friday, you realize, oh my gosh, so much of this humor, so much of the character, so much of the voice really is from Mary Rogers. She was a smart, smart cookie.

[13:17] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Oh, for sure. Yeah. Take no prisoners smart. So then 1976, just four years later, she writes the screenplay for the first Disney film. I'd like to be you for a day.

[13:32] Emma Hunton: Which I love. I still watch the OG Freaky Friday, Jodie Foster. I love Jodie Foster. Barbara, was it Barbara Harris?

[13:38] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Barbara Harris, who once again, musical theater royalty. She was in the Apple Tree, which we'll probably never get to cover on the podcast, but such a funny, funny actor and a great-

[13:50] Emma Hunton: Oh, yeah. And then the movie with Gabby Hoffman and Shelley Long. I remember Disney Channel back then would play a lot of different kinds of movies and not just their original movies. There was a time in the 90s. I'm old. That's how I saw Hello, Dolly! with Barbara Streisand. I recorded it off the Disney Channel on a VHS. First time I saw Hocus Pocus.

[14:13] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Nope. There you go.

[14:15] Emma Hunton: They would play those movies a lot. And I remember always, always sitting down to watch that and The Parent Trap. Those were my movies growing up.

[14:25] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Are we talking Lohan, Parent Trap?

[14:27] Emma Hunton: No. We're talking-

[14:29] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Okay. Hayley Mills. Let's get together. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[14:31] Emma Hunton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don't you and I combine? So I grew up watching all of those movies. So when this audition came around, I was very sure to not revisit any of it. I didn't want any of it influencing anything that I was bringing to the table because it was already intimidating enough to be a part of that canon. And I understood the responsibility of it. So I was like, well, I'm not going to go in there. And all those performances are so different that I was like, I'm just going to go in and do my own thing. And I'm not going to- even the winks and nods to every previous sort of thing, I'm definitely going to go in there and try to remember to forget all of that and just bring my own thing to the table. And it thankfully worked in my favor.

[15:21] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Because each one is its own thing. The characters always have different names in every iteration, including the musical version. I remember, I didn't, like I said, I didn't see the Shelley Long version, but I do very much remember the Lohan Jamie Lee Curtis version. I mean, I feel like that was a big moment for Jamie Lee Curtis coming back in.

[15:45] Emma Hunton: It really was. As like a mainstream and not just like a horror actress in the Halloween canon, but like she really sort of jump started her mainstream sort of secular career. And I love Jamie Lee Curtis. I'll watch her in anything.

[16:01] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: So lots of movies, lots of different takes. But of course, coming back to this structure, maybe that's what it is. It's kind of a structure that Mary Rogers gave us of seeing life literally through someone else's eyes. Disney Theatricals has a history of long gestational periods for some of these projects. I think particularly because there is a lot of pressure bringing some of these stories to the stage. They want to do it right. I mean, we covered Hunchback earlier this year. That started in the late 90s right after Lion King and it didn't premiere.

[16:34] Emma Hunton: God, I love that show.

[16:37] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: It's so good. It's just so good. Oh, so great. Michael Arden was fantastic. And that was at La Jolla either right before or right after Freaky Friday?

[16:47] Emma Hunton: Right before.

[16:47] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Right before because I saw it. They offered us tickets when I was doing Wicked in San Diego. So I had to like go sob my face off during Hunchback and then go do Wicked at night. I was like, this is torture. This is absolute torture. I couldn't get the green to stick. I do not have the emotional stamina for this. None of my makeup would stay.

[17:09] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Amazing. So they do take quite a while to get these things going. Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey, of course, we all know Tony Award winners, Pulitzer Prize winners for Next to Normal. That's when they really get thrust on the scene, even though they have projects both together and apart. After that, they tackle Bring It On, which, I mean, kind of slaps, right? We can look back now on Bring It On and be like, this actually is pretty awesome. That was one of the most joyous days in the theater I think I'd ever had. I just left with the biggest smile on my face after watching that show. It was so adorable.

[17:47] Emma Hunton: Tom Kitt is such a good melodist. I mean, even looking, I have the list of Freaky Friday songs up here and just seeing a title, I can already tell you what the melody is. I got this. Oh, what you got? Yeah. What you got? Oh, biology. He's so good with melodies. And you know what? Heidi Blick and staff and I would always say he really knows how to write for women. It is very rare that you find a male composer who writes so well for women. And that's also Brian Yorkey as well with lyrics. I just think usually when you find male composers, they will write something in their key and then they'll just be like, well, just sing it up the octave. You're like, that's not how this works, actually. Thank you for the note.

And then you've got women singing F sharps. It's not feasible for an eight-week show, but Tom really takes the time to write melodies that are great in women's voices, but also that are great for their minds. It's never simple, but it's catchy. And he's just the nicest person on the planet. So there's this, you want to do right by him. So I could sing Tom Kitt's praises forever. He's just one of the greatest people in this industry and just really knows how to serve the piece for a woman. I just love the way he writes for women.

[19:18] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That's incredible. Thank you for sharing that. I also think he's somewhat of a secret weapon that a lot of people don't know about because he's such a good musical director and orchestrator.

[19:28] Emma Hunton: Oh my God.

[19:28] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: He's often behind the scenes, even when you don't know it's...

[19:31] Emma Hunton: An arranger.

[19:32] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yeah, like the American Idiot. He did all of those arrangements.

[19:36] Emma Hunton: I was just going to say, American Idiot.

[19:38] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Shari Renee's show, that clip of Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolfe and Shari Renee doing up the ladder to the roof. He did all of those. He did that arrangement. That's Tom Kitt. He's brilliant. I don't know how his mind works because he's also just like the happiest guy ever. You're just like, how do you find time to do all of this and be not miserable? Everybody wants to work with you. How do you find time? And his family is wonderful.

[20:10] Emma Hunton: I hadn't considered that. The more people like working with you, you either have to be really good at saying no, or you just better really enjoy working.

[20:17] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yeah, we're really good at balancing your time, your personal time and your work time. And I think his brain works so fast that he probably doesn't spend as much time as it would take us to probably do something like that. I think he thinks in music.

[20:38] Emma Hunton: Yeah, so I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that Tom took an entire 30 minutes to write the best song we've ever heard in our lives.

[20:47] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: So Brian Yorkey, talk to us about him because he seems like a pretty soulful guy.

[20:51] Emma Hunton: Brian Yorkey is the sweetest. I mean, I remember when we were doing Next to Normal, we opened out in LA around Thanksgiving.

[21:00] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: And this was the tour, right?

[21:01] Emma Hunton: The tour, yeah. And he invited the whole cast over to his family's house for Thanksgiving dinner. He's that guy. And he is so sweet. A lot of writers are not receptive to how things feel when you say them. And lyrically, if you want to change something, he's very open and very amenable to those changes. But he's so good at what he does the first time that those are so rare, those moments. So one of my favorite lyrics in Freaky Friday, but that I have gotten to sing anywhere is, and a girl can be a good girl without ever being weak. Which is just such a, I feel like especially in these times. Yeah, I just think that whole song is such a great anthem for women. And I hear a lot of girls sing that at concerts or for auditions. And it just makes me so happy because I do think it's, again, it's like making a statement about how strong women can be without making it corny. And I find him like-

[22:04] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yeah, not an easy feat.

[22:04] Emma Hunton: No, it's not. I mean, even if you look at all of Next to Normal, which is this barely spoken, pretty much all sung through show, and that's hard to do. I mean, we haven't really seen anything like that since Les Mis, which is very different and a very different sound. And he somehow manages to capture all of the anger and heartbreak and sadness of what it means to be a woman or a parent or a child and humor. And he really trusts people to convey that. But it's like, when it's written so smart, it's easy to see where he's going on the page. You know what I mean?

[22:42] Emma Hunton: And same with Bridget Carpenter. Bridget Carpenter is the coolest chick.

[22:45] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Well, let's go to Bridget. I had to research her career a little bit more because she's not as well known in the musical theater realm.

[22:49] Emma Hunton: No, but she's huge in the TV and film world.

[22:54] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: TV world, Friday Night Lights, anyone, Parenthood, anyone. She understands how to write personal dynamics.

[23:00] Emma Hunton: Yes, yes. And she's this boisterous, loud, funny woman who, and because she wasn't super experienced in the theater world, she was like, tell me how this goes. I'm open to everything. That's so cool.

[23:18] Emma Hunton: She was so cool. And I remember there was a day when we were in Shirlington that the opening monologue just wasn't working in our previews. And she had fixed little bits and pieces every day. And I remember at the top of rehearsal, she came up to me. She's like, so it's just not working. And I think it's a me problem. And what I have to do is I have to scrap what we have and start over from scratch. And anyone who knows that show knows that that opening monologue is like a page and a half of talking. And it's timed to music. And it needs to be specific. And it basically just tells the entire plot of the story that you're about to watch upfront.

[23:59] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yeah, and it's very important.

[24:01] Emma Hunton: And so she was like, I know this is a lot, but do you think that you can learn all of this and do it on stage by tonight? And of course, I see this page and a half of monologue. And I was like, okay, all right. And I was like, I will do this tonight if I have permission that if I go off and I start going to the white room, that I have permission to bail myself out any way possible. If that means reverting to the old monologue or whatever. She's like, oh, absolutely. She's like, do whatever you have to do to get through it. I'm pleased that you'll even try. And that's just who Bridget is. She'll give you so much spaghetti to throw at the wall, but she won't get mad if you don't get to throw all of it at the same time. That's right.

