The Kids Are Alright! - 13 - Musical Review

13 - Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre - Chester, CT - Previews begin on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Sept. 16th 2008 for an Oct. 5th Opening.
Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, Book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn, Directed by Jeremy Sams, Choreographed by Christopher Gattelli

13 is a new musical about 13 year olds, starring 13 year olds (or around that), singing to a band who are all 13 year old (or around that) and the whole show is performed without a single adult on stage. Think of it as those Saturday morning shows (where adults are rarely in sight) but in musical format. But if you think this is another Disney High School Musical, it is and it isn't. It's closer to the documentary American Teen than any polished Hollywood movie but there is still a very after-school special feel to the show where everyone follows a label (the geek, the gossip, the jock etc) and it's still a very bright, very sunny, and very joyous delight of a show (much like HSM) and while it was conceived before HSM premiered and became the phenomena it is, I'm sure the producers are banking on stealing the same audience that made the Disney TV-movie such a hit.

Let's hope they do discover 13 because while the story itself is a little pedantic and cliched, the music, the energy, the choreography and the bright colour-coded sets are absolutely terrific, at least in the pre-Broadway incarnation I saw at Goodspeed in Connecticut earlier this summer. The cast of youthful hope is stellar, with most of the cast exceeding my expectations and sounding like pure Broadway professionals, except coming out of much smaller bodies. The young band (led by an adult offstage) is seen looking over the stage and plays the rock/pop songs with frenetic joy.

The young band and set of actors are already impressive enough, but even more impressive is the fact that they must perform the musical's music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, one of the newer batches of writers who write intelligent and complex musicals (with complex musical arrangements), and probably one that is stepping into the shoes of Stephen Sondheim (famous for writing the "smart" musicals like some of my faves, Company and Sweeney Todd). Jason Robert Brown usually writes intricate adult musicals including my last years favorite theatrical experience Parade(which is apparently coming to LA's Mark Taper Forum in Fall 2009 direct from the Donmar in London!) (about a framed Jewish man during a murder trial in early 20th Century Georgia) as well as The Last Five Years (about a doomed relationship only played both forwards from the man's point of view, and backwards from the female's). Light is he not known for. So it's fascinating and totally exciting that Jason Robert Brown has challenged himself into writing a new musical about the exuberance of youth and surviving the teen years.

The opening song "Thirteen" sets the tone in an elaborate introduction to the story, the cast of characters and all the teenage emotions and yearnings with some exciting choreography from Christopher Gattelli (South Pacific, Sunday in the Park with George). While I've heard complaints about the song, especially while out of context, I think it's one of the best new musical songs in a LONG time and is a great showcase for the energetic young cast led my Graham Phillips as Evan (at Goodspeed, 2 actors rotated the role and I got Graham Phillips, for Broadway, only Graham Phillips will be performing the role), our protagonist for the evening.

The story is basically about Evan, a Jewish New Yorker who moves to small town Indiana just as he's about to turn 13 years old, and he must make friends fast with the right kids to invite to his big Bar Mitzvah in a very un-Jewish town. He first befriends awkward neighbour Patrice (old soul Allie Trimm) and Archie (a superb Aaron Simon Gross) but they are basically geeks, so when the jock Brett (Eric M. Nelson) and his friends actually accept him, Evan must dump his new found friend in favour of the cool group.

Peppering the rest of the cast are standouts like Elizabeth Egan Gillies as the bitchy Lucy, the big voiced in a tiny body Al Calderon as Eddie, and the high spirited Caitlin Gann as Molly.

I believe 2 members of the Goodspeed cast have been replaced for the Broadway run (although I thought it was going to be Eric M. Nelson who had the weakest voice of the kids but fit the character well with his acting and presence). The show premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in Dec. 2006 but the show has changed drastically apparently since then, with almost all new songs after dropping many of the originals, which included one of my faves "Being a Geek" which you can hear as part of a Medley here.

The overall story may not have enough to really sustain a whole show, but the onstage talent and the music does. I wrote on SOB's commentaries that "It's a simple script and nothing revolutionary or life changing (about a story about life changes) and it doesn't sustain the momentum that the opening song "Thirteen" sets off (seriously, probably one of those best songs in musical history imho) but JRB creates a great musical for families and kids to enjoy and for those who can still remember the joys (and terrors) of being 13." and I think it will make a great alternative for families so they aren't just limited to movie-turned-musicals and/or Disney stuff.

13 - Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre - Chester, CT - **** (4 stars out of 5)

Here's the Goodspeed Cast (pdf) and the Goodspeed Playbill (pdf) and more photos and videos below:

Here's the promo video of the abridged version of "Thirteen" from the musical 13:



Here's the cast of 13 at Goodspeed: