How ’13: The Musical’ Mixes Broadway Energy With a TikTok Vibe

variety.com:

Carole Horst Choreographer Jamal Sims, DP Adam Santelli and casting directors Kristian Charbonier and Bernard Tesley helped director Tamra Davis realize her vision in adapting “13: The Musical” from the Broadway stage to Netflix, where it is now streaming Davis, who had directed more than 150 music videos, and had done episodes of Disney+’s “High School Musical: The Musical,” says she not only wanted to acknowledge classic Broadway tropes but also “bring all my knowledge from music videos and pop culture and what I think will appeal to contemporary kids.” She and Sims created high-energy numbers that reference classic musicals as well as TikTok trends in dance and camera moves.   “13: The Musical” follows Evan (Eli Golden), a New York City boy who’s deep into studying for his bar mitzvah — and planning the party for it (he calls it the “Jewish Super Bowl”).

But his parents are divorced, and mom (Debra Messing) decides that she and Eli should move back to their hometown in Indiana.

There, Evan makes new friends and adapts to the Midwest. He even manages to have a great bar mitzvah party. The film kicks off before the move west, with a song and dance through Manhattan as Evan sings about the angst of being 13.

He’s joined along the way, Pied Piper-style, by a gaggle of other teens, who sing and dance through Manhattan’s Upper West Side while the number climaxes in Central Park in an homage to the movie “Hair.”  “New York has a natural upbeat pace to it already — the cabs going by, the cars going by, the people walking by.