CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE AND SEATTLE REP TO CO-PRODUCE THE PREMIERE OF NEW MUSICAL FREAK THE MIGHTY
Posted June 24, 2025 in Press Releases
(Cleveland, OH) Cleveland Play House (CPH) presents Freak The Mighty May 22 – June 21 2026, a co-production with Seattle Rep. This new musical with book and lyrics by Anthony Drewe, music by Ryan Fielding Garrett, directed by CPH Artistic Director Michael Barakiva, and choreographed by David Connolly, is based on the beloved novel by Rodman Philbrick. The story follows the adventures of two unlikely friends, Maxwell Kane and Kevin “Freak” Avery. Though Maxwell and Kevin feel like outsiders, together they transform into “Freak The Mighty”, a heroic duo empowered to take on the world. Shepherded by the Tony® Award-winning producers of Come From Away, Freak The Mighty celebrates friendship, resilience, and community in the face of adversity: a soaring new musical that connects to the dreamer in all of us.
Cleveland Play House is privileged to partner with Seattle Rep and Tony® and Olivier® Award-winning production company Junkyard Dog Productions (Randy Adams, Kenny and Marleen Alhadeff, and Sue Frost) to produce Freak The Mighty. Premiering this new work in collaboration celebrates Cleveland Play House’s vision to produce works that are welcoming, diverse, distinctive, bold, thrilling, and essential to the community, bringing a fresh story that is equally heartwarming for audience members of all ages.
Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Michael Barakiva states, “It is an honor to be premiering this moving new musical about friendship and healing, which we all need now more than ever.”
The rest of the Cleveland Play House mainstage season includes Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, directed by Tony® and Obie Award-winning Mary Zimmerman, Donald Steven Olson’s The Christine Jorgensen Show, brought to Cleveland by CPH Artistic Director Michael Barakiva who helmed the Off-Broadway premiere, Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust, and Molière’s Tartuffe (translation by Ranjit Bolt). The season also features two add-on performances, including Cleveland holiday favorite A Christmas Story by Philip Grecian, and a special presentation of Hershey Felder’s Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, starring Hershey Felder as Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Jonathan Silvestri as Tsar Nicholas II.
Cleveland Play House Managing Director Rachel L. Fink says, “Cleveland Play House has been making history for 110 years — and we’re just getting started. This season, Cleveland’s finest artists and artisans, alongside brilliant collaborators from beyond our city, are creating theatre that’s urgent, fearless, and deeply rooted in the spirit of our community — reminding us why live performance matters more than ever."
Cleveland Play House recognizes its season supporters: Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.
To learn more about the invigorating 2025-26 season, please visit clevelandplayhouse.com.
CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
ANTHONY DREWE (Book & Lyrics) has worked professionally as a lyricist and book-writer for over 40 years with composer George Stiles. His most well-known shows are Honk! and the new songs and additional lyrics for both Mary Poppins and Half A Sixpence. Other work with Stiles includes Betty Blue Eyes, Just So, The Wind in the Willows, Travels With My Aunt, Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure, Soho Cinders, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Soapdish. More recent work includes Becoming Nancy and Identical. Independently of Stiles, Drewe has also written lyrics for A Twist Of Fate and The Card. He recently completed the book for a revised version of the Frank Loesser musical, Where’s Charley? as well as a revised book for Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure. In addition to Freak The Mighty, with composer Ryan Fielding Garrett, Anthony has written a new children’s show, The Good Hair Day, which is being developed with the Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis. Directing work includes Snoopy, The Thing About Men, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Honk! and Just So.
RYAN FIELDING GARRETT (Composer) has worked worldwide as a composer, music director, arranger, and orchestrator. As a composer, he has written Freak The Mighty and The Good Hair Day, both with Anthony Drewe. His choral work “Snow” was premiered by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. He also composed Return to the City Overture, which was premiered by the San Antonio Symphony. He has orchestrated for Renée Fleming, the San Francisco Symphony, and the musicals Big Fish (symphonic version), Darling and A Night Like This. As a music director, he has conducted the Broadway productions of Kinky Boots, Wicked, Back to the Future, The Notebook, Mean Girls, and the New York productions of Jasper in Deadland, and The Man in the Ceiling. He has played piano for Hamilton, Wicked, Mary Poppins, Finding Neverland, New York New York, and Sweeney Todd (NY Philharmonic). His regional music direction credits include Becoming Nancy (Alliance Theatre), The Three Little Pigs (NAMT), Kinky Boots (Muny), Next to Normal (Weston Playhouse), Little Miss Scrooge (Rubicon Theatre), Passing Strange, Chess (Playhouse Square/Baldwin Wallace University), and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival). He has also music directed concerts for Elizabeth Stanley and Heidi Blickenstaff. Ryan is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University.
RODMAN PHILBRICK (Author of novel Freak The Mighty) is a Newbery Honor author who grew up on the coast of New England. Rodman has been writing novels since the age of sixteen. Freak the Mighty, Philbrick’s first book for young readers, is considered a classic and was made into a movie, The Mighty. Philbrick’s rip-roaring historical novel about an inveterate teller of tall tales, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, was set during the Civil War, and was chosen as a 2010 Newbery Honor Book. The Kennedy Center commissioned a theatrical production, which premiered in 2012.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP BIOGRAPHIES
MICHAEL BARAKIVA (Artistic Director) is an Armenian-Israeli American director and writer who proudly serves as the 11th Artistic Director of CPH. His work has been seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Syracuse Stage, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and the Hangar Theatre, where he served as Artistic Director. He founded The Upstart Creatures, a theatre company that creates community through performance and food, as well as the Leadership Initiative Project, which equips historically excluded artists with the tools to succeed in leadership positions. Barakiva has received three Drama League directing fellowships, the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship (OSF), the David Merrick Prize in Drama, and was a Granada Artist-in-Residence at UC Davis. He led workshops on musical theatre at the International Puppet Theater in Sofia, Bulgaria, and was a presenter at the International University Theatre Festival at UNAM in Mexico City. He served as producer of Summer Camp 6 (Soho Rep) and as the Readings and Workshops Coordinator at New York Stage and Film, as well as a Primary Coach on Season 2 of MTV’s Made. As a writer, Michael is the recipient of a Red Bull Commission for his adaptation of John Milton's Paradise Lost, an EST/Sloan Project Commission, and a co-author of String Theory (Connotation Press). His YA novels (One Many Guy, Hold My Hand, Keepers of the Stones and Stars, all published by Macmillan) novels have been named to the Rainbow List, Equality Family Council Reading List, The Barnes and Noble’s Perfect Valentine’s Day YA Novels list, spending over a year as Goodreads #1 LGBTQ YA Novel. Education: Vassar College, The Juilliard School. www.michaelbarakiva.com.
RACHEL L. FINK (Managing Director) is thrilled to return home to Northeast Ohio. Her childhood was filled with rich and foundational Cleveland arts experiences, and it was at Heights High that Rachel’s passion for transformative theatre-making, social justice, and inclusive arts participation was ignited. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University, Rachel was introduced to the field of arts administration by a professor who changed the course of her career. That introduction led to an internship at Cleveland Play House and ultimately to an MFA in Theater Management from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Following graduate school, Rachel embarked on a 16-year chapter at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she founded the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, building it into a nationally recognized center for arts learning and engagement. She later served as Managing Director of Theatre Bay Area, supporting over 300 theatres and 2,000 artists, and most recently as Executive Director of the Tony® Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. Producing highlights include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Steadfast Tin Soldier, Her Honor Jane Byrne (locally broadcast on Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ), and Lookingglass Alice, which aired nationally on PBS in 2023. Rachel has been recognized through fellowships with the Aspen Institute, artEquity, the British Council’s Cultural Leadership International Programme, and the University of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy. Having previously served as co-chair of the Professional Association of Chicago Theatres and on the boards of the League of Chicago Theatres and Theatre Bay Area, she currently serves on the boards of the League of Resident Theatres and CreativeOhio, and remains deeply committed to advancing the role of theatre in building more connected, equitable, and human-centered communities.
THEATRE BIOGRAPHIES
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE, founded in 1915 and recipient of the 2015 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is America's first professional regional theatre. Throughout its rich history, CPH has remained dedicated to its mission to inspire, stimulate, and entertain diverse audiences across Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. CPH has produced more than 100 world and/or American premieres, and over its long history more than 12 million people have attended over 1,600 productions. Today, Cleveland Play House celebrates the beginning of its second century of service while performing in three state-of-the art venues at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. Cleveland Play House is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. Cleveland Play House is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. To learn more, visit: www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
SEATTLE REP puts theater at the heart of public life. Founded in 1963 and winner of the 1990 Tony® Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Seattle Rep is currently led by Artistic Director Dámaso Rodríguez and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann. Over a season and throughout the year, Seattle Rep collaborates with extraordinary artists to create productions and programs that reflect and elevate the diverse cultures, perspectives, and life experiences of the Pacific Northwest.
JUNKYARD DOGS PRODUCTIONS is a Tony® and Olivier® Award winning producing company founded by partners Randy Adams, Kenny and Marleen Alhadeff, and Sue Frost in 2006. Junkyard Dog is dedicated to developing and producing new musical theatre. Junkyard Dog’s Broadway shows include the hit musical Come From Away (Olivier®, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk winner Best Musical, Tony® Award for Best Direction, 6 Tony® Award Nominations ), Memphis (4 Tony® Awards including Best Musical, 2 Olivier® Awards, 4 Drama Desk Awards), First Date. Other works: Make Me A Song, The Music of William Finn (Off-Broadway, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Nominations), Vanities (Second Stage), Party Come Here (NAMT). Upcoming shows include 3 Summers of Lincoln (La Jolla Playhouse 2025), The Heart, and Freak the Mighty. By building bridges between regional, national and international networks, Junkyard Dog strives to create new work built on values of creativity, equity, and collaboration.
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