A trip back to Middle School

I myself am a big musical theater and well theater in general fan. One of my favorite lyricist and composers is a man by the name of Jason Robert Brown. He has written such big hits as Parade, which won Tony's for Best Book and Score, and Songs for a New World, as well as a little musical hit The Last Five Years. But, this time around the man has decided to take a different route and write a musical geared toward the younger generation.

This new musical is entitled 13. It tells the story of a young Jewish boy who lives in New York City and is forced to move to Indiana after his parents split and divorce. So now he is forced to make new friends in a place he is new, and to top it all off his bar mitzvah is coming up. All he hopes is that his parents will be able to come together for this one day to make it perfect. The cast is all teenagers and the band the same. It is suppose to be very high energy and is receiving praise from critics.

The music for the show is a mix of rock and other types to be geared at this "tween" audience. The music is spectacular especially the title song which is a high octane hit. The show is probably not for the real young because there are some suggestive aspects. But, as far as the music the show show should be very good and might become a hit in the future. It seems though in the past few years we have seen a trend of the younger generation getting on stage. With Spring Awakening the entire cast being younger than twenty and now this show.

Also, browsing the Internet came across another musical that actually did not last very long but from watching some videos looks like it was great. It was called "High Fidelity" the musical based on the movie of the same name. It deals with relationships and alot of top 5 lists. The music is a blend because the main characters work in a record store, so it ranges but is definitely a must hear the music is awesome.

Here are two videos one from Thirteen and one from High Fidelity, both taken from Broadway on Broadway.