Walter McBrideBrian Yorkey and Tom Kitt in New York in 2014. Several months before Mary Rodgers’ death in mid-2014, Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, who were busy turning her 1972 young-adult comic novel, “Freaky Friday,” into a musical, had the opportunity to play the first few songs for her in her Manhattan apartment. It was cause for no small amount of anxiety for Yorkey and Kitt.