''13: The Musical'' is a 2022 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Tamra Davis Tamra Davis (born January 22, 1962) is an American film, television and music video director. Early life Davis was born the second out of four children in Studio City, California. She was exposed to the media industry at an early age by her gran ...

from a screenplay written by Robert Horn, based on the 2007 stage musical of the same name by Horn,

Jason Robert Brown Jason Robert Brown (born June 20, 1970) is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for his work on ''Parad ...

, and Dan Elish. The film stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

that includes Eli Golden, Gabriella Uhl, Frankie McNellis,

JD McCrary Jaydon McCrary (born July 18, 2007) is an American actor, dancer and singer. He is best known for his turn as Kenny Payne in ''The Paynes'' on the Oprah Winfrey Network. He starred in 2019's ''The Lion King'' as the voice of young Simba. He is ...

, Lindsey Blackwell, Jonathan Lengel, Ramon Reed, Nolen Dubuc, Luke Islam, Liam Wignall, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Khiyla Anne, Kayleigh Cerezo, and Willow Moss, with

Debra Messing Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing received short-lived roles on television series such as ''Ned and Stacey'' on Fox (1995–1997) and ...

Josh Peck Joshua Michael Peck (born November 10, 1986) is an American actor and comedian. Peck began his career as a child actor in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and had an early role on the Nickelodeon sitcom ''The Amanda Show'' from 2000 to 2002. Peck ...

, Peter Hermann, and

Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress. She played head-waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of 11 seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Act ...

. A film adaptation of ''13: The Musical'' was officially announced in September 2019, with Davis hired as director and Horn confirmed to be adapting his and Elish's book as the screenplay. That same month, Brown was also confirmed to be returning to write new songs for the film, and

Christopher Lennertz Christopher Joseph Lennertz (born January 2, 1972) is an American composer, songwriter, and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His musical scores appeared in ''Alvin and the Chipmunks'', ''Hop'', ''Think Like a Man'', and ''Ho ...

was hired to compose the film's incidental score. The cast was filled out between October 2020 and April 2021, including Golden, Uhl, McNellis, McCrary, Blackwell, Lengel, Messing, Perlman, Hermann, and Peck. Principal photography took place between June and August 2021. ''13: The Musical'' premiered at the Paris Theater in New York City on August 8, 2022, and was released through

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

on August 12.

Plot

Evan Goldman is forced to move from New York City to his grandmother’s house in Walkerton, Indiana, when his parents go through a divorce ("Thirteen"). He befriends the next door neighbor, Patrice ("The Lamest Place in the World"), and her friend Archie, who is a wheelchair user. Faced with his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, Evan aims to befriend the popular kids at his new school, led by football star Brett Sampson and head cheerleader, Kendra Duncan, but this alienates him from Patrice, who is considered a dork by the popular kids and sees Evan wanting to befriend them as a betrayal. Things aren’t better at home, with Evan resenting both his parents for the divorce and move and his mother Jessica lamenting giving up her writing career for her marriage, only for it to fail anyway. Brett and Kendra are crushing on each other and want to share their first kiss together ("I’ve Been Waiting"), but Kendra’s best friend Lucy also likes Brett, and is fed up with always being outshone by Kendra ("Opportunity"). When Evan comes up with a plan to trick Kendra’s overbearing mother and get her and Brett on a date to the movies ("The Bloodmaster"), Lucy threatens him to prevent the two from kissing or she will get everyone to boycott Evan’s party. To prevent the kiss without angering Brett directly, Evan recruits Archie, who has a huge crush on Kendra, to sit next to her at the movies to ruin the mood. Archie is fine with this, despite knowing Evan is using him ("Getting Ready"), but Patrice learns and calls Kendra’s mother with the truth, causing her to storm in and ruin the date. This backfires on her when such an act alienates her from both Archie and Evan, who is blamed and shunned. Lucy makes her move and kisses Brett, claiming him as her boyfriend. Lucy proves to be a clingy overbearing girlfriend to Brett, whose friends pity his sad state ("Bad Bad News"). Evan and Jessica reconcile over the disappointing turns their lives have taken ("It Would Be Funny"), and Evan finally calls his father, who apologizes and encourages him to fix his mistakes. He convinces Brett to apologize to Kendra, with help from Patrice ("Tell Her"). Brett and Kendra reconcile, and he dumps Lucy. Evan and Patrice apologize to each other, and Evan asks her to come to his Bar Mitzvah. The morning of the party, Patrice is convinced to forgive Evan by a gift Evan leaves at her house, and goes to the service, which is also attended by Brett and Kendra and their friends, including Lucy, who apologizes and makes up with Kendra. Evan completes his service, and everyone sings that they have "A Little More Homework to Do" while flashes show Jessica and Evan moving into a house of their own, Evan being friends with both Brett and Kendra, and Patrice and Archie with understanding on both sides, Jessica resuming her writing career, and Archie getting a new crush. The whole cast has an epic party afterwards, with a performance of "A Brand New You".

