October 6, 2008

Another high school musical, "13," opens on Broadway

Not all the critics picked on “13: The Musical,” which opened on Broadway on Sunday night. In fact, the critic at amNewYork gave it four out of four stars, and the Post and Star-Ledger found it charming.

But the influencers took a number of shots at the tween-themed musical with a thin, Disney-fied plot with limited appeal to anyone a few years beyond the target audience. “13” is a musical about an Upper West Side kid whose parents divorce, landing him in Indiana where he hopes to fill his Bar Mitzvah with the cool kids in his new school.

“13” has an open-ended run at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, located at 242 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $76.50 to $111.50, while premium seats are $200 and $250. Student rush tickets cost $25, and if a show is sold out, standing-room tickets will go on sale for $21.50.

The selection of the reviews:

New York Times - “Yet as one who remembers being 13 with vividness and enduring horror, I can’t say that these obviously talented kids ever made me shiver, sweat or even smile in honest recollection. Though it features a buoyant score by Jason Robert Brown (‘Parade,’ ‘The Last Five Years’) and a book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn that dances friskily on the borders of bad taste, ‘13’ ultimately feels as pre-processed and formulaic as that money-churning Disney franchise ‘High School Musical.’”

Variety - “There’s not much in this sweet all-adolescent tuner to engage anyone past puberty, but the other lesson of the Disney franchise is that a narrowly defined demographic is no barrier to success.”

amNewYork - “Though it shares the pop culture catchiness and peppy energy of “High School Musical,” “13 the Musical” is also extremely passionate, authentic and a joyride from beginning to end. Not once does it condescend or descend into camp. It easily wins our vote for class valedictorian.”

Newark Star-Ledger - “Expect nothing fancy from “13” — just a sincerely good time.”

Post - “With a raw, rousing score by Jason Robert Brown sung by a cast of 13- to 17-year-olds, it’s Sondheim for MySpacers - the perfect show for those too old for Disney, too young for “Spring Awakening,” and too impatient to wait for a new block of “Wicked” tickets.”

Daily News - “What makes this middle school musical original is that the actors actually are teenagers, and so are players in the band. It is fun watching these fresh-faced youths sell the show, but the novelty wears thin soon enough and one wishes what they were pushing was better material.”

Newsday - “Imagine “Grease” remade as an after-school special and you have “13,” the cheerful and endearing, ebulliently performed and blandish musical that stars genuine tweens as fictional tweens as they all grow into their scary new skin.”

USA Today - “That 13 is seldom either surprising or offensive is a credit to both the limited imagination of its creative team and the winsome freshness of its all-teen cast, directed with obvious affection by Jeremy Sams. With the exception of the strong-voiced Elizabeth Egan Gillies, who is rather too convincing as the precocious mean girl of her class, none of these performers come across as stage kids, and their unaffected energy is undeniably contagious.”

Image source: “13” official Broadway site

Earlier: $20 preview tickets for Broadway’s “13: The Musical”
“13: The Musical” cuts “fagmo” from show after protest

October 6, 2008 10:08 AM in Broadway, Kids, Midtown

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