It’s a common refrain for a lot of teens when they argue with their parents: “You just don’t understand what my life is like.”

Of course, parents can turn that back on their kids: “What do you know about having to go to work, paying the bills, and trying to raise you?”

Hollywood has weighed in on that theme with a string of “Freaky Friday” movies and TV specials, dating back to 1976, in which a teenage girl and her mother, often at odds with one another, magically switch bodies, giving both a real sense of what it’s like to be the other.

The most recent film version, in 2003, starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, was a box office and critical hit, spurring another take on the story: a “Freaky Friday” musical, which is now set to run at Northampton High School March 14-17.

“I think there’s something pretty timeless about this story,” said Dave Grout, director of the NHS production and the school’s theater teacher. “Teens and parents have been dealing with these issues for years … it makes for a lot of good storytelling, for humor, for understanding and reconciliation.”

Some of the details in the story — the “Freaky Friday” films and the musical are based in part on a 1972 Young Adult novel by the late Mary Rogers — have changed over the years, Grout notes. The 2003 film, for instance, was fueled by a late 1990s rock/punk soundtrack, “and in this version everyone has a cell phone.”

The story “is revamped for modern times,” he added. “But at its heart it’s a story about misunderstanding and then becoming more aware of what someone else is going through.”

And the NHS musical is also very much about community — both in the high school and the town as a whole.

Over 60 students are part of the cast and chorus/ensemble for “Freaky Friday,” and a number of teachers and other professionals are contributing to the show, alongside volunteers who help with some aspects such as set building and bake sales.

The musical is also largely funded by the community, through an effort headed by the Northampton Musical Booster Club, a nonprofit group formed a few years ago to lead fundraising efforts and generate publicity about the annual NHS show.

“Our mission is not just to raise money for specific productions, but to promote arts in the schools and help people realize how important this is for students and the community as a whole,” said Mary Yun, treasurer of the Booster Club.

She notes that her daughter Lili Sanford, a senior who’s in “Freaky Friday,” was thrilled as a young girl to see her principal babysitter up on stage in a previous NHS show.

“There’s not enough money in the school budget to put on a musical, and it takes so much energy and time and commitment,” added Yun, an architect and the director and president of CLICK Workspace in downtown Northampton.

The Booster Club’s job, said Yun — a previous Northampton parent-led group did some of this same work — is “to handle things like fundraising, publicity, and administrative work so that the people who are producing the musical can concentrate on the show.”

Funds come from individual donations, sponsorship by local businesses, ticket sales, selling ads in the musical’s playbill, and food and merchandise sales. Yun says expenses for “Freaky Friday” are about $35,000, which among other things includes stipends for a choreographer, a costume designer, and some other positions, such as some professional musicians to complement the student orchestra.

The licensing fee to perform the musical is $6,000 alone, she noted, and there’s also the expense of bringing in food for cast and crew during the long rehearsals that have become common in recent weeks.

For an all-day rehearsal scheduled on Saturday, March 9, “We’re feeding over 100 people,” Yun said with a laugh.

NHS principal William Werhli, who came to the school about 18 months ago, says it’s not uncommon these days for schools to struggle with funding extra-curricular activities like arts performances and sports. Outside groups have become more important for making up the differences, he notes.

But these school programs remain vital for engaging a lot of students, Werhli noted. He jokes that one of his children worked as a “techie” on the theater crew at Amherst Regional High School in the past “and it was one thing that got him out of bed in the morning.”

‘A lot of physicality’

Grout says he’s been impressed with the energy and interest students have brought to “Freaky Friday” rehearsals, which have been going on since early January, with the schedule growing ever busier.

“Everyone has been really great about putting in their time, and with a lot of enthusiasm,” he said.

It’s a challenging production, with about 20 songs that will performed by individual cast members and the chorus. The music was written by Tom Kitt, an acclaimed composer, conductor and orchestrator who has worked on Broadway and off-Broadway productions for years. The “Freaky Friday” musical was first performed in 2016.

Grout notes that it’s a particular challenge for the production’s two lead actors, Clementine Mulcahy and Eden Kates, who play the mother and daughter (Katherine Blake and Ellie Blake), respectively, at the start of the play and then must embody the other character after they’re magically switched.

“There’s a lot of physicality involved — it’s not easy,” he said, noting that the magical moment when the two characters make their transition is handled in part through special lighting effects.

There’s another wrinkle to the NHS show. Both Grout and the show’s music director, Susan Dillard, are pretty new to the school: They started teaching at NHS in fall 2022, following the retirement of two longstanding employees, music teacher Beau Flahive and theater teacher Stephen Eldredge, who had overseen many previous student musicals.

But they also came to the school with stage experience. Grout previously directed six shows with Amherst Community Theater, and Dillard was once a member of The Northamptones, the a cappella group at NHS; now she directs the ensemble.

The first show they did together, last year’s “Rock of Ages,” was a sellout or near sellout at all its performances, Yun says. In addition, enough money was raised for the production to let the Booster Club buy some additional lighting for the show that they had previously rented; that supplemental lighting has now been gifted to the school.

“It lets us do that much more when we have those kinds of tools to work with,” said Grout.

And Yun says she’s happy to think of other student groups being able to use that lighting for their performances.

“That whole idea of producing something for the community and then giving back to the community is what makes all this work seem worthwhile,” she said.

“Freaky Friday” takes place at Northampton High School on March 14-16 at 7 p.m. and on March 16-17 at 1 p.m. Tickets range from $5 to $15 and can be purchased in advance at nhsmusical.com.

Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@ gazettenet.com.