[24:45] Emma Hunton: And I yeah, and I remember she was very like open to talking about we have this beautiful scene in the fountain where everybody strips down to their underwear and talks about loving their bodies. And I was so game to do that and I think she was so happy that I was like, oh, yeah, of course we have to take our clothes off. You know what I mean? Like there was no question about it. Like it just was something it was an important we knew a lot of kids would be coming to see this show and we knew that it was important an important message to tell them to love their bodies because this is as good as it's ever going to be. This is good. Like this is if you can't love yourself now, you are never going to love yourself later.

And so that whole team was Sergio Trujillo who was our choreographer just like of course amazing, amazing attitudes and personalities across the board and because it was such the material was fun and silly. We just we had a great time. It was we had so much fun building that show and then taking it out on tour like they and they set us up for that because of the way that they were in the rooms and usually you're intimidated by those people and you know they certainly don't want to go out for margaritas with you after rehearsal. But Bridget was kind of like, all right, where are we getting chips and salsa and margaritas? And she was like she was just fun and I I wish that she would do more theater because she you wouldn't know that she had never written a script for a musical before.

I've often thought that Freaky Friday is probably the best written musical to never be on Broadway. Yeah, especially the score. I think the score is just like so solid. So it's interesting the road that you guys had once it was constructed. You said you started out in Arlington right at the Signature set. We did we started Signature and then went to La Jolla.

[26:37] Emma Hunton: So that was the second production. Then where did you go after that because it's like a tour but not really a tour. It was like not. Yeah, so we did when we did it in Virginia. We were there for like two or three months building everything and then and then we went to La Jolla and relaunched it with a new cast and Heidi and I stayed and and pretty much everybody else was new and then we did that for a month and then we had two or three months off and then we went to Cleveland and then we did that for a month and then we had two or three months off and then we went to Texas. So like before, you know every city we would have a rehearsal again because it'd be like, all right. How's the show go? What do we do get out all the kinks? And by the time we got to Houston it was like I know this I know I've had a couple months off but I know what I'm doing. I know this show and then and then it was over right when you get comfortable.

[27:30] Emma Hunton: Well, did you guys ever feel like there was a hoped or expected road to Broadway or did it feel like this was this was because once again this was after Hunchback. Hunchback obviously did like the regional circuit at some of the bigger houses and then didn't go to New York. So it almost felt like this was maybe going in the same direction. I think you always hope anytime you're doing in your production you always hope that that is the end goal and I think all of us really wanted that to be the end goal like production team as well. I know Disney came and saw it a couple of times they were really big fans of the show and I think I know that Disney as a whole doesn't like to have more than like three shows on Broadway at a time and so and Aladdin just opened I think Aladdin had been open in there and they have Lion King.

And so it was basically like is it going to be Freaky Friday or Frozen? It was obviously always going to be Frozen. So, um, I'm grateful that we did get a tour at all because it could have just you know started and died in Shirlington if they knew they weren't going to take it. So I'm glad that we did get more time with it but um, I think it made more sense to them to license that IP out to high schools and colleges or whatever for them to do the show community theaters than it would have for them to have done the same with Frozen and then flip-flopped it with Freaky Friday. I think it would have been there would have been an outcry of public anger if Frozen had not gone to Broadway in favor of Freaky Friday. They'd be like, okay, but like I just don't think people would have given it the chance that it deserved.

[29:10] Emma Hunton: So and it's a I mean, it's a huge commercial decision, right? Yeah. Yeah. They clearly believed in Freaky Friday. They you know turned it into the Disney Channel movie came like 15 times, you know, like they loved the show and um, and our rep from Disney Theatrical Gene Abramson was just like a huge part of our Arlington push and she was there for like all of the rehearsals and opening and closing and so they we really felt like we had their support on it and then there was talk for a minute of like does Freaky Friday go to a Broadway house for like the summer? Like like how we had seen them do with like Hair when Hair did the Summer of Love we were like is there going to be something like but at a certain point then Disney would have a monopoly on Broadway and and it's and I see that there are already plenty of people who roll their eyes at Disney and are like, uh, you know the commercialism you gotta you gotta pick and choose to have four shows, you know open on Broadway when there are only so many houses.

I think you know, I I understand and support their decision but of course my sorry little heart that just loves Freaky Friday so much and I think I know I'm biased but I do think that anybody who knows that show would agree. It's just such a great show and it's just bad timing. It was just bad timing for Broadway and you have a great cast recording to show for it. And I think that it's incredibly popular. I directed like a local production of it and had a great time and and I've seen I just recently saw another local production. I know that this show gets done all the time. It's the one I get asked about the most.

