Hello, 13

The nearly complete cast of 13 queues up to perform.

Photograph: Justin Borucki

Jeremy Sams has directed classics for the Royal Shakespeare Company and hit shows on Broadway and London’s West End (Noises Off, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). But his impressive résumé isn’t what landed him his latest gig.

“I have a 13-year-old—that’s why they chose me,” Sams jokes. Indeed, 13 is the title, the cast size and the age of the characters in Jason Robert Brown’s new musical, which opens at the Bernard C. Jacobs Theatre on October 5 with Sams directing. “I know the beast, shall we say,” says Sams, whose son, Toby, lives with him in London. “The novelty for me is working with 13 of them in the room.”

Isn’t “novelty” a kind way to describe molding a baker’s dozen of pubescent boys and girls into a well-oiled production?

“These kids can sing and dance and act at an extraordinarily mature level,” Sams insists. “The talent here is ridiculous. They can do anything. But, of course, they still are 13. Sometimes it’s wonderful; sometimes it’s like herding cats.” He adds, “Sondheim has told one great lie in his life: ‘Children will listen.’ Oh no, they won’t!”

The show’s concept originated with Brown (the Tony-winning composer-lyricist of Parade and the popular Off Broadway staple The Last Five Years,) librettist Dan Elish (author of Jason and the Baseball Bear) and book writer RObert Horn. In telling the contemporary story of Evan, an Upper West Sider approaching his bar mitzvah who’s unhappily transplanted to Indiana by his parents’ divorce, Brown employs a robust pop-rock idiom—and not a single adult character.

Sams, a Brit with an abiding love for the American musical, considers Brown among the genre’s brightest lights. “Jason is the reason I’m doing this,” Sams says. “He’s got the oomph of a Billy Joel or a Paul Simon, but the theater chops of a Sondheim.” Just the sort of crossover talent, in other words, to inject fresh life into the traditional form of the American musical.

“This is an old-fashioned contemporary musical comedy. It doesn’t go backwards in time. There’s no structural gimmick. It’s not set in a fairy-tale world,” Sams says, ticking off a list of devices that many musicals rely on to create worlds free of the rigors of realism.

Although the hormones and rebellions no doubt brewing within the players may be an obstacle to getting the production on its feet, the director feels that age is incidental to 13’s themes. The show, he says, is a coming-of-age tale for all ages. True, you wouldn’t want to bring preschoolers. But for kids ages six and up, a tween cast taking on the troubles that come with teendom (relationships, puberty, fitting in) will be as enthralling as High School Musical—only less cheesy. For their parents, 13 is sure to evoke memories that might not feel distant at all.

“Thirteen-year-olds go through everything we do, except perhaps parenthood,” Sams says. “And adults who’ve seen the show recognize themselves in it—not themselves at that age, but themselves now. For me, the show is about how your life actually turns out, as opposed to how you thought it would turn out. And that’s how you grow up.”

13 begins previews on Sept 16.