<p>I saw Legally Blonde this weekend with very low expectations and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think 13 year olds would enjoy it. It isn’t up to Wicked standards, but if you look on broadwaybox.com you can find a discount code and get a good deal. We bought our tickets a week or so in advance.</p>
<p>Depends on the girls (and moms) but Spamalot was hysterical - H and I both loved it, and our 10 year old son saw it at as a birthday party. More boy humor, perhaps, but lots of fun. I would also second In the Heights - lots of great energy, dancing, and very New York.</p>
<p>My 13 year old LOVED Mary Poppins. She says it’s as good as Wicked. It is staged wonderfully- I loved it, my mom was with us loved it and my cranky sister loved it. I would recommend it highly. She has seen RENT- didn’t have the same reaction- we liked Wedding Singer in the traveling show this last week but she is still talking about MARY POPPINS!</p>
<p>We were in New York last year, with a than sixteen year old and fourteen year old. While Mary Poppins was pretty to look at and had some spectacular dancing, everyone was pretty much bored by the end.
Wicked is a great choice, as is Hairspray. I was underwhelmed by Mamma Mia. Curtains with David Hyde Pierce is an old-fashioned musical comedy murder mystery. We liked it, but your daughter may or may not. Drowsy Chaperone was great, but I think it’s closed now. Girls that age tend to LOVE Phantom.
No one has mentioned Spring Awakening. My daughters LOVED it. HOWEVER – big However – it may not be something you are comfortable with it, as it deals with teenage sex, suicide, and other very LARGE issues, set in a nineteenth century German setting, with modern music.</p>
<p>Unless you know all of the moms and daughters very well, don’t choose Rent or Spring Awakening…if one of the moms or daughters is uncomfortable with the subject matter, it will be “your fault.”</p>
<p>DD and I saw Phantom in London when she was that age. She loved it. She also loved Wicked and years ago her first Broadway show was Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters. I still have all the songs memorized and I didn’t go to the show! I think she wore the CD out.
I heard mixed reviews of Mary Poppins. I would opt for Phantom.</p>
<p>My vote is for Wicked also, with Mary Poppins a close second. It’s really neat when Mary flies into the balcony. My neighbors son is a dancer in MP and he took us on a backstage tour afterwards. Too cool!</p>
<p>I agree with the Blue Men group too, lots of interactive FUN!</p>
<p>What about South Pacific? You’d be surprised how much teenagers will enjoy real classic musicals like that.
My kids (13 and 16) enjoyed Rent, but didn’t think it was that great. They think (and I agree) that there’s only one good song in it. It has some adult themes, but I thought it was OK. Phantom is pretty good if you’ve never seen it, and it has two good songs in it (you will hear them numerous times).
Off-Broadway shows like Stomp and Blue Man Group are lots of fun, too.</p>
<p>South Pacific would be a great choice. As would Spamalot. In fact, my D saw Spamalot when she was 13 & it inspired her to view our Monty Python DVDs.</p>
<p>How about The Fantastiks? Its revival is running now. Beautiful little show; the boy and girl are both teens.</p>
<p>Sunday in the Park with George is also a wonderful show, presented by Roundabout Theater Company. The way the cast makes a living tableau of the painting is breathtaking.</p>
<p>I guess I’m a sourpuss, but my family thought Fantastiks was kind of boring. It does have one good song, though.</p>
<p>[Broadway.com</a> Show Tickets Guide: New York & London Theater Tickets and Information - Broadway, Off-Broadway Theater Tickets](<a href=“http://www.broadway.com/gen/concierge.aspx]Broadway.com”>Broadway Show Tickets | Broadway.com)</p>
<p>^ Lets you know what’s showing (musicals + plays both on/off Broadway), plus has some descriptions, video segments, etc. </p>
<p>Rent: I’ll second a few others and caution you not to take a group (any age, really) unless you know the people quite well, and/or you know that they’re very familiar with the themes of the show. You can watch the movie to get a good (though not perfect) approximation of content + tone. </p>
<p>Hairspray and Wicked: Obvious great choices, but you say a number of the girls have already seen them. Both enjoyable enough that that might not even be a problem!</p>
<p>Billy Elliott: There is a lot of swearing, but it’s a good show with a young teen lead. I haven’t seen the movie in years, but I imagine that it’s comparable. Might be a good option if you want something enjoyable but a little more ‘serious.’ </p>
<p>Disney. Disney knows how to put on a show, no question. The trouble is that they stick pretty closely to their movies, so if the kids already know the stories well, the stage versions can seem to drag ooooon and oooon. That said, I did enjoy Mary Poppins. I don’t know about The Little Mermaid, but it does have the novelty of being new.</p>
<p>Jersey Boys: My parents recently saw and loved this show. They said that you didn’t have to be familiar with the music to enjoy it. I’ve read elsewhere online that it would be appropriate for young teens, but I can’t speak from experience.</p>
<p>Phantom of the Opera: I personally think that if a number of the girls have seen big shows before, there are better options. It’s just never held my attention, beautiful though it is. I know that I may be in the extreme minority in that opinion, but there you have it…it’s exactly what I thought as a 12 year old girl.</p>
<p>Other: Mamma Mia is fun and happy, plus, it’s coming out as a movie pretty soon, so the girls might enjoy seeing a stage ‘preview.’ Legally Blonde sounds like a lot of fun! I don’t know anything about Shrek the Musical, but it also sounds like it may be worth looking into. Along with reading reviews, you can check broadway.com or YouTube to see if you can find any video clips.</p>