[31:00] Emma Hunton: Is it really? It is the one I get asked about the most. I have not been able to see one but anytime any theater company reaches out to me and asks me to make a video for their cast I always do it just because it was such a beautiful time in my life and I know that those casts tend to be on the younger side and and if this is somebody's like realization that this is what they want to do for the rest of their life, you know, I just I I love to be a part of that in any way that I can so any theater company is listening to me right now and you are doing a production of Freaky Friday. I'm happy to send you a video for overnight. No cameo needed no cameo needed I'll do that one for free.

[31:31] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: I love it. I love it. Well with our time left I want to talk through the show a little bit because I would love any memories or perspectives or context that you can share with us about some of these characters and and songs if nothing else like you said the show begins with this huge monologue that's timed to the comma.

[31:50] Emma Hunton: Yeah, um, but I love this character Ellie. I think that the show almost feels like her journal in the same way that the original Freaky Friday book feels like a journal where she is, you know sharing this insane experience that happened to her and then I love and this happens later on but when her mom in her body is at school and finds her journal like her diary in her locker it's just this tiny little moment, but it makes me realize yes, I I think Ellie is a writer. I think that she has a lot going on on the inside that needs to be expressed in a creative way and uh, and so this monologue feels like an extension and introduction into that person.

[32:40] Emma Hunton: Absolutely, I mean and and then when you have like an acting sparring duo like Heidi Blickenstaff who it would like we really had to look to each other. Like how would the other person do this? Because we were playing each other's character.

[32:57] Emma Hunton: And that's gotta be confusing like how did you talk about that in rehearsal? Are you referring to the other character as you at some point, you know, or are you always talking about the other one? She spends more time as Ellie than I do in this show and I spend more time as Katherine than she does so when I say that I mean like we were she was basing her adult Katherine off of who I play the whole show and I was basing my Ellie off of how she plays it the whole show.

[33:29] Emma Hunton: Wow, so kind of working backwards a little bit. Yeah, and so and and like when I say that Heidi Blickenstaff is a dream like she is a dream of a dream of a dream of a human being gosh dang it I love her a lot and I've never met her too. I mean like she taught me how to be a leader and like how she she I'll never forget this is like trigger warning, but the when we did Freaky Friday in Arlington was the first time our current president got elected. Wow, but um, but it was very it was a very no one thought that that was how the evening was going to go. We had a 10 a.m. student matinee the next day and everybody that was like we were all up to like 2 a.m. watching these results come in and Shirlington Virginia is so close to Washington DC that like you can see DC from if you just stand on the tallest building in Shirlington, you can see DC across the bridge.

And so it felt really close to home. There was like a cast of a lot of young people in that show and and everybody was just devastated and Heidi called a meeting with everybody and just like told everyone like not to give up hope that there was a student audience out there that we have to go out there and convince that this is not the end of the world and that especially you know now that we have someone in the highest seat you can have in our country who was openly talking about women's bodies and what he thought of them that this is not what we believe in. This is not how people walk around thinking and like no one made her do that. She wanted to do that. She's just a wonderful, wonderful human being and just I I can't wait for her to get a Tony because she deserves every good thing that happens to her.

[35:24] Emma Hunton: When is it gonna happen? I can't I don't know but I know the heart is opening off Broadway and I cannot wait to see her in that.

[35:30] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yes, speaking of crossing my fingers for a transfer that cast that they've announced for off the heart is insane wild wild so excited.

[35:39] Emma Hunton: Yeah, but working with her was incredible. There was this off like I've never had this happen before and I've never had it happen since but when Heidi and I sing together like if you listen to our voices alone, they do not sound anything alike when we sing together and we hit the same note like I'm not myself today. There was this thing that would happen like the best thing I can sort of equate it to is like in the Harry Potter movies when Voldemort and Harry are like shoot their wands at the same time and it like meets in the middle and it does this like weird like friction thing where like we couldn't tell the difference between whose voice is whose.

[36:22] Emma Hunton: Wow, it was like it became this like one voice and it was like this the coolest like little party trick and we would we would look forward to singing that song every day because we'd be like you thought this show was cool wait, wait until this we're gonna do something really cool right now and it was like and we would never know whose voice was who and like sometimes it would make one of us pitchy like because we'd be like wait, where am I?

[36:48] Emma Hunton: Yeah and we really had to learn how to do this thing that had like never happened to either of us before and it was like so interesting and like the perfect show for something like that to happen in like it was just like so lucky but like it's actually kind of meta in a weird way of like

[37:07] Emma Hunton: Not knowing who's who. It really, really was. And it was just unreal. And I've never had it happen since. And it never happened before that. I don't know. I'll be happy if it never happens again, because I love that I have this weird, like, little bond with Heidi. The first time it happened, we were like, that was weird. Did you hear that? That was really... It's like when you kiss someone and you feel fireworks. You're like, did you feel that? That was weird. I kind of liked it. Where's the hourglass? Protect the hourglass. This is weird. First of all, thank you for sharing this. This is so fun. I love this kind of symbiosis, but also the idea that you can't create your character without knowing what your co-star is going to do with your character.

