A Musical for the Vapid, Popular and Juvenile

13. Mark Taper Forum. 1/30/07.

A musical about 13-year-olds is a bad idea. It's that simple. I'm not suprised - I rather expected it would be a bad idea. No one wants to relive being a 13 year old, and its not exactly a musical-worthy accomplishment. But, honestly, 13 demonstrated a lot more promise than I expected. There were actually some bright spots.

The cast, first of all, was absolutely delightful. The kids were extremely talented singers, dancers, and actors. Ricky Ashley as the lead, Even, demonstrated skill that gives me a lot of hope that we'll be seeing great performances from him in the future. Sara Niemietz as Patrice was by far the most interesting character in the whole play and had a killer voice.

And really, I can't fault Jason Robert Brown as a composer and lyricist- the music was lively and fun and catchy and it encorporated the young voices quite well.

The problem, and for me this is a deadly problem, was the plot. It was atrociously vapid. Seriously, seriously bad. From the moment the characters were established, you knew exactly how the play would end and honestly, I didn't much care. The stakes were completely nonexistant - honestly, I didn't care whether Evan became popular or not, and I kind of hated him for caring. In fact, I hated many of the characters. My queer, nerdy, outcast self really did not want to see a musical that reaffirmed the power structures of juvenile society - the cheerleaders, the jocks, and even the conservative Christian Republican (as long as she's rich and pretty) never had their authority questioned in any way. I would have much prefered a musical about quirky outcasts who don't want to be popular.

And the world this musical was also problematic. First of all, it kind of felt like kiddie porn. The girls wore short little skirts so the audience could see their underwear when they kicked. There was a point where one of the boys came out and sat on an audience member's lap. Now, I don't inherently thinking it's a bad idea for kids to have their own sexuality issues and honestly "should I kiss him or not" is an awfully innocent problem for a 13 year old cheerleader to have, though it could have been dealt with in a more interesting and complex way. But teenage sexuality should definitely not be exploited for the point of the audience. I don't want to have to see blonde 13 year old girls objectified.

So, while this musical was superficially talking about the in groups and out groups of junior high, that very conspicuoulsly did not include race, gender, or sexuality issues. The popular crowd was ostensibly multicultural, but only in that the main jock was an African-American football player and everyone else was white. There were also some African-American backup singers/chorus members, but there were NOT any people who were neither black nor white. Nor was their any glimmer of gender nonconformity or criticism of traditional gender roles or beauty expectations (which is just plain silly at a time when everyone is going through puberty). The nerds, my own personal social group, was also tragically underrepresented. I had high hopes for the song "Being a Geek," but it didn't actually talk at all about the realities of being a geek or offer a viable alternative to the stupid social hierarchy that the musical was determined to reaffirm. The play values beauty, stupiditity, and athleticism at the expense of actual character development, or the real life problems of real kids who aren't fortune enough to be rich and pretty and in the suburbs. I honestly wanted to hit the vast majority of the characters at several points in the musical in order to jolt them out of their smug superiority and to put them (or me) out of my misery.

Michael Ritchie, CTG's old boy's network artistic director writes in the program "let's celbrate together that special time when the world is full of potential and life is just plain awesome." This may be true if you're rich, white, straight, and male, but for most people I know and care to know, the age of 13 was not a good experience and I honestly have no interest in seeing a musical that pretends that it is.