Jason Robert Brown

13 the Musical Reviewed By: David Finkle Theatermania.com, Oct 5, 2008 · New York Sometimes the best comment to be made about shows such as 13 the Musical, now at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, is that they provide an opportunity for multi-talented youngsters to show off. That’s certainly what the 13 talented adolescents (plus an onstage band) do collectively and individually in Jeremy Sams’ production of the Jason Robert Brown-Dan Elish-Robert Horn tuner. Without question, the 90-minute intermissionless musical — which has changed considerably since its 2006 Los Angeles debut (in which Horn did not participate) — undeniably looksRead More »

Musical `13′ Tells Gefilte-Fish-Out-of-Water Tale: John Simon Review by John Simon Bloomberg News, October 5, 2008 22:30 EDT Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — You don’t have to be superstitious to consider “13,” the title of the new Broadway musical (as well as its number of producers) an unlucky number. Though easily as ailing as our economy, what bailout is there for a show about 13 13-year-olds, one whose chief quandary is whether Evan Goldman, a savvy New York Jewish kid infelicitously transplanted to Appleton, Indiana, can still have a cool bar mitzvah party in the overwhelmingly gentile heartland. (Already “Footloose,” aRead More »

Broadway discovers teen appeal Entire ’13’ cast, orchestra is teenaged By GORDON COX Variety, October 3, 2008 Teens aren’t just hot in Hollywood. Broadway, too, has discovered the Jonas Brothers demo, as producers plot to lure tween auds, and depictions of adolescent angst gain artistic cred, thanks in part to 2007 Tony winner “Spring Awakening.” For the new musical “13,” it’s all teens all the time. Although the rock tuner was conceived and composed by an adult — Jason Robert Brown, whose résumé includes such sophisticated legit offerings as “Parade” and “The Last Five Years” — the production’s entire castRead More »

Has Jason Robert Brown’s musical ’13’ come of age? Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times October 3, 2008 | 10:52 am The musical “13,” which had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 2007, opens Sunday on Broadway , and the big question is: Has the show matured enough to succeed on the Great White Way? The producers had better make a collective birthday wish, because if this pubescent musical is anything like it was in L.A., it’s going to be one angsty road. Naturally, we wish the new set of kids luck. But in an economic downturn, who’sRead More »

The whole thing was just a lark, a little goofy thing to do on an afternoon in July when I didn’t want to write a football song (that I eventually wrote and that eventually got cut, making the whole thing an exercise in superfluousness), and then all of a sudden there were over two hundred entries – and even more that came in after the deadline – and then literally thousands of votes and every time I checked my email someone was yelling at me “Who won the contest? Who won the contest?” and I’m trying to WRITE A BROADWAYRead More »