This kind of collaboration of who is this person because ultimately, you, the person who's too old to play the character is going to be playing the character longer than I am. That's so interesting and incredibly important here in the opening number, because it's really what these eight minutes are the only time that the audience gets to see everybody in their correct bodies.

[38:13] Emma Hunton: It's true. We truly had each other's backs. We knew each other's show inside and out that we could tell when the other person was getting sick. There are two shows where one where she did it for me and one where I did it for her where we were not feeling our best. There had been a sickness going around the cast. If you were in that audience, you probably did not know that both of us were singing offstage for each other. There's one moment at the end of No More Fear where she started singing with me offstage because she could tell that my voice was going out and I did it for her. I want to say after all of this and everything, where I started helping her out and nobody knew because we knew each other's show.

We knew when one was off. We knew when one wasn't feeling good. We moved as one unit. I've never had anything like that happen before. I will probably never have it happen again, but we were just so locked in with the other's performance that it became easy. I mean, the more we knew each other offstage, the easier it was to pick up the baton where the other one left it onstage. And because we didn't have a lot of scenes together, we were able to really sit and watch what the other one was doing when we were offstage. It was a master class just watching her work.

[39:38] Emma Hunton: This opening going into the body swap, there's the initial freak out, right? There's the initial freak out that these two have swapped bodies, but then the kind of the karmic problem that has led to this swap in the first place is the fact that one person thinks the other person has it super easy. So almost immediately, they're pivoting into, all right, so I have to pretend to be like you. Oh, big whoop, right? No big deal. I got this. Can you tell me just a little bit about Catherine? People sometimes talk about her like she's a Martha Stewart. Is that how you saw her?

[40:13] Emma Hunton: I always saw Catherine as someone who was just pretending to have everything. Yeah, it was just someone who was trying her best to keep it all together and wanted to be perceived that way. But she's a grieving widow. And she's got kids who are now the most difficult, I would say, ages of their lives. And she's found love with Mike, and she's ready to move on. And I think the people in my life that were considered wild children are now some of the most put together people that I've ever known in my life. I wouldn't have been surprised if Catherine had a tattoo. You know what I mean? I think there's a lot more of Catherine and Ellie than Ellie realizes. And I tried to play it as if like, you think I haven't experienced these things?

I have. I'm just a grown-up now. And those things are boring to me. Being wild and being difficult is boring to me. Because you do get to that point, you're like, I like calm, I like stability. And that's kind of where I was in my life at that point. I've been working in this industry professionally since I was nine years old. So I've had to grow up early in a lot of ways. But my college experience was Spring Awakening, you know what I mean? So it was- What an education.

[41:35] Emma Hunton: What an education. But that was the equivalent to what my college experience would be. So I was, by 24, 25, I was ready. I mean, I was planning a wedding at that time. I was sort of very much following, unintentionally, Catherine's footsteps in the show. I still had a little bit of Ellie in me because I remember I like, I dyed my hair pink. And I didn't ask for permission. I just asked for forgiveness. I was like, yeah, I just thought it would be like, cool. Oh, shoot. And like, also decided my head is shaped. Okay. And thankfully, Chris Ashley was like, he was like, Yeah, no, I actually agree. I think that's really cool. And I was like, okay, cool. Because I just did it in the off time. Because I did it. Because I did it because it's already done. He was like, as long as you can upkeep it yourself, I don't. He's like, we're not paying us at work to do it. So if you can do it yourself, that's fine. I was like, great. Cool. Sounds good.

[42:31] Emma Hunton: Oh, my gosh. That's quite a bit of Ellie there. Yeah. So I do. I feel like I was at that perfect age where I still had like a little bit. I had both of them sort of in me. But it was very important to me that Catherine didn't come across as like a shrew.

[42:49] Emma Hunton: Yeah. Like, I feel like- Exactly right. You know, and I think and we get to see that so much in the fountain scene, where she understands the importance of being young. She just doesn't want her kids to grow up. And I think every parent can relate to that. I think, you know, every parent sort of holds on a little too tight for a little too long, because you're like, wait, no, you were just born. I don't want you to become an adult, making your own decisions and doing your own things. Things are moving too fast.

[43:15] Emma Hunton: Things are moving too fast. I blinked and I turned around and you're 16 years old. And when did that happen? And also, I lost my husband. I am getting ready to marry someone else. That's a complex feeling, no matter how much you love the new guy, right? And then your kids are all growing up on top of it and exploring this grief in their own way. One with puppets. Poor little poor little guy. My God, I love that character so much. Can we talk about, okay, I'm jumping all over the place.

[43:47] Unknown speaker: That's fine.

[43:48] Emma Hunton: We have little bro, can't remember his name. I can't remember.

