FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LAURIE FREY OPENS THE NEXT CHAPTER OF QUEEN OF THE TRIAL WITHSEPTEMBER 9 LAUNCH OF NEW STORYTELLING PLATFORM
Entertainment veteran, author, producer and speaker expands a remarkable personal journey grounded in faith into a platform for stories, connection and thriving through life’s trials
CLEVELAND, OHIO, September 9, 2026 — Life will put you on trial. How you live through it is your story.
For Laurie Frey, that is more than a tagline. It is the story of her life.
On September 9, Laurie officially launches the new Queen of the Trial website along with a podcast, opening the next chapter of a storytelling platform born from her own extraordinary journey through cancer, a clinical trial, her son’s autism diagnosis, family crises, loss, a second cancer diagnosis and double mastectomies, a massive heart attack, professional reinvention and all the unexpected moments of joy and laughter that happened along the way.
Through all of it, one thing never changed: Laurie’s faith.
Faith did not keep difficult things from happening. It did not make the diagnoses less frightening, the losses less painful or the uncertainty easier to understand. Again and again, her faith gave her the strength to keep moving forward, to find humor in impossible moments and to believe there could still be joy on the other side.
That is why the launch is not simply about what Laurie has survived. It is about what comes next.
Thriving, not just surviving.
QUEEN OF THE TRIAL PODCAST IS BORN
The forthcoming Queen of the Trial podcast invites friends, colleagues and guests to sit down with Laurie for candid conversations about the trials, triumphs and wonderfully unpredictable experiences that make up a life.
Simple stories. Relatable stories.
Stories about what happens when life does not follow the script. It is simply about navigating the trials of life, one story at a time.
The conversations will explore resilience, humor, transformation, careers, relationships, faith, loss and the people and beliefs that help us find our way through difficult chapters.
Some stories will make listeners cry. Others will make them laugh.
Most will probably do both.
The new Queen of the Trial platform brings together Laurie’s work as an author, podcast host, theatrical producer and speaker while creating space for others to tell theirs.
“When that still voice inside said, ‘Tell Your Story,’ I listened,” says Laurie. “Then people began telling me that hearing how I navigated the trials and triumphs in my life gave them hope and made them laugh. I realized their stories did the same for me. And Queen of the Trial Podcast could become something bigger than just my story.”
FROM BROADWAY TO QUEEN OF THE TRIAL
Laurie has spent more than four decades in live entertainment, beginning her career in theatre directing before moving into general management, presenting and producing.
Her credits include general managing tours of David Copperfield worldwide, Donny & Marie in North America and the UK, the Blue Man Group Arena Tour worldwide, Bill Gaither Homecoming and Walking with Dinosaurs, as well as executive producing the Las Vegas residency of Tape Face and the national tour of VeggieTales Live. Most recently, as General Manager for The Phoenix Theatre Company, Laurie helped develop partnerships with commercial producers as the organization opened its new $40 million Stacey J. and Richard J. Stephenson Theatre.
It is a career spent behind the scenes making sure the show goes on.
Along the way, life handed Laurie a very different kind of production.
After being diagnosed with Stage 3 invasive breast cancer and entering a year-long clinical trial, Laurie faced a remarkable succession of challenges. Her young son was diagnosed with autism. Her brother went to war. Her father suffered a heart attack and stroke.
And Laurie did what perhaps only a lifelong theatre producer would do.
She turned it into a musical.
Queen of the Trial: The Musical, written by Broadway playwright Eric Coble and based on Laurie’s life, transforms a clinical trial into a fantasy criminal trial and follows its heroine, Tracy Boyd, through a year that tests virtually everything she believes about herself. Music and lyrics are by award-winning Todd Schroeder and Emmy-nominated, triple-platinum songwriter Kevin Fisher, and the musical was co-created by Michael Barnard.
The production has received more than 100 performances and more than 100 standing ovations across eight markets, with Broadway’s Jenn Colella attached to the project four times. The show has also generated a cast album, merchandise, regional theatre licensing and performances for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb.
Because when you have spent your life in the theatre, there is another lesson you learn:
The show must go on.
Currently the musical is also envisioned for a potential film adaptation.
THE STORY CONTINUES
Queen of the Trial is now growing beyond the stage.
Laurie’s first book is getting a rewrite, Queen of the Trial: The Unbeatable Story, which tells the true story behind the musical and the remarkable year in which five life-altering events unfolded within nine months.
The second book will explore later years when more cancer, the deaths of both parents, upheaval in the entertainment industry during COVID and a massive heart attack of her own came unexpectedly.
In both books, the circumstances changed. The trials changed. Laurie’s faith did not.
LIFE DOESN’T OFFER DRESS REHEARSAL
And Queen of the Trial is ultimately not a story about pretending that difficult things don’t happen. They do. It is about what happens next. It is the transition from Laurie’s story to a community of stories.
It is about laughing when laughter seems impossible. Finding joy in unexpected places. Allowing other people into the difficult chapters. Telling the truth about what happened. And discovering that thriving does not require a perfect life. Because life doesn’t offer a dress rehearsal.
For Laurie, through every diagnosis, every loss, every frightening phone call and every unexpected turn, there has been one constant: faith. Not faith that life would always go according to her plan. Not faith that she would be spared from difficult things. But simply faith in God knowing that she would never face them alone.
And that may be the most important story Laurie has to tell.
ABOUT LAURIE FREY
Laurie Frey is an entertainment executive, producer, author, speaker and creator of Queen of the Trial. During a career spanning more than four decades, she has worked across Broadway, touring entertainment, Las Vegas and regional theatre, with credits including David Copperfield, Donny & Marie, Blue Man Group, Walking With Dinosaurs, Bill Gaither Homecoming, VeggieTales Live and Tape Face. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Mansfield University and a master’s degree in theatre directing from Texas State University. Laurie lives in Cleveland, Ohio, serves as a mentor in the arts and entertainment community and is an active board member for three nonprofit organizations.
Queen of the Trial podcast launches September 9, 2026 on YouTube, Spotify and at www.queenofthetrial.com.
Life will put you on trial. How you live through it is your story. Thriving, not just surviving.
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