13 - The Musical @ C

Let's play a word association game: 13; teenager; high school; Bar-Mitzvah -- and there is the basic plot of 13 - The Musical.

Evan is a gawky teen from New York who has been moved to “The Lamest Place in the World” - Appleton, Indiana. In a desperate attempt to become popular he invites his whole class to his Bar-Mitzvah (it seems almost as though the remaining hour of the play is somewhat pointless as we all know how that's going to turn out). In his mission to ensure they actually attend we meet Archie, the novelty cripple, who lucked out in his role as he is undoubtedly given the best lines with classics such as “soon I'll be tapping into her special needs.”

Despite being Evan's love interest, Patrice does seem to fade away as a character after some quality Catholic-bashing at the beginning, but does regain attention whenever she belts out another cheesy number. It is unfortunate that the sound engineer couldn't keep up with her, as her voice was something to hear in itself.

The scene to see is the bold kiss between Evan and Patrice where you could actually feel the reminiscent butterflies of that first kiss. Evan's face at this moment is so familiar and convincing it does make you wonder ...