[43:52] Unknown speaker: Oh my God, Fletcher.

[43:53] Emma Hunton: Fletcher, thank you. We have Fletcher with his puppets. And then Ellie at high school has this boy crush. And I feel like in every Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey show, there is this, I don't want to say it like it's a bad thing, but there is a boy, a male teenager character who is somehow wise and weird at the same time. And there's one in Bring It On, you got Henry in Next to Normal. And then in Freaky Friday, you got this kid who sings Women in Sandwiches.

[44:31] Emma Hunton: Which I would always eat the sandwich after that song was over. I'd wait for them to bring it off stage and I'd be like, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. So good. It was so good. But it's something that you were talking about how well they write for women. They also find really weird, interesting boys, which I think in a Mary Rogers way may give us an insight into who they always felt like they were. Unconventional male leads, which are fantastic. Not problematic men, which is great. We also had Jason Gotay, whose voice is like butter, literal butter, butter on toast. And he brought so much heart to Adam and brought- Adam, Adam. How could I forget Adam's name? He humanized him in a way because on paper, it's very easy to just make Adam this dumb, goofy boy that doesn't really know what's going on.

And if you don't have someone like Jason or Chris Ramirez who played him on the tour, you have someone who you're like, do you even like Ellie? Or are you just like, oh, cool, man. I'm here for the plot. And I think Jason in particular was just so great about humanizing him and making him just like a dreamboat. He's great with kids, which makes every girl's heart melt. And then he sounds like that when he sings. You're like, I don't even care that he's comparing women to food.

[46:01] Emma Hunton: This metaphor makes no sense, but what a sweetheart. Call me a Subway sandwich. I don't care. So you got Catherine who's experiencing literal hormones, you know, not for the, like, for the first time, the second time. This show makes my brain spin sometimes. It breaks my brain.

[46:25] Emma Hunton: That's kind of a reintroduction to her of like, how much Ellie's going through, right? I love, I love O'Biology, such a great song. And then on the flip side, you got Ellie experiencing her mom's life, seeing how many balls she really is truly juggling and keeping in the air at all times. It's extraordinary. The first time they meet back up is at this parent-teacher conference. It's a song which I think about a lot called Somebody Has to Take the Blame. There's so much truth in it, because there is something really satisfying, especially in personal relationships of, I need this person to accept full responsibility and alleviate me of any wrongdoing in order for us to move forward, which is impossible. Like that's just not how things work, right?

[47:22] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[47:23] Emma Hunton: And to see it play out in a principal's office is so fun and so specific.

[47:29] Emma Hunton: Well, I feel like it's also the dream scenario, right? When you're in a situation like that, all you want to hear from the other person is how they've done wrong. And when you're in that person's body, you can call them out for all the things that you don't appreciate or don't like. The passive aggression.

[47:44] Emma Hunton: Yeah, without having to point fingers at someone. So it's just, I think it's such a funny device. I remember that scene and that song being rewritten a lot, until we got it right. Because it was always like, how far is too far? How mean can we get while it's still funny? And it was always just so funny to me because I was like, I think that's the dream for every child and parent to be able to say exactly the issues that they have without any repercussions.

[48:18] Unknown speaker: Yeah. And having the principal there being like, these people are just owning up to all of their faults. And now they're starting to get weird. And now they're getting oddly specific. I don't know if you are fit to be a parent.

[48:34] Emma Hunton: That's amazing. No moment of the show is wasted, which I think is really hard to do in theater. There's not a bathroom moment. And I think that's why it's one of my favorite shows. I just think it's pretty damn near close to perfect as you can get for a modern musical.

[48:51] Emma Hunton: You think about even that thin line that parents lie is able to walk.

[48:57] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[48:57] Emma Hunton: Right? This is a song that Ellie in Catherine's body is singing to her little brother about how devastated she is by her father's passing and how in many ways she feels betrayed by everyone saying that everything's going to be fine when it's not. It doesn't feel like it's going to be okay. It's devastating, but also beautiful and entertaining and funny. Like you said, it's kind of hitting all of the things.

[49:26] Emma Hunton: All of the checkboxes. It's checking them all off.

[49:30] Emma Hunton: I think when people hear Freaky Friday the musical, they think, oh, this is gonna be a children's musical. Like, they automatically tag the word junior on it. Sure. And, and the reality is, is that it's really for everybody. I find it's really hard these days to find something that is family friendly without it being geared towards children. Freaky Friday was is that musical. I think we've all, at one point or another, after we've grown up, have realized just how little our parents actually knew. And that we're all just flying by the seat of our pants.

[50:05] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Completely agree. There are two other moments that I want to get your thoughts on.

[50:10] Emma Hunton: Yeah.

