Jason Robert Brown

Stranger in Strange Land: The Acne Years By BEN BRANTLEY New York Times, October 6, 2008 Youth isn’t only for the young, at least not as a marketable commodity in popular entertainment. On Broadway as in Hollywood, there will always be generation-crossing shows displaying fresh-fleshed things in hormonally induced states of agony and ecstasy. Think of musicals like “Rent,” “Avenue Q” and “Spring Awakening,” all of which appealed to those demographic rarities, theatergoers in their teens and 20s, but still spoke to older folks who remembered their own years of acne-dotted angst and laughed or sighed in sympathy. That said,Read More »

Is ’13’ The Next ‘High School Musical’? New musical, with songs by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown, is a more dysfunctional, realistic take on growing up. By Jim Cantiello, with additional reporting by Garth Bardsley MTV News, October 6, 2008 The senior class of East High from “High School Musical” might have to watch their backs: There’s a new batch of singing and dancing teenagers about to enter the world of pop culture. But you won’t be able to catch these kids’ adventures on a mouse-themed basic-cable network or in an upcoming movie. Nope, the new class of talentedRead More »

Charming teen stars far outnumber inventive scenes in ’13’ By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY October 6. 2008 NEW YORK — With the High School Musical franchise raking in the dough for Disney and shows such as Spring Awakening and Legally Blonde luring younger fans to Broadway, it was only a matter of time before producers banked on a project aimed squarely at the tween set. The musical 13 (**1/2 out of four), which opened Sunday at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, is neither a soaring, sobering account of troubled youth nor a glib commercial enterprise. It actually has more inRead More »

PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: 13 — Puppy-Love in the Afternoon By Harry Haun 06 Oct 2008, Playbill Online Oct. 5 being a school night, the cast of 13— a cast of 13, all in and around that particular age — premiered their musical at the Jacobs Theatre at four in the afternoon, then went into party-hardy overdrive at Opera (nee China Club) — till the crack of nine. Youth must be served — quickly! — and, when 21 of them awoke the following morning, they were indeed — officially! — Broadway performers. Counting the band backstage, it was the largestRead More »

’13’: Teen musical’s days are numbered Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News (2 stars out of 5) Monday, October 6th 2008, 4:00 AM Thirteen is notorious for being a jinxed number, and anyone heading to “13” hoping to find a story they haven’t seen at least a hundred times before is out of luck. The surprisingly simplistic show focuses on bar mitzvah boy Evan (Graham Phillips), who moves from bustling New York to blah Indiana following his folks’ divorce. Determined to get the cool kids to come to his party, he treats his geeky new buds badly. Then he realizes …Read More »