Review-13, the musical-Theatre Noir
28-9-14
By: Lynn Gong
A heartwarming night spent with a roomful of attentive audience, and a group of young, talented actors.
13 tells the story of the 12-year-old Evan (by Giovanni Mok) moving to a new environment and trying hard to get cool friends over to his Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. A typical story about friendship and growing up, 13 has effective characterization and beautiful music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. This Hong Kong re-run directed by Michelle Li successfully solidifies the story into many memorable moments of sadness and laughter shared by the whole audience.
The 13 performers are very talented, infusing all the energy into their characters. Young as they are, they demonstrated versatile and strong ability in singing, dancing and acting, turning the performance into a feast for lovers of different art forms.
A perfect piece for showcasing talent (and a challenge), 13 brings even supporting roles to the foreground in their moments of the spotlight. This advantage made full use of in this as almost all performers proved to live up to high standards in their solo singing. For example, the brief solos by Carrie Cheung (playing Charlotte) and Karen Siu (playing Cassie) were both very impressive. While solos were fantastically performed, there was also nice harmony in chorus, especially in ‘A Little More Homework’ and ‘Brand New You’. The singing coach Cleo Ko did a very good job that I cannot pin down which performer’s singing is my favorite.
Dancing-wise, though a bit messy in the beginning, seemed generally well rehearsed. Choreography by Peter Lawrence wonderfully brings out the period of puberty that was energy-charged with the right amount of reflections. It is also a genius idea to incorporate choreography into the transitions. The performers themselves are moving the 13 cubic stools around into different settings, but they turned the moving process into a short dance performance that blends well with the plot. Almost always in her loose basketball clothes, Heidi Chow plays the boy role of Simone. In one setting transition while moving the stools, she tossed her long hair according to the beats, it was an amusing short dance.
The acting worked well in portraying the tensions and connections between characters that the audience joined the unison of celebrating a couple getting together, or hissing at Evan being beaten up. The youngest actor Cyrus Zee (playing Eddie) had a prominent presence in stage. Even though he’s only in 6th grade, he is very natural and expressive on stage, producing some of the most hilarious moments of the play.
There were some minor distractions like one or two sound technique issues, a few disharmonious notes, or a mismatched dance move. But the details of handling, like the play of the characters’ shadows on the backdrop to echo with the gossip scene, tell us about the amount of care the creative team implemented into the piece.
It was great to see every right element coming together in this show. 13 promises a lighthearted exploration of puberty troubles and young love. Still in your teens or already an adult/a parent, it does not matter; because this story tells us that no one can stop you from becoming a ‘Brand New You’.
13, the musical is playing through September 28th. For more information, click here.
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