[50:11] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: So because of Parents Lie, little Fletch decides to leave home at the end of the first act. He wants to run away. And of course, that is a freakout moment for everyone. Excuse me, everyone involved. Ellie, because she feels and knows that it's her fault for what she said to him. And also, Catherine, who's stuck in a teenager body and can't, you know, talk to the police in the same way that an adult would, without it seeming like odd, with a capital O.

[50:41] Emma Hunton: Exactly. Thanks to Adam, little Fletcher is able to come back home. And there's this song, which is, sorry, everybody, a perfect song. Like, there's no other way to say it. But after all of this and everything.

[50:56] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: After all this and everything was that song, as long as I had been a part of the show, that song was the same from beginning to end.

[51:05] Emma Hunton: It feels like one of the pillars of the show. And the way Heidi sings it is just like, I mean, I remember when we were blocking it, because it was a big question mark during the readings. It was like, what do you do during a song like this? And she just sat on the chair, and she put Fletcher on her lap. And she was like, this is what we're gonna do. And like, she's like, it doesn't have to be anything, you know, bigger than that. And they think there's something beautiful and like the chaos of this show to have this wonderful still moment. Like, who wouldn't want the Heidi Blickenstaff to sing them to sleep on a chair? Hello?

[51:44] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Every night.

[51:45] Emma Hunton: That would be fantastic. And it's also like the turning point where we see Ellie realize that like, maybe she's been kind of a dick. And like, and maybe, you know, she should have a little bit that she should have more grace for her mom and her brother who clearly loves her. And yeah, and I think it's the first time we really see Ellie grow up that she and she's been fighting that the whole show. Because I think really, at the end of the day, what it comes down to is like, Ellie doesn't want to grow up Ellie doesn't want responsibility, but she wants to be treated like an adult. And so this is the first time that we see her being like putting the context clues together being like, oh, I have to act like an adult if I want to get treated like one. Oh, and I and it changes her trajectory for the rest of the show.

[52:32] Emma Hunton: That kind of grace that she discovers is ultimately what she's complaining about in Parents Lie. Right? Oh, maybe they're not lies. Maybe it's a maybe it's hope. Yeah. If you let hope die. What's the point? Right? What's the point of being the alternative to that is to be negative and horrible and, and not give anybody and alone and that's and I think she realizes that's what she's been doing. Like she's she's actually the epitome of what she's singing about in Parents Lie. And I think that it's it's really like a come to Jesus moment for Ellie, which is like, and Heidi just played it so beautifully that I don't know that I would have come to that conclusion without watching her do it.

[53:10] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Fair enough. The other thing that I want to bring up is this whole so there's this subplot about basically a scavenger hunt. That's this big teenager thing tradition. And Adams in charge of the hunt. And it's one of the ways that they're able to find this item that is essential for for helping them switch back their bodies. Anyway, during the hunt, there's this song called Go. And it's maybe my favorite lyric in the entire show. Isn't this like busy, very high energy, almost choreographed section of them going through with the scavenger hunt and finding all these things the fountain, of course, that you mentioned before, but then there's this lyric, it says, it's not the finding, but the searching, what you find, you'll never see not the being but becoming once you are, you'll never be not the winning, but the wishing wishes end when you have one, not the ending, but beginning. And we've only just begun.

[54:22] Emma Hunton: Ah, it's like Sondheim. You guys, it feels into the woods almost.

[54:30] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That's a good point. Sorry, go ahead.

[54:35] Emma Hunton: No, I just I remember the day that we heard that song for the first time, and everybody was crying, like, and it was like, this is not a crying moment. This is like, but it just felt like, but it's emotional. It is. And it makes you and also the hook is so good that it's like the first time, like the feeling you get when you hear an artist that you end up falling in love with for the first time, you're like, Oh, my God, how have I never heard this before? This is so good. It's like, a simple melody that no one has tapped into before. And how lucky are we that we get to find it for the first time? And I just I'll never forget hearing that song the first time and hearing Jason sing it. And like Heidi and I just looked at each other like this is cool.

[55:10] Emma Hunton: And once again, to have this like, total weirdo be the fountain of this wisdom, right?

[55:15] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Yeah.

[55:16] Emma Hunton: If you're ever thinking like, why are we having a scavenger hunt in the middle of Freaky Friday? Like, it's because this is ultimately the purpose of the show. It's about seeking, it's about searching, it's about finding, right? We can't stop that. We can't stop using the curiosity and empathy to understand each other and come together and figure this whole thing out together. Or else we're islands. But the truth is, we've only just begun. Like everything is just a gateway into something new.

[55:47] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Well, and life is a lot more boring when you don't explore.

[55:51] Emma Hunton: Oh, amen.

[55:53] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: You know, and I think, I remember thinking at the time, I was like, damn, these kids' parents, trust them. Because I don't know that my mom let me go on a scavenger hunt alone at that age. But then I think back to, you know, my mom let me move to New York on my own at 16, which is like a whole different kind of scavenger hunt in and of itself.

