<p>What would be an appropriate show for a group of Mothers-Daughters. Most have seen Wicked and Hairspray.</p>
<p>I was thinking Mary Poppins, and now have been reading rave reviews about "In the Heights".</p>
<p>Is Rent too depressing, and Legally Blonde too shallow (just terms I have heard used in reviews?</p>
<p>Rent can be depressing, but it is a fantastic musical. It tends to run to more adult themes, though, so you might not want to take a 13 year old to see it.</p>
<p>Mamma Mia would be great. It's a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I can't recommend it because we haven't seen it yet, but CryBaby is a new musical by the Hairspray writers & inspired by the John Waters movie. It's billed as Grease meets Hairspray -- set in 1950s Baltimore. We're heading in later this month to see it.</p>
<p>Playbill</a> News: "Tasteless, Not Offensive": Cry-Baby Readies to Rock Broadway</p>
<p>My Ds all saw Rent at a young age, but it may not be the right choice for everyone. We are a big theatre family and my kids have all been raised both on and offstage. :) I've never thought of Rent as depressing, it has a message of love, family, acceptance, and ultimate hope. </p>
<p>Legally Blonde would probably be loved by 13 year old girls. My Ds (all older than that but we had a couple of friends along in that age range) all loved the show, as did I! It is neither serious, nor intellectual theatre but it is great fun. </p>
<p>Mary Poppins is not one of my favorite shows but it does appeal to a lot of people. In the Heights is a very good show, will be interested to see how it does in a Broadway theatre. I fear this may be a mistake but hope that it's not. :)</p>
<p>Grease would probably appeal to 13 year olds but this revival is not the best, in my opinion. Xanadu is fun, too!</p>
<p>Mamma Mia is AWESOME. :) I saw it with my parents when I was about 13, and this was during the full swing of the A*Teens craze so I was singing along in my seat. :) Great fun and a good plotline.</p>
<p>We're a big theatre family too. Legally Blonde might be fun, though I haven't seen it yet and I don't really care for the look of it.</p>
<p>I'm personally a huge fan of Sweeney Todd, but I'm not sure how many girls like it...it is pretty gory at parts, but it's a great story and has some really outstanding music.</p>
<p>Some of my favorite musicals (I don't know where all of them are playing or if they're even on stage right now):</p>
<p>-The King And I
-Oklahoma!
-Assassins
-The Pajama Game
-Guys & Dolls
-Hairspray
-Wicked
-Phantom of the Opera (the broadway version is absolutely stunning).</p>
<p>I would warn against Grease...most younger kids that see it are very disappointed because the broadway version is so different from the movie they know and love (the broadway version focuses more on Rizzo and Kenicke than Danny and Sandy). Actually, this is true of a lot of musicals-made-movies...though both Hairspray and Sweeney Todd were wonderfully done. :)</p>
<p>Also, if you can get to either Lion King or Beauty and the Beast, go. They were both wonderful, and who doesn't love those stories at any age? </p>
<p>Some of my friends are also very into Titanic the musical lately. I haven't seen it, but I rather like what I've heard of the soundtrack.</p>
<p>We loved "In the Heights", but the music is hip-hop and may or may not be to your liking. "Hairspray" is tremendous fun. I know that "Mamma Mia" and "Wicked" are tough tickets to get, but both are very good, and if you get the CD ahead of time, it would be great. "Grease, Xanadu and Legally Blonde" are dumb. Take a look at the NYTimes online--some Off-Broadway shows are wonderful, very intimate and a whole lot cheaper!</p>
<p>Wicked, hands down.</p>
<p>If you can get tickets to Wicked, I'd go for it. Last summer (with kids ages 16, 14 and 11) we saw:</p>
<p>Legally Blonde - the females in the group loved it and the males in the group disliked it</p>
<p>Hairspray - everyone loved it</p>
<p>Mary Poppins - slow first act (I dozed); terrific second act.</p>
<p>There's also Little Mermaid, though I haven't seen it.</p>
<p>If it's a mothers and daughters group, I'd go for Legally Blonde.</p>
<p>I enjoyed Legally Blonde. It had a lot of energy and the choreography and music were pretty good. I didn't have high expectations, LOL, but ended up thinking it was one of the better outings last year. Very fun. Not deep, but fun.