<p>Bottom-line: lots of options! Should be a fun trip. Good luck choosing :)</p>
<p>ETA: I just looked at a short video clip from *Legally Blonde<a href=“located%20in%20the%20%22Word%20of%20Mouth%22%20review%20on%20the%20show’s%20broadway.com%20page”>/I</a>. Looks like a ton of fun, but my very first thought was that every single girl in your group might be singing the music for who-knows-how-long afterwards. I’ll let you watch + decide for yourself how you feel about that ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, the “Oh my g_d you guys” song is now going through my head. Legally Blonde is a fun show. (And the t-shirts are cute, too.)</p>
<p>So we are going to vote on it, and go with the majority, choosing between:</p>
<p>Legally Blonde
Wicked
Mary Poppins</p>
<p>depending on discounts. We may actually wait until the Fall, all the girls will be 14, though I don’t believe that any of those 3 shows have questionable material?.</p>
<p>Little Mermaid would be fantastic if there were any discounts.</p>
<p>I also hear that Gypsy is a great one, about a stage mom. Any thoughts on Gypsy?</p>
<p>Spring Awakening would be a little racy for some of the MOMS :eek: in the group !!!</p>
<p>I get so tired of Gypsy. I just don’t think it’s that great of a show, no matter who is in the cast.</p>
<p>Legally Blonde is not Disney clean, but only the very very strict would consider it questionable. There’s a song at the trial about the pool boy called, “Is he Gay or European?” (I have one very religious neighbor who insists that her 6th grader doesn’t know what “gay” means but we know otherwise; she might object to the song-few others would.) In the big fun opening song, they repeatedly sing “Oh my God you guys…” I know that that would make my mother very uncomfortable because it is taking the Lord’s name in vain. That’s all I can think of. It’s fun and cute and has catchy songs.</p>
<p>By the way, last summer we were able to get discount tickets to Legally Blonde and Hairspray. We paid full price for Mary Poppins. Couldn’t get tickets to Wicked without paying above face value.</p>
<p>If you happen to see Mary Poppins, have the girls (and moms) Netflix the movie “Funny Girl.” Mary Poppins is in the New Amsterdam Theatre where Zigfield/Fanny Brice used to be. If the girls watch Funny Girl before hand, they’ll appreciate the theatre.</p>
<p>Final thing: If you see any of the Disney shows, seat cushions are available to make the viewer a couple of inches taller. Some 14 year olds are still a bit height challenged, so that can help. Just ask the usher where to get them; they’re free.</p>
<p>Gypsy is an amazing show. It was a vehicle for Ethel Merman when she was already well past the bloom of youth, and is essentially the story of a stage mother who railroads her daughters into vaudeville stardom just as vaudeville is declining. It has a dark edge to it – the mother is full of bossiness and rage; the one daughter who becomes a star makes it as a stripper.</p>
<p>It features some great songs – the most famous are “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”, “Let Me Entertain You”, “Together”, and “You Gotta Have A Gimmick”. Jule Styne wrote the music, Arthur Laurents the book, and a very young Stephen Sondheim the fabulous lyrics (the last time he would work as only a lyricist):</p>
<p>You can pull all the stops out til they call the cops out
Grind your behind til you’re banned
But you gotta get a gimmick if you want to get a hand</p>
<p>You can sacrifice your sacro working in the back row
Bump in a dump til you’re dead
But you gotta get a gimmick if you want to get ahead</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>Got my suit pressed, got my best vest
All I need now is the girl
Got my striped tie, got my hopes high
Got the time and the place and I got rhythm
Now all I need’s the girl to go with 'em
If she’ll just appear, we’ll take this big town for a whirl
And if she’ll say “My darling I’m yours” I’ll throw away
My striped tie and my best-pressed tweed
All I really need is the girl</p>
<p>[sigh – Sondheim was a brilliant lyricist – maybe the best ever]</p>
<p>^Yes, Sondheim is amazing! The lyrics in Sweeney Todd are full of great puns and jokes that you only really get if you listen carefully.</p>
<p>It’s priest, have a little priest.
Is it really good?
Sir it’s too good, at least!
Then again they don’t commit sins of the flesh, so it’s pretty fresh.
Awful lot of fat.
Only where it sat.
Haven’t you got poet or something like that?
No you see the trouble with poet is how do you know it’s deceased?
Try the priest!</p>
<p>LOVE IT. My favorite musical of all time.</p>
<p>Chicago is always great fun, but it’s a little risky for girls of that age. Although I saw it for the first time at about 13…depends on the parents I suppose.</p>
<p>Can I just say that I must have been the last person on earth to see A Chorus Line? I thought it was about dancers who really wanted to be in a show. I thought it was an American classic.</p>
<p>So there we were in 6th row, center … :eek:</p>
<p>It IS about dancers who really want to be in a show, and it IS an American classic (although not my favorite, that’s for sure). You just had some erroneous preconceptions about what those terms mean.</p>
<p>Putnam County Spelling Bee. It doesn’t have the sets, costumes and impact of a show like “Wicked” but it’s very sweet, very funny and I think would appeal to 13 year olds (and others). You walk into the theater and realize you’re in a school gymnasium. People can volunteer to be in the show and a few are chosen. The characters would be familiar to anyone who’s ever been 13 or gone to a middle school.</p>