[56:12] Emma Hunton: That's a great point. You were singing about some pretty intense things. You know? So yeah, that song is arguably, I think that's probably my favorite song in the whole show. Yeah, it was. And it was fun every night. I remember no one was ever anxious about that fountain scene because it was done so tastefully, but also because it was in the middle of our favorite song. I remember the whole show, we'd be like, oh, no, no, no. And then we're like, okay, let's do go. Like, it was always like a resurgence of energy sort of towards the end of the night. And then the whole show was like a slow pullback of a slingshot. And then when that song started, like we were just like racing to the finish line. It's so fun.

[56:59] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Well, speaking of shot getting us all the way to the end, our two leads, of course, switch back and not a moment too soon. It's in the middle of a wedding, no less. But I think what we end with or actually, let me pose it to you besides, you know, a new appreciation for seven layer bars. What do we end up with, with this show? I mean, we end up with an appreciation for each other, we see, we literally see each other through different eyes. And I think, you know, for Ellie, it's also coming to terms with like, Mike doesn't have to be your favorite person, but he is going to be in your life. And if he treats your mom well, and your mom loves him, then, you know, that's all you can ask for. He cares about you, he cares about your mom, he cares about Fletcher.

And I think for Catherine, it's, you know, understanding that she has been a little hard on her kid. And there's always things that we hide, your kids will hide from you. And I think in terms of the things that Ellie's hidden from Catherine, it could be a lot worse.

[58:06] Emma Hunton: You know, and I think I went through this, at least with my mom, too, where she was, you know, I would get grounded for things that I didn't do. And I think, you know, it took my mom talking to other parents to be like, well, my kid's actually one of the good ones. Like this is doing just fine. She's doing just fine. I gotta lay off her a little bit there. I remember the end of the show would always be extremely emotional. Because and it wasn't anything that needed to be forced. It was just there just lived there because it was, there's an appreciation for your own body getting to like, I remember when I played Catherine in Ellie's Body, everything was always very, like, stand up straight. And like, as I've been this whole show, I'm very relaxed.

I'm very hunched over. I'm very like, chill. And Catherine is not. So for me, at least it was definitely like an appreciation of like, oh my god, I'm back in my own body again. There was a return to self that would happen that I'm sure Heidi experienced as well where it's like, and then at that point, we're just like three minutes out from the end. So it's, you know, you get to start and finish the show as as yourself, which was, you know, always a joy.

[59:10] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That's amazing. How fun. It's a great show. I'm grateful we've done an episode on it, because I think it's legit musical theater writing that deserves to be celebrated. And I'm so grateful that you were willing to chat about it today. Because oh my gosh, me too. Thank you so much. This is I mean, to this day, one of my favorite shows that I've ever done. So anytime anyone wants to talk about like, yeah, let's talk about Freaky Friday.

[59:36] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: As always, if you have recommendations for shows you'd like us to cover on a musical theater podcast, you can always email me at amusicalpodcast@gmail.com. Please join us over. So weird. Why did I say like that? Please join us over at Patreon exclamation point. I'd love to have you over there. You get bonus episodes. You get essays, you get contests. It's so much fun patreon.com slash amusicalpodcast. Please join us. It's only a few dollars a month. We're also on social media. So please share that content on Instagram and TikTok. So we can make sure that as many people as possible can find our episodes. If you're feeling particularly generous, go to our TeePublic store and check out our designs there. If you order something, the profits we receive will be donated to Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS.

[1:00:21] Emma Hunton: More than anything. So happy you're here. So happy to be creating these episodes. You know, I love it. Hey, Emma, before you take off, thank you again. And can you please share with us how we follow you and anything coming up that you'd like to plug?

[1:00:35] Emma Hunton: Sure. Right now I am doing Les Mis at Five Star Theatricals, the Kavli Theater and Thousand Oaks. So if you live in California, come hang out to a big old, beautiful theater, man.

[1:00:48] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: That's where I made my theater debut. So it's a little bit like coming home.

[1:00:52] Emma Hunton: Yeah. And the crazy, crazy small world, the production of Freaky Friday that I directed was at the share forum.

[1:00:58] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Oh, I love that. I love that so much.

[1:01:05] Emma Hunton: Okay, sorry, I interrupted you. So no, you're fine. And then online on Instagram, I'm Emma Hunton. And on TikTok, I'm real Emma Hunton. Because apparently there's another one.

[1:01:14] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Because she's what? She's real.

[1:01:20] Emma Hunton: Yeah. And that's how you can follow me online.

[1:01:20] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Incredible. Emma, thank you again. Thank you so much for doing this. Everyone out there. Thank you for listening. And remember, after all of this and everything, we're gonna be okay.

[1:01:32] Emma Hunton: We're gonna be okay.