My friend and I took our girls last year (13 years and 11 years old).</p>
<p>Mythmom suggested Mamma Mia. That would be a fun one also. </p>
<p>Wicked can be seen more than once -- don't think anyone would object to another viewing.</p>
<p>Took my then-13 yo niece to Phantom two years ago and she adored it. Got $25 seats in the back row. She lives in Georgia, and this was all totally new to her. Magic as far as she's concerned!</p>
<p>This reminds me of perhaps my worst moment as a parent. We were in New York for the day with my daughter, then 12, a friend of hers, and my son, then almost 10. We went to the TKTS booth, and decided, among the various options, to see a production of The Diary of Anne Frank starring Natalie Portman. It was perfect. Both girls had read the book and talked about it at school; my daughter was quite inspired by it.</p>
<p>When the lights came up at the end of the play, we realized with horror the awful mistake we had committed: My son had just become the first person in the history of the world to see The Diary of Anne Frank without knowing how it ended! It hadn't occurred to us that he didn't know who Anne Frank was, or what had happened to her. He was sobbing uncontrollably, barely able to breathe. He hadn't prepared himself at all for a sad ending; he was waiting for everyone to be rescued. He certainly knew that the Germans were going to lose the war. He knew about the Shoah, too -- just not that the girl played engagingly by Natalie Portman was its most famous victim.</p>
<p>It was close to 20 minutes before he got any control over his sobbing. People were looking at us like we were child abusers . . . and they were right.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, JHS, I can picture me doing the exact same thing. My son was upset at age 6 when "Pocahantas" didn't have the happy ending he expected, I can just imaging his reaction at 10 to a LIVE performance of a true story in which the teenaged heroine dies for no good reason. </p>
<p>Back to main topic - is 42nd Street still on Broadway?</p>
<p>Mama Mia is fun but be aware the main point of the plot is that the mother doesn't know which of THREE men is the father of her child - yes that's 3 guys she slept with in 2 weeks... ick.</p>
<p>Last year when I went to NY we ended up at Legally Blonde. We thought it would be a bomb but it actually was quite entertaining. Of the 3 women in our group none of us had ever seen the movie. It would be perfect for 13 yr olds. Plus the price is probably right.</p>
<p>I've never thought about Rent as depressing, and I saw it when I was 13, but it does deal with adult themes, and the show can be confusing for people who don't know the story and characters already. It's a great show, and it may be worth seeing since it's leaving Broadway this summer, but I'd suggest watching the movie together and talking about it first. You can make sure every girl is mature enough to understand, deal with, and respect the story lines, and it will also help greatly with understanding what's going on in the show. Keep in mind that sex (including, obviously, homosexuality), drugs, and poverty play big roles in the show.</p>
<p>
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is 42nd Street still on Broadway?
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</p>
<p>lafalum, nope. The revival closed more than three years ago. :)</p>
<p>Daughter walks in and sees this post. Starts humming the opening for 'Wicked'. Yes, she would see it again and again.
And again.</p>
<p>I think any musical would be a great choice for 13 year olds.</p>
<p>Legally Blonde was delightful all the way through, and I wouldn't use the term "shallow"...it shows (girls) that one can change, and rise to their potential, which they may not have realized was in them from the get go.</p>
<p>in the heights was great! really good music. I saw it off broadway, but it seemed like it could have made the move well.</p>
<p>Our most fun mother-daughter weekend ever was seeing Wicked with the original cast - long story, we actually went just as it was becoming a hit and got tickets with no problem, we actually wanted to see another show - followed the next day by Blue Man Group. We enjoyed Blue Man so much that we took DH and DS to see it later in Boston, but it is much better in NYC - that tiny, tiny theater is perfect for the whole effect.</p>