“The seventh and eighth grades were for me, and for every good and single interesting person I’ve ever known, what the writers of the Bible meant when they used the words hell and the pit. Seventh and eighth grades were a place into which one descended. One descended from the relative safety and wildness and bigness one felt in sixth grade, eleven years old. Then the worm turned, and it was all over for any small feeling that one was essentially all right. One wasn’t. One was no longer just some kid. One was suddenly a Diane Arbus character. It was springtime, for Hitler, and Germany.”
-Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions

I can’t read Lamott’s spot-on description of the seventh and eighth grades without getting that heebie-jeebie feeling that someone has just walked over my grave. In one simple, cringe-inducing paragraph, she perfectly nails the horror so peculiar to those years. The same cannot be said of the new musical, “13”, which opened this month at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, although in its defense: a) its target audience might not be a 37-year old mother of toddlers (despite the fact that its composer and lyricist, Jason Robert Brown, best known for “Parade” and “The Last Five Years,” is 38 years old and the father of a toddler) and b) its intent may not have been to dredge up particularly painful memories of the ‘tween (although that term had not even been coined when I was that age) years.

Evan (an earnest and likable Graham Phillips) is about to turn 13 and his world is falling apart. His dad left his mom for a stewardess and now his mom is moving him from the security of his Upper West Side enclave to Appleton, Indiana, touted as “the lamest place in the world” by one of the show’s songs. To make matters even worse, all of this has happened on the eve of what Evan calls the “Jewish Superbowl”—his bar mitzvah. How in the world will he ever get all of the cool kids at his new junior high to come to The Most Important Event of His Life when he’s not only the new kid in town, but also the first Jewish person any of them have ever met?

Things start looking up for Evan when he meets Patrice (singing powerhouse Allie Trimm) and they hit it off splendidly—until school starts, that is, and Evan learns that he must choose between his new friend, who just happens to be the biggest geek in school, and being part of the in crowd. The leaders of the pack at his new junior high are Brett (Eric M. Nelsen), a shaggy blond skater dude and football player who apparently was cutting class the day they handed out brains, Kendra (Delaney Moro), the willowy, virginal cheerleader after whom Brett lusts and who evokes images of Jennie Garth as Kelly Taylor in the original “Beverly Hills 90210” (but I date myself here), and Kendra’s queen bee mean girl BFF, Lucy (Elizabeth Egan Gillies).

Evan, single-mindedly focused on throwing the best bar mitzvah ever at any cost, initially ditches Patrice and panders to the popular crowd. After a series of mishaps involving a slasher movie, an unexpected kiss, and a show-down at the Dairy Queen, however, he has a rare moment of clarity for a 13-year old and realizes how much he wants to make things right with Patrice–and what a complete bunch of morons the popular clique really is.

Both the show’s rock band and the 13-member cast are all bona fide teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 15, with one lone 17-year-old thrown in—quite refreshing in this age of 26-year-olds cast to play budding adolescents. Aside from the all-teen cast, though, there’s nothing else that really sets this show apart. “13” will not make you laugh until you have tears running down your face like the irreverent “Avenue Q” nor does it pack the emotional punch of the innovative “Spring Awakening,” two Tony-award-winning coming-of-age shows also currently on Broadway. It is not a show for the 30-something set—or probably any age group outside of its own cast’s age range—but if you’re looking for some age-appropriate entertainment for your ‘tween, this simple, sweet, and mildly entertaining fare—a sort of Broadway version of “High School Musical”–may be just the thing.

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On Thursday September 12, 2008, I took my 4 year old son to see The Green Sheep at The New Victory Theater.

The show was about the green sheep that no one could find. Along the way the audience is introduced to all different kind of sheep. There were red sheep, blue sheep, bath sheep, car sheep, train sheep (which my son loved the best), every type of sheep there is.

The best thing about the show is that it’s very interactive. When you first arrive children are given crayons and a picture of a sheep to color. When the show is ready to start everyone is moved into a big sheep den, it does not matter where you sit because the sheep are all around the den, so everyone has the perfect seat. The performers come into the den from time to time to make the audience feel even more involved. In the end of course they find the green sheep. But that’s not the end of the experience because then the audience can walk around and touch or play with all the sheep. They can listen to one of the performers read the story the performance was based on or they can play the instruments that were used in the performance.

The Green Sheep is a perfect show for toddlers and preschoolers because it is so interactive and at 45 minutes, it’s just long enough to keep their short attention spans interested. My son loved it so much that I am going back to see it again. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

-Review by Mom in the City member and reviewer Robbin Gangone

Best for ages 1 to 5, The Green Sheep runs at The New Victory Theater until September 28th. Ticket prices are $14 (member tickets) and $20 (regular tickets).

