Theater News

Jason Robert Brown's Musical 13 Set for Netflix Movie Adaptation

The original 2008 production featured the Broadway debut of a 15-year-old Ariana Grande.

Bethany Rickwald
Broadway Los Angeles New York City
Cover art for the 2008 Original Broadway Cast Recording of 13.
Cover art for the 2008 original Broadway cast recording of 13.

Jