Mickey Jo (0:00)

Before I even get into this, there is a song in the show that has the lyrics 13 going on 13. I so badly want to sing it, but I feel like I'm breaking some kind of an embargo because they haven't released that as one of the songs yet. So I'm just gonna sing it in my head. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theater theatre. I am a professional theatre critic based here in the UK making theatre content for YouTube. But today I am not going to be reviewing a show that I saw. Let me explain why. So last night I was invited to go to the Battersea Arts Centre in London to see a workshop presentation of the musical adaptation of 13 going on 30. Yes, take it in. There is a musical adaptation of 13 going on 30 and it is coming to a stage very soon. In fact, Eagle Eyed fans will be able to see it this week because this is a public ticketing workshop presentation. I'll explain more about what that means in just a little bit, but essentially it means that this version of the show is going to be made public. So I'm coming on here today to let you know a little bit more about it. I saw the first public performance and while I was not invited specifically to review, I have been encouraged to make a little bit of noise about it on social media. And I can only assume that many of you are curious about what exactly this is like, because we have had a lot of musical adaptations of 2000s films, right? We've had Legally Blue Blonde, we've had Mean Girls and a host of other adaptations. And news about a musical version of 13 going on 30 has been circulating for a while. In fact, the website Playbill has been listing this as an upcoming show for a very long time. And what's been really exciting about this piece of news is this was only announced a few weeks ago. About a month ago, we assumed that this was just going to stay dormant, possibly forever. And then bam, we had this announcement that there was going to be a workshop presentation in the UK of all places, and that people would be able to see it in just a couple of weeks. So in today's video, I'm not reviewing the show, but I'm going to be letting you know what this version is like, which means addressing the questions that you may have about it. How faithful is it to the film adaptation? What kind of scenes that we are expecting might we be able to see? And in terms of musical versions of films, what might I compare it to? All these questions and more will be answered in today's video. If you enjoy this one, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel for theatre news as well as reviews of West End and Broadway shows. For even more content, you can find me on other social media platforms. I am ickyjoetheater on Instagram, TikTok and X, which I still don't enjoy saying. But for now, let me tell you all about the musical version of 13 going on 30. Okie dokie. So first things first, let's talk about the source material. So 13 Going On 30 is a 2004 film. I would have called it a coming of age film because that's literally what it's about. It stars Jennifer Garner as Jenna Rink, a girl who is so desperate to be older and sophisticated and popular and attractive that on her 13th birthday she wishes instead that she could be 30. 30, flirty and thriving. And then magically she wakes up on her 30th birthday in a Manhattan apartment with a man she doesn't recognize, finding out that she has this dream job and she's living this amazing life. But she comes to find out that it's not all dreamy as it first appears, especially when she tries to reconnect with her childhood best friend, Matt Flamhalf, who was played in the film by Mark Ruffalo. Other recognizable characters include her colleague and best friend, who was played by Judy Greer, and her very animated boss, who was played unforgettably by Andy Serkis. But the great joy of the film is Jennifer garner bringing this 13 year old's sensibility and perspective to adult life and to adult situations. It's a reminder to everyone of the value of nourishing and retaining your inner child and that childlike sense of wonder and innocence and joy. This was a Revolution Studios motion picture and they are very much involved in the musical adaptation, which makes sense, let me tell you who else is involved in bringing this to the stage. So the book for this musical, which is to say the script and the structure of the thing, has been written by John Goldsmith and Kathy Jesper, who happen also to be the original screenwriters of the film. And to that end, it is a pretty faithful adaptation. A lot of the best lines from the film are recreated in this show as well as many of the most iconic scenes. We get the Andy Serkis character's hysterical breakdowns, we get Jenna's unknowingly funny lines that she says because she's a 13 year old trapped inside a 30 year old's body, we get the witheringly shady remarks from Judy Greer's character Lucy. The score, meanwhile, has been written by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. They are perhaps best known for having written the score for the Broadway musical First Date, which starred Krystal Rodriguez and Zachary Levi. Side note, if anyone is one of my YouTube channel members and you can sign up to be one in the link in the description I should point out, but the little jingle that I've been using for my First Impressions series right after I see a show is absolutely stolen from the song First Impression from First Date. But that's just a first impression. I could be totally wrong. They have also written a musical adaptation of Trading Places and contributed the first original song to the TV show Let Me get this Right High School the the Series. Additionally, they wrote all of the songs for the musical episode of the TV series Once Upon a Time. And hysterically. They are also working on a musical adaptation of another film, 17 Again, which is more or less the opposite premise to 13 going on 30 because you have an older character who then finds himself trapped in the body of his 17 year old self. That, if you don't know, was a Zac Efron movie. And it just tickles me that they're working on both of these projects. But the score that they've written for this without beginning to review it or comment on its quality is very typically contemporary musical theatre. Now this being a workshop presentation, which if you didn't know, is a sort of a developmental reading of a show, it is performed to a certain extent, but it's barely staged, it is not costumed. There was no set to speak of. There was also no real choreography. But we did have a director who gave a suitably lively pre show introduction as well as reading the stage directions as well as having directed the whole thing, which was the inimitable Andy Fickman. Andy is perhaps best known for having directed another screen to stage adaptation Heather's the Musical. He also recently worked on another public workshop run of a musical for Halls. And previously to all of this, he had also directed a few motion pictures, including the Amanda Bynes teen film she's the Man. That is a teen high school comedy with its roots in Shakespeare, which I think is probably the biggest qualification for Andy Fickman being the right director for this project. It means he has an understanding of the tone that this kind of a show needs. Now if anyone is curious, I would love to tell you about who was cast for this particular workshop. Now this is no indication of who might go on to play the roles as and when it makes it to a stage. It's in fact highly unlikely that it will be exactly the same cast for the eventual stage production as the workshop presentation. But I'm going to tell you who was in it anyway, because you never know. Some of the same stars may be attached throughout the process. So, starring as Jenna Rink, we had the wonderful Lucy Jones. Lucy, who is one of the best Jenna Huntersons I have ever seen. In Waitress, she was most recently seen on UK stages playing Elphaba in Wicked. She's also had success as a vocalist. She represented the UK for the Eurovision Song Contest and she had her own solo concert at the Adelphi Theatre, which was recorded for a live album, which is great, by the way. She's got an absolutely sensational voice, but it's her sunny demeanor and easy comedy and charm and youthfulness that had me suggesting her for this role weeks before it was announced. And you can ask my friends and you can ask Aaron and you can ask the editor of whatsonstage.com because we were at a press event for another show and I said, you know who would be great in this workshop that's just been announced? Lucy Jones. And then it happened. I'm not gonna say I manifested this casting, but I am absolutely taking credit for it. Maybe they were listening, maybe they were there. Maybe I made this happen. I don't think I made this happen. Opposite her is Matt Flamhof, a name I do not know how to pronounce with an English accent. The role that Mark Ruffalo played in the film is Jamie Moscato. Jamie has worked with Andy Figman before because he was the original JD in the UK and West End production of Heathers. More recently, he has been seen as Christian in the West End's production of Moulin Rouge. He's also been in Dogfight and Big Fish and Les Mis, the staged All Star concert, which I guess he was in alongside Lucy Jones. Yeah, he'd have been Enjolras while she was Fantine. So they've worked together before. If you don't know Jamie, he's making a great career out of playing these offbeat, quirky guys with an enormous heart and an exceptional rock tenor voice. And then it wouldn't be a new musical workshop with Without Grace, Moat Grace, whose entire brand is her endless versatility. If you didn't know she was the original understudy in the first major production of 6 here in the UK. That is to say, when it started out it was just her covering all six queens up at the Edinburgh Fringe, touring around the country. So she is the kind of actress and the kind of vocalist who is super adaptable and can do a bunch of different things and she can give you lovable protagonist and she can give you nice best friends, she can give you mean girl energy. And that duality serves her very well with some of the revelations in store in this show because she is playing Lucy, the brilliant Judy Greer role from the film. Since six we have seen Grace in a bunch of shows. She was the original understudy for Juliet in the West End production of and Juliet in its original cast. She's been in the great British Bake off musical and a whole host of concerts and honestly, so many workshops. We also have Caleb Roberts as Richard, the brilliant scene stealing Andy Serkis role from the film. Caleb was the original Prince Charming in the West End production of Cinderella. After that I saw him playing Ike Turner in Tina, the Tina Turner musical. And again, I'm not meant to be reviewing, but I will go as far as to say he's hilarious in this, like just, just as scene stealing as you would hope this character would be. That's a spectacular bit of casting. He does very well. In the rest of the cast we have some more alumni from various different iterations of Heather. We have Kia Paris Walcott and Mary Jean Caldwell and Ivan Fernandez Gonzalez and Louis Asquith. They've all been in Heathers. We also have Alex Doll, Andrew Boleyn and Jenna Pandya. Now she was in Halls the musical, so has also worked with Andy Fickman before. Finally, I do want to tell you about some of these young company members because my God, they were so very talented. We had Doreen McNally who was playing young Jenna, Louis Gray who was playing young Matt B. Ward who was playing a character named Lulu. Delilah Bennett Cardy was playing Becky Finn, Henry Barwell was young Kyle and Jasmine Giselle was playing Tess. So talented, those young performers. Oh my gosh, they were really fantastic. But again, I'm getting dangerously close to reviewing this show that I said I would. Not. So the one last detail I have to tell you about how this has been brought to the stage. Is the producers attached now? This is being produced by a group named Royo, a group who have been increasingly prevalent on UK stages in the last recent few years. Really? They were attached to the UK production of Winnie the Pooh the Musical at the Riverside Studios and they've been working on a lot of significant touring productions. They produced Fisherman's the Musical on its UK tour, as well as the Cher show and the Osmonds. And they were also the producers of Oscar at the Crown, the show I called one of my favourite things at the Edinburgh Fringe. So they definitely have their fingers in a lot of pies, which is how you find success as producers. And this is one of their latest projects. So now those are all of the details about the people involved. I'm sure you are curious about what this show is actually like, I should say, if anyone has seen the film and remembers it. We got given these packs of Razzles, which was my first time experiencing Ravels. It's both a candy and a gum, which is fascinating all by itself. The only problem with this is I'm not very good at gum, which is a. A silly thing for a person to say, but it just gets to a point where I'm very quickly bored of it and I just don't want to be chewing it anymore, but then I get nervous about swallowing it. So I don't know if Razzles are for me. But the show itself, let me tell you about it now. So whatever you're expecting a 13 going on 30 musical adaptation to be, this is probably pretty closely in line with that. Like I said before, it's written by the same people who wrote the original screenplay, so it is a pretty faithful adaptation. We hit all of the same emotional moments, we have all of the same iconic lines, we have all of the same iconic little scenes. The moment with older Jenna and her young neighbour in the elevator when they complement each other's clothing choices. The moment where Jenna is going over to flirt with a cute guy at a bar with slightly unexpected consequences. We've seen movies turned into musicals with varying levels of faithfulness to the original source material, and this is one of the closest I think, I have ever seen. Now, there are two iconic musical moments in the original film. The first is when Jenna gets the DJ at this party to play Thriller and gets everyone dancing along on the dance floor because she remembers it as being this iconic song that everyone loves. And they all are slightly puzzled by this because it's super retro to them. The second is when she's having a sleepover with her young neighbour and all of her friends and they are singing along to Pat Benatar's Love Is A Battlefield. So let me tell you which of these moments makes it into the show. So Thriller we get, and we did hear the Thriller song, and we do see the Thriller dance recreated pretty much as it is in the film. The Pat Benatar moment is not in the show. We still get that scene and we still get the same sort of narrative direction, but we don't get that song. Instead, they sing an original song about, like, owning it. They. They teach her a lesson that she's taught them previously. We weren't given a song list, and I didn't make notes about every single song involved in the show. But it kind of musicalizes the moments that you might expect it to. And she gets songs where she's excited. She gets a nice song where she is looking back at her yearbook about the memories that she thought skipped over with the magical jump from 13 to 30. And she's reflecting with gleeful surprise at the things that she learned about her high school journey after the age of 13. She gets some bigger ballads in the second act. There are two nice romantic duets with her and Matt. There's a really fun opening song, which I assume is called Like Wannabe, that's actually already been released on the show's social channel, so you can go and listen to that. That takes place right at the start of the show. And that's the I Want song from young Jennerink, as well as all of the other young characters. When we first discover her adult workplace, they sing a song about being Poised magazine and about kind of like what their ethos is and what their job is as this trendy elite fashion style magazine. We also get a couple of comedy songs. So the douchey hockey player guy. I think it's hockey. The douchey hockey player guy that she is dating, who is very Canadian, which is an accent that is played for laughs in this, he sings a song about how the depth of their relationship is limited to the fact that the two of them are both really hot. That happens towards the end of the first act. At the start of the second act, we get a song when she reconnects with another character from her youth whose life has taken an unexpected turn. And while that character sings about their life now, the ensemble sing the repeated lyrics about how they peaked in high school. One other song that really jumps out is the one that they sing right at the end this finale moment. And it's kind of like a message song, a little bit like the one at the very end of Doubtfire, the musical. In terms of other screen to stage adaptations, I would most closely compare this to Doubtfire or to Mean Girls. I feel like it sits pretty neatly alongside those in the wider pantheon of musicals based on films. But without reviewing that is all I can say for now. About 13 going on 30 the musical. I'm super intrigued about the journey that this show might have to the stage. Are we going to see it produced in London first because that's where the workshop is happening? I hope so, because this is a really great cast for them to have in these roles. I think Lucy Jones and Jamie Moscato have the brilliant talent as well as an enormous amount of commercial viability, because they both have a lot of fans who will book tickets to go and see those performers, which is great for these producers if the two of them remain involved with the project. I don't know if we're first going to see this, having a sort of out of town, pre West End production, if it's going to tour. These are producers who we have seen producing a lot of things on the touring circuit who have yet to really substantially bring anything into the West End. But this is definitely a compelling enough title to generate a lot of interest for London audiences and international crowds as well, and people traveling down to the West End to come and see this show. So this might be the first time we see them really making a substantial foray into the West End. And I'm excited for that. I'm excited thinking about what the set and the costumes might look like, what the merchandise might look like. They could sell razzles at the theatre. I won't be buying any again because I. I'm not convinced that they're for me, but for other people, I'm sure that would be fun. Although I will say there is a line in the film and the show about them turning people's tongues blue. And they didn't turn my tongue blue. So either fake news or I was doing it wrong, which is entirely possible. But if you don't have tickets for any of the other workshop performances over the next few days, you will just have to wait until we see a more substantial return for 13 going on 30 the musical. For now, that is what I can tell you about the show. I hope that you have enjoyed this video. If you got to see any of the workshop performances, feel free to comment down below with everything that you want to share about the show. And if you bought a ticket, then you're allowed to say what you want. If you want to give us a little bit of your thoughts about it, what you thought of the material and the performances, and whether you think that this could work as a full production. Thank you so much for watching today's video. I hope that you have enjoyed. If you did, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel for many more videos coming soon about all your favourite shows. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For ten more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.