Student Blog: How I Fell in Love with 13: THE MUSICAL

It’s funny, I think most people become fans of "13: The Musical" by doing a production in their youth or maybe seeing it back when it was on Broadway. It’s likely something that is tied to nostalgia for a lot of people. For me, I started with the Netflix movie and then discovered the brilliant musical. I’ve always been a fan of Jason Robert Brown’s music, I think “The Last Five Years” is captivating, “Songs for a New World” is completely unlike any musical, and I’ve heard some gorgeous songs from “Bridges of Madison County.” But something about 13 was different.

Seeing it at 19 years old through a youth production my best friend and I found on YouTube, we immediately understood that we weren’t exactly the intended audience. And yet, in a way, I think we were.

"13" is a show about growing up, a very universal subject. It showcases youth in such an honest way. Characters like Evan, Patrice, Kendra, and even Brett are people we can all identify with or feel like we’ve known them at some point. The age of 13 is universally a strange and frightening experience and it was interesting to look back on it through this musical. It feels familiar and oddly comforting.

I truly think that Jason Robert Brown’s lyricism is the core of how great this musical is to me. He explains youth in such a nuanced and yet simple way. The opening number I imagine is such a fun emotional release for any kid who performs it. It really feels like “The best and the worst, the most and the least, the crazy and the scary, and I’m standing on the edge.” This song feels like a huge rock number and I can imagine nearly everyone in the audience can identify with the feeling. The stakes feel high, any big changes feel like the end of the world, even though the adults in the audience might be familiar with the truth that really, they’re not. Other stand out songs to me are “Tell Her” and of course the gorgeous finale, “A Little More Homework.” He explains youth in a single phrase, “I am trying to follow, I am trying to lead.” Isn’t that what we’ve all been trying to balance in our lives? When you’re young and you’re learning about adulthood it feels like there’s a pressure to lead. But sometimes it feels easier to follow. How do we do both? We just try. These feelings of intense frustration and uncertainty seem like they may be exclusive to youth, but I think we all experience them repeatedly. To hear them so shamelessly and genuinely being explored and displayed feels deeply comforting.

My best friend and I discovered a cut song called “Getting Over It” that stole our hearts. We played it for the first time on our way back from a Disney trip and I remember my mouth being agape the entire time. There are lyrics that I come back to very frequently. “I wanted to fit in but I’m getting over it… I wanted to go home but I’m getting over it.” Such a beautiful concept. Growing up, in a way, is getting over stuff. It's an understanding of the unending changes that life offers and a promise to get through, and over them all. It's about facing the world for what it truly is as opposed to the childlike wonder we look at it with at first.

I cry every time I hear the lyric “I’m not ready to put down my pencil just yet, there are too many answers that I didn’t get. I need a little less pressure and a little more time.” That feeling has never felt more real to me than it does now. It is so powerful to see a 13-year-old reach an understanding that they don’t know much and that they need more time to figure it out. Evan, throughout this musical, is just trying to find a place that he belongs amidst his whole world changing when he moves and his parents' divorce. He comes to appreciate the people around him and above all else, the beauty of taking time to grow and understand your place in the world. I’m a huge believer in taking as much time as you need to figure things out, dodging the inherent pressure in the world to have it all sorted. It’s something everyone needs to hear, young people just as much as older people.

My best friend and I turn the songs on in the car and we’ll marvel at the lyrics, and sing them and scream them. We’ve made sweaters with our favorite lyrics on it. I bought us shirts that look like the original cast merch. It was so cool how instantly we both fell in love with this silly and heartfelt show, we didn’t even have to say a word, we were just both mesmerized.

There’s something so nostalgic about falling in love with a musical. It used to happen to me every other week when I was younger (if you know you know, that 2016 Hamilton era was severe, I was musical hopping). But now that it's more infrequent I can recognize it for how beautiful it is. It’s easy for a musical to take over your life, you spend hours watching clips of it, you listen to the music, you share it with a friend. How wonderful to be enamored with something that is so full of heart and optimism! Something that people poured so much heart into. I wonder what it would have been like if I had discovered "13" earlier, maybe at 13. I’m sure I would’ve related to it a lot, but in a way, I feel like I can fully understand it now. I’m looking back at 13 at the end of 19 and I’m grateful for it. No matter how random this obsession came to me and my best friend, I’m glad this musical brought us together.

I realize I have a soft spot for musicals about growing up, i.e. my recent blog on “Kimberly Akimbo.” It’s just so easy to find comfort in these shows that are actively trying to ease people about the difficulty of aging. I hope we keep creating art like this forever! We sure do need it.

It is so cool to love musicals. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently. Falling in love with a musical is like learning a language that you immediately understand. I don’t know who I’d be without discovering a new musical every now and again, especially with a friend who gets it too. Get shizzy! Let your love of musicals take you wherever it leads.

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