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Both my son, Charlie, and I were skeptical about Pinkalicious, the musical based on the best-selling children’s book of the same name currently playing at New World Stages. Charlie’s dubiety arose from the fact that, at three and a half years old, he worships at the altar of all things boy these days—the creepier and crawlier, the better—and has recently made what I hope is the developmentally normal, but which I fear might smack of out-and-out misogyny, declaration that the color pink is only for girls. I, on the other hand, just wasn’t sure if there would be enough material from the book to sustain a full-fledged musical.

The show opens with the story’s pigtailed and pink-clad precocious young heroine, Pinkalicious, belting out an anthem about her favorite thing in the whole world—the color pink—and greedily gobbling pink cupcake after pink cupcake. When her beleaguered parents finally put the kibosh on her cupcake consumption, Pinkalicious stomps off to her room in a snit and falls into a restless sleep, visions of pink cupcakes dancing through her head during the night.

When she wakes up the next morning, she discovers, much to her delight and her parents’ horror, that she has turned the color of raspberry sorbet. When no amount of scrubbing will diminish the pink, her parents cart her off to the doctor, who diagnoses her with a severe case of Pinkititis and prescribes a steady course of green foods. Her parents dutifully whip up a smorgasbord of Brussels sprout burgers, asparagus milkshakes, and broccoli Popsicles, but to no avail. Pinkalicious refuses to allow a single green morsel to pass her lips, but sneaks to the kitchen after lights out to sate her pink cupcake craving. This proves to be her undoing. Overnight, Pinkalicious changes from pink to bright red and is forced to finally admit that there can be too much of a good thing.

Enlisting the help of her younger brother, Peter, she learns to love her greens and transforms back to her normal color. Peter, however, who earlier in the show crooned a bluesy number called “The Pink Blues” revealing his own clandestine love affair with the color pink, gives into the pink cupcake temptation and turns a lovely shade of hot pink at the show’s conclusion.

Both Charlie and I liked Peter—Charlie, I suspect, because he got away with some pretty silly antics onstage and I for the fact that in Peter, the show’s creators got to thumb their noses at gender norms and assert that, of course it’s okay for boys to like pink. At the risk of revealing too much of my own stay-at-home mom personality, I also felt a special affinity for Pinkalicious’s mother, who emerges as much more of a presence in the show than she did in the book. She’s a Type-A, constantly cleaning, laptop-tapping, deep cleansing breath-taking New York City mom stereotype who spends the majority of her stage time yelling at her two kids and throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. The show fleshed out some areas that the book had not, but still managed to stay true to its message of “everything in moderation” by finishing up in under an hour, thus keeping preschooler attention at its maximum and antsiness to a minimum.

After the show, Charlie and I satisfied our own cupcake longings at Magnolia Bakery (200 Columbus Avenue @ 69th Street), where Charlie made me proud by ordering not only a pink cupcake with no prodding, but one very fancily decorated with a pretty sugar flower on top to boot. And my boy, who has a sweet tooth the size of Minnesota and has been known to snarf down as many cupcakes as he can get away with before being caught at birthday parties and other sugar-laden gatherings, very solemnly declared that he would have just one cupcake, but no more. I don’t know if he was more afraid of turning pink or being force-fed an all-green vegetable diet, but he took the added precaution of eating only half his cupcake at the bakery and saving the other half to take home. You, too, can enjoy this some-for-now-and-some-for-later approach by going to see Pinkalicious now through September 21st, and buying the book to read time and time again after the show closes later next month.

Things to know before you go: Pinkalicious: The Musical; New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues); (212) 239-6200; www.vitaltheatre.org ; Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and Sundays at 12:00 p.m. through September 21 (except for September 13-14); Tickets: $29.50; Ages: 3-12

-Review by Mom in the City member and reviewer Jennifer Lehner

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Mom in the City member and reviewer Devon Morales had the opportunity to see Walking With Dinosaurs at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Below, she shares her thoughts. (You can find the show’s 2008 North American Tour Schedule here.)


Embark on a journey back in time with a fearless paleontologist as he takes a stadium full of time travelers “Walking with Dinosaurs”.

My entire family had a wonderful experience and we enthusiastically recommend this show for adventure seekers of all ages (especially for ages 2.5 to 10).

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Yesterday, my husband, sons and I went to see The Paper Bag Players’ On Top of Spaghetti at Riverbank State Park. It was excellent! (On a side note, it was days like yesterday that make me so grateful that my husband switched his profession from being a computer programmer to a teacher. Becoming an eighth grade math teacher for the last school year was extremely difficult, but the summers off from work – PRICELESS!)

On Top of Spaghetti was actually a combination of short skits featuring the title story (which happens to be one of Michael’s favorite books). The great thing about the show besides the excellent actors was that it was very interactive. The kids in the audience were singing/chanting/giving the actors direction/etc. in practically every skit. The play was also relatively short (a little less than an hour), so it kept the kids’ attention.

If you have kids ages four to nine (even though my 16 months old son Sean thoroughly enjoyed the performance also – he was laughing like the bigger kids!) I highly recommend The Paper Bag Players. Many of their performances are free and the ones that are not free are very reasonably priced.

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Our family went to see The Backyardigans Live! Tale of the Mighty Knights at Madison Square Garden this past Father’s Day. For those of you not familiar with The Backyardigans, the show is an animated musical-adventure series aimed at children between the ages of 2 and 10. In each episode, the show’s five preschool friends—Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha, and Austin—rely on their vivid imaginations to transform their backyard into completely different worlds, in which they go through many sorts of stories and adventures. (via wikipedia)

In this particular adventure, Knights Uniqua and Tyrone are given their most important assignment ever by King Pablo. The task - to protect an egg. “Babysit an egg?!” exclaims Uniqua, “This doth stink!” But the two knights soon learn that this is no ordinary egg, but a very unpredictable one that takes them on an exciting adventure. Along the way, Grabbing Goblin Austin and Flighty Fairy Tasha join the medieval mayhem as the runaway egg hatches feet and wings and makes an unexpected dash all the way up to Dragon Mountain! The Backyardigans use the audience’s help to face a mighty dragon and safely return the egg to the King Pablo.

The show is a lively one with lots of participation from the audience – singing, dancing, and question and answer with the performers on stage. The actor that plays Uniqua is a superb dancer. She has the rad moves!

Being the first live show that we’ve seen with our now 2 year old, I was a little apprehensive of what I thought the experience would be. I expected a lot of loud music and bright lights that would startle his and make his anxious. He still tends to be startled by the loud environmental of New York City. But my fears were assuaged during the first few minutes of the show. The volume of music and dialogue was just right for tiny, sensitive ears. Lee’s dad even commented that for a show with so many little babies, he expected to hear a lot of screaming and crying, but that was not the case. My only disappointment with the show was that we didn’t get a souvenir program and I didn’t see any for sale. Otherwise it was a wonderful experience and one I highly recommend.

Mighty Knights are mighty nice!

-This review is by Mom in the City member Mahalia Watson. The Backyardigans Live are currently touring the country.

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I took my four year old son to see A (Tooth) Fairy Tale. Theatre is one of my favorite perks of living in the city and this was such a great little play!

Basically, the story is about a little boy (Samuel) who does not like following rules. After setting a trap and catching The Tooth Fairy, Samuel trades places with her for a while. (The Tooth Fairy was tired of doing the same old thing and needed a vacation herself!) Of course, the role changes lead to some mishaps, but all ends well.

All of the actors and actresses did a great job, but I think that the main reason I liked the play is that the Upper West Side was one of the focal points. (The Upper West Side was the first place that I lived in Manhattan - as a student at Columbia - and it is still my absolute favorite part of Manhattan. If I ever hit the lottery (which I don’t play?!) that’s where I would live as long as possible!) I also liked the fact that the cast signed the kids’ programs after the show.

In any event, if you get the chance, I recommend seeing a Vital Theatre Company production.

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I (Kimberly) went to see Mother Load (http://motherloadshow.com/) last Friday.  This one woman show starring Amy Wilson was excellent!  The show unfolds as Amy talks while cleaning up her messy living room (scattered magazines, clothing that needs to be folded, and toys that need to be put up) which resembles any city parent’s home.  As she cleans, Amy shares about all of her shortcomings as a mother.  The mood swings from touching (i.e. when she shares her struggles with infertility and despair at not being able to comfort her colicky son) to humorous (i.e. the unrealistic expectations which the media sets for moms and the insanity of preschool admission process). At all times though, there is an authenticity that makes other moms relate to Amy’s experiences.  (Afterwards, I heard a mom of older children say, “I had totally forgotten about mastitis.”)  In the end, Amy messes back up the living room which she had just cleaned.  She decides to let go of her quest for perfection as a mom and to stop feeling guilty about her shortcomings.  She realizes that kids grow up so quickly (which they do!) and she wants to live in such a way where she can look back and say that their years with her were “the happiest days of her life”.  What a great reminder for all of us moms!  I highly recommend this play.

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I took my son to the preview of the Big Apple Circus’ carnival-themed “Step Right Up” performance at Lincoln Center last night.  It was so great!  The adults in the audience were having as much (if not more!) fun than the kids.  In fact, there were several couples that were there on a date without the kids.  The jugglers, acrobats and bicyclists were my favorites.    My son’s favorites were the performing dogs and horses.  He also loved “Grandma” flying through the air.  After the circus, he said “Thank you Mommy for the circus.  Good job!”  (That’s a pretty good endorsement from a 2 year old.)  Highly recommended.

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