Cast

* Eli Golden as Evan * Gabriella Uhl as Patrice *

as Brett * Lindsey Blackwell as Kendra * Frankie McNellis as Lucy * Jonathan Lengel as Archie * Ramon Reed as Eddie * Nolan Dubuc as Malcolm * Luke Islam as Carlos * Shechinah Mpumlwana as Cassie * Khiyla Aynne as Charlotte * Willow Moss as Zee * Kayleigh Cerezo as Molly * Liam Wignall as KC * Peter Hermann as Joel *

as the Rabbi *

as Ruth *

as Jessica

Production

On August 12, 2014,

CBS Films CBS Films Inc. was an American film production and distribution company founded in 2007 as a subsidiary of CBS Corporation and was considered a mini-major studio up until 2019. CBS Films originally was planned to distribute, develop and prod ...

acquired the rights to adapt '' 13'', with Bert V. Royal writing the script and

Laurence Mark Laurence Mark is an American film and television producer. His works include ''The Greatest Showman'' (2017), ''Julie & Julia'' (2009), ''Dreamgirls'' (2006), ''I, Robot'' (2004), ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997), and ''Jerry Maguire'' (1996). ...

, Bob Boyett and David Blackman producing the film. On September 20, 2019,

and producer

Neil Meron Neil Meron (born October 26, 1955) is an American film producer known for producing the 2002 film ''Chicago'' and the 2007 film ''Hairspray''. With partner Craig Zadan he ran the production company Storyline Entertainment until Zadan's death in ...

acquired the film, with

hired to direct and Robert Horn writing the script instead of Royal. On April 29, 2021, Davis was set to produce the film with

, Horn, Bob Boyett and Mark Nicholson. On October 28, 2020, Neil Meron issued an open casting call for the teen roles, with rehearsals set to begin in March 2021. On April 29, 2021, Eli Golden, Gabriella Uhl,

, Frankie McNellis, Lindsey Blackwell, Jonathan Lengel, Ramon Reed, Nolen Dubuc, Luke Islam, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Kayleigh Cerezo, Wyatt Moss, Liam Wignall, and Khiyla Aynne were cast in the film. On May 24, 2021,

was cast in the film. On June 11, 2021,

, and Peter Hermann joined the cast. On October 28, 2020,

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

was set to begin in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in June 2021. Filming also took place in various locations like

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Beeton Beeton is a small community located in southern Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada between Tottenham and Alliston; all three were amalgamated in 1991 into the single Town of New Tecumseth. Beeton was named for a local apiary. Formerly known as Cla ...

and

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipalit ...

(Ontario, Canada). The principal photography ended on August 6, 2021.

Music

On September 20, 2019, Brown was hired to write new songs for the film. In July 2022,

was hired to compose the film's incidental underscore. The songs appear in the film in the following order: # "13” – Evan, Cast # "The Lamest Place in the World” – Patrice # "I’ve Been Waiting”† – Kendra, Brett, Cast # "Opportunity” – Lucy, Charlotte, Cassie, Molly, Cast # "The Bloodmaster”† – Evan, Lucy, Brett, Kendra, Cassie, Malcolm, Cast # "Getting Ready" – Archie, Evan, Cast # "Bad Bad News" – Eddie, Malcolm, Carlos, KC, Cast # "It Would Be Funny"† – Evan, Jessica # "Tell Her" – Evan, Patrice, Brett, Malcolm, Eddie, Zee, Carlos, KC, Cast # "Evan’s Haftorah" – Evan # "A Little More Homework" – Evan, Patrice, Kendra, Lucy, Brett, Zee, Cast # "Brand New You" – Molly, Carlos, Cassie, Cast † New song written for film The film also features “Cyclical Safire,” written and performed by Gary Schreiner.

Release

The film was released through

on August 12, 2022.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its music and the performances of the cast, but criticism for its deviations from the stage musical.

References

External links

* *
13: The Musical
' on

{{Jason Robert Brown 2022 films 2022 comedy-drama films 2020s musical films 2020s coming-of-age comedy films 2020s coming-of-age drama films American musical comedy-drama films American children's films American children's musical films American coming-of-age films English-language Netflix original films Films about children Films about divorce Films about Jews and Judaism Films about friendship Films based on musicals Films directed by Tamra Davis Films scored by Christopher Lennertz Films set in New York City Films set in Indiana Films shot in New York City Films shot in Toronto 2020s English-language films 2020s American films