13: The Musical - Teens Only First Performance...

[TheScarletPimpernel]

Did anyone else attend the 13: The Musical (Music & Lyrics by the great Jason Robert Brown) free first dress rehersal?

I was there!

[amyfairycakes]

No, I would have loved to have been there though!
How was it?

[TheScarletPimpernel]

LOL I'll share my thoughts .

First of all, Saturday, September 13, for the last dress rehersal/first showing in front of an audience, the producers decided to give away atleast 400 free tickets to anyone between the ages of 12-18. (No specific number of tickets was said however). FOr some reason, tehre were kids as young as 8 and people as old as 25. I was ticket #26 I think whoo!

The crowd was something you'd expect to see at a sporting event. Loud, rowdy, clapping extensively.

The show itself was not what I was expected. The show stars 13 actors who are 13 (in a later press release it show that they are between the ages of 12-15), with a band of 1 adult (the music director, Tom Kitt) and 3 or 4 teenagers as well.



In all honesty, the show is a mess. I'm a somewhat big fan of JASON ROBERT BROWN (The Last 5 Years, Songs for a New World, Parade), and his new show resembles his former songs just as much as a child when he grows into an adult. It's there, but not clearly there, which is unfortunate. JRB has a typical type of song, usually with a basis of piano, and if that's what you're intending to hear, you'll be miserably disappointed.

The overall plot is non-existant. A kid moves from NYC to Indiana within the first 10 minutes, deciding who to invite to his bar mitz-vah. Other than that, it attempts to document the average life of a 13 year old, including somehow sneaking in their entire class (althoguh not explained other than 3 people) into a R-Rated movie. Two boys kiss while seeing the show. The Act 1 finale, while a decent song, is completely overridden by the fact that they are singing and dancing (extremely sloppily) to a DDR projection/game.

The set, as well as the story, are boring. The overall show is bizarre. No other word for it but bizzare. It's incredibly offending to some people, and there's no doubt that just about everyone will be offended at some point during the night. Jews, cripples, diseased, handicapped, priests, Catholics, cheerleaders, etc.

In all my years of theatre going, this is right up there as one of the worst things I have ever seen. The only show that I remember not liking as much as this one: Saturday Night Fever, which alteast had a catchy tune here and there. Most of the music in this is juvenile, as were the lyrics. For whatever reason, the show opened now of all times, whenn it's target audience (I'm assuming 12-15) has no time and are back in school, just another bad move.

***/10.

[TheScarletPimpernel]

Oh I also just wanted to add that all of these kids are incredibly talented and I don't want to be known for pushing off their talent. I'd just wish it wasn't just 13 year olds, or they could all be in a show like Billy Elliot or something similar, as opposed to this. THe dances seemed difficult for them too -- they seemed to be ripped off from Legally Blonde: The Musical!