On the Town with Chip Deffaa… at “13” at Rider University

By Chip Deffaa

Editor-at-Large

  I wasn’t planning on reviewing the musical “13” when I decided to check out the production at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.  I was just going for fun.

   I’d enjoyed the musical—which is not revived all that often–when it originally ran on Broadway in 2008-2009.   The show boasts a book by  Dan Elish and Robert Horn; and  music, lyrics, arrangements and orchestrations by Jason Robert Brown.  (And, as far as I’m concerned,  any show that Jason Robert Brown does is going to be worth seeing.)  I was also intrigued by the fact that the creators of the show had revised it after its original Broadway run, and the revised version has become the one being offered for licensing today.  I was eager to see it.

 And although college shows can be woefully uneven, I was confident that I’d see at least one good performance in this Rider University production, since the cast included Jake Ryan Flynn (now a Rider freshman), who’s impressed me since he was just a kid, starring as “Charlie” in the Broadway musical “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and then playing “Christopher” in the Broadway musical “Mrs. Doubtfire.” And in these pages I’ve written about the irresistibly exuberant music video he created and starred in, “Good Morning Quarantine” (still available on YouTube), and the solo concert he did at North Shore Music Theatre.   Good young performers are rare, and I was looking forward to seeing him on stage again.

   I had no idea what role he might be playing.  (Not every actor, of course,  is right for every role. And he would not be right for the leading role in this particular show.)  I’d never  met him in person, but I’ve always loved his work.  He’s a solid pro, and he knows how to hold a stage.

   The theatrical productions that I go to see are primarily on  Broadway and Off-Broadway.  But over the years I’ve reviewed in these pages good college shows that I’ve seen at such schools as Pace University, Hofstra University, Wagner College, Montclair State University, Princeton University, and NYU. (And I’ve seen young “unknown” students in  college shows who’ve subsequently gone on to become well-known actors.)    I’ve also seen plenty of college shows over the years that I did not write anything about, simply because they weren’t good enough, overall, to merit coverage.

But I was happily surprised by the Rider students from the very first scene, when they began casually walking onto the stage of the Spitz Theater, bantering with audience members, improv-style, asking us to take their pictures, asking what movies we liked and telling us what they liked (one cast member recommended the movie “Twilight” so convincingly, I felt I owed it to her to check it out).  Through small-talk and body language in this opening scene, they had us believing they were thirteen-year-olds, even before getting into the show proper.  And once they got into the show, they sure did justice to it.

   They got the tone just right.  They found every laugh, and they also found all of the drama and anguish—no small feat.  The show tells the story of Evan Goldman.  He is just about to turn 13, and he’s living on the Upper West Side of New York City.  He’s looking forward to his  bar mitzvah, which he is sure will be celebrated in such grand style that it will guarantee his social prominence among his schoolmates for years to come.  But to his dismay, his parents divorce; he and his mom then move to a town in Indiana where he feels anxious, out-of-place, friendless, and desperately seeks a way to fit in.

   All six main roles in the Rider production of “13” were very well-cast and well-executed.  It’s  rare to see that happen in a college production.  But you could put these six college students (Max Ryon as “Evan,” Jake Ryan Flynn as “Brett,” Jolie Lubar as “Patrice,” Chloe Kelly as “Kendra,” Jonathan Voinski as “Archie,” and Kari Franzen as “Lucy”)  into an Off-Broadway production of  this musical right now and audiences would be getting their money’s worth.

   Rounding out the cast were another dozen or so kids, all performing with seemingly boundless energy.  (College productions do not, generally speaking, have the polish and sheen of professional New York productions; but they often have terrific energy, which  makes up for  some of the rough edges—it’s wonderful to be around that kind of energy.)  The production was good right from the start and got markedly better as it rolled along—the actors were seemingly buoyed by an extraordinarily responsive and supportive audience consisting largely of fellow students.

  Max Ryon brought star quality to the starring role.  He’s got charisma, and he was a joy to watch throughout.  (That’s not something I can often say about college performers.) We were rooting for him from the get-go, and shared in his pain when he made choices that did not work out. (He wants so fervently to be popular that he’ll do almost anything to be accepted into the popular clique—sometimes thoughtlessly hurting people  who genuinely care about him.)

   Jason Robert Brown’s songs are excellent but they are not always easy to sing.  And the guys in this production were sometimes being asked to sing in keys that were a bit higher than were ideal for them.  But Ryon handled all of his  songs with a naturalness and aplomb that I relished—he was equally effective whether using the uppermost or lower parts of his vocal range.  I like that warm vibrato of his. And the beauty of his high notes.  He was equally effective, too, I might add,  whether singing in English or in Hebrew (for the bar mitzvah scene). And he got well into the old-time vaudevillian spirit of Brown’s charmingly quirky “Terminal Illness” (a high point—and the sort of darkly comic song that only Brown could have written).

   Max Ryon is a find!  (I was thinking as I watched him: “Had you turned up at auditions for my musicals ‘Theater Boys’ or ‘Mad About the Boy,’ Max, I would have cast you in a lead role within 20 seconds.”) I hope he knows how talented he is.  And hope I get to see him perform again someday.

   And there was so much to love in Jake Ryan Flynn’s performance as “Brett,”  the arbiter of “cool” for the school–the boy who gets to decide who is “in” and who is “out.”  Flynn found every bit of the comedy in the role, swaggering through life with sidekicks seemingly worshipping him. (Flynn’s got such a good feel for comedy!)  And of course—being the most popular boy in his grade—“Brett” took it as his birthright to date the most popular girl.  He’s preparing for all of the smooth moves he will pull once he’s with her at the movie theater. (And then—in a scene that Flynn played with great truthfulness—we see him discovering that he’s actually not sure what to do, or what he really wants to do, once  he’s with her.)

    I liked Flynn’s choices as an actor throughout the show.  It would have been easy to have played “Brett” with a smarmy smirk, to signal that he’s some kind of a bad guy in the show.  But Flynn does something wiser and subtler. He gives us a very human “Brett,” who may be vain and  self-absorbed, but projects enough sunny self-confidence so that we can see why he’s so popular.  “Brett”  seems to be an essentially likeable fellow.  And that makes it all the more impactful—makes it sting even more—when we finally, fully  see the shallow, narrow-minded way he views the world.  And we feel Evan’s hurt acutely when Evan realizes—and we realize—that Brett never really intended to go to Evan’s bar mitzvah because Brett fundamentally views Evan, as a Jew, as being an outsider.  That ugliness in Brett hits us all the more harder because he’s often seemed so likeable.

   The show has, in its own way,  a happy ending—although  it is not the one Evan originally hoped  for.  By show’s end, Evan has not become part of the popular crowd; he has not succeeded in getting Brett and his clique to come to his bar mitzvah.  But he has learned who is true friends are and he finally fully values them.  And he’s becoming true to himself.  When he declares, as part of his bar mitzvah ceremony, that today he is a man, it has real meaning.  It has impact.  Because we’ve witnessed his growth as a human being.  And that is satisfying.  He does not have many friends at his bar mitzvah.  But they are genuine. He’s with people who cherish him.

  There were excellent performances, too, by Jolie Lubar, playing a girl who is considered an outsider by the popular crowd, but cares for Evan and recognizes in him a kindred spirit;  and by Jonathan Voinski, as a terminally ill boy—another “outsider”—who works so hard to try to make the best of his situation.  He’s manipulative and funny, and wins us over as well.  (A fine performance!) Lubar’s strength of character comes through clearly whether she’s speaking or singing. (I closed my eyes in one number just to enjoy the sound of her voice.)   Chloe Kelly and Kaci Franken played their roles with verve as two of the popular girls. An unusually good student cast.

   The show’s book is witty, truthful, and well-structured.  The score offers ample rewards.  And the whole production had a wonderful forward momentum.  I enjoyed it a lot.

  I liked the tone better, and the book better, in this stage production than in the film adaption of “13.”  I was very glad that the film was made.  But this stage version has a bit more of an edge to it, a bit more of a bite. Which makes it feel more true-to-life.  And I savored that.

   My only complaint with the show—and this is just my own personal reaction–is that the final number felt superfluous to me.  I would have preferred ending the show with the song “A Little More Homework.”  Go to a blackout after that.  Then take the bows, and leave the audience wanting more.   For me, everything that needed to said was said by the time “A Little More Homework” concluded.   I think it diluted that song’s impact to follow it with the whole company singing and dancing to the upbeat “A Whole New You.”   To me,  “A Whole New You,” felt like something gratuitously tacked on so as to end the show in a bigger, brighter, more-traditional “feel-good” kind of way.  For my own tastes,  “A Little More Homework” felt like a more satisfying and natural ending to the story.    But the audience seemed to enjoy getting that cheerful “A Whole New You” as a kind of encore.  And the kids filling the stage danced with elan.

   On my way out of the theater, I was happy to meet for a moment in the lobby–before I had to dash off to join an old  friend  in Princeton for dinner—Jake Ryan Smith. Having enjoyed his work for so many years, it was nice to be able to finally say “Hi!” in person.   It’s great seeing him fulfilling the potential he displayed so clearly early on.

   If I can offer the members of the Rider theatrical community one suggestion, it would be this:  Always have some kind of printed program or Playbill available for those who want them.  (Theater professionals like having cast credits  and such on paper.  The cost of providing a printed page or two of basic credits is nominal. And you never know when a reviewer, agent, or director might happen to be in your audience.)  Also, always put up in the lobby headshots of all cast members (along with the names of the actors and the characters they play).  I watched the whole show—which was so unusually well done compared to most college shows I see–without knowing the names of the actors (except for Jake Ryan Flynn).  I had to go to the Rider Student Theater page on Instagram, on my computer after I got home, to learn the names of all of these talented actors.

  Theater students, you really want to do everything you can to make it easy for audience members to know who they’re seeing on stage.  You want everyone to know your name. You’re talented!  Make them remember your name!   If you needed a few bucks to print up a few paper programs, I’d contribute a few bucks to such a cause.

   * * *

   May I offer one final postscript?   After the show, I was happy to meet up with an old friend for dinner in Princeton.  (I attended Princeton University and later lived for some years in the Borough of Princeton,  and still have ties to the area.)  He likes theater, and is happy to occasionally join me for shows in New York.  However,  I couldn’t interest him in seeing any college production.  He assumed it would just be too “amateurish.”  But these young actors at Rider really carried off this show well.  They’re still young enough to remember vividly what it felt like to be 13 years old.  They understood their characters.  And really filled that stage with life.  (I wish Jason Robert Brown could have seen the production; I think he  would have gotten a kick out of.)  I wish this show could get another production in NYC.   I had a great time.  And these kids made me like the show—which I’d enjoyed on Broadway in 2008—even more.  It’s been revised well.

   My friend, over dinner in Princeton, said he wasn’t interested in seeing any young “unknowns.”  But it’s fun to discover promising artists-to-watch.  The original Broadway cast of “13” consisted entirely of young unknowns, some of whom—like Ariana Grande—certainly went on to become quite well-known.  Over the years I’ve reviewed  in these pages plenty of then-unknown teens (like Timothee Chalamet and Ansel Elgort) who’ve gone on to become stars.  And while I’ve  always held  open-call auditions for plays that I’ve directed, I’ve actually often cast actors who first  impressed me in high school or college productions that I happened to have seen.  Many of the seasoned pros who record for me on the albums that   I produce first impressed me, years ago,  when they were unknown teens I was lucky enough to see in shows.  In the 18 years that I reviewed for The New York Post,  there was nothing I enjoyed more than shining a bit of light on promising new talent.  I still feel that way.  We all have to start somewhere.

   There were some impressive young actors on that Rider stage, giving their all.  I’m very glad  I went.  I don’t go out nearly as much as I used to. But this Rider University production of “13” was sure good for my soul.

  Any comments or questions? As ever… I’m always glad to hear from you at Footloose518@aol.com.

                                                                                                  –CHIP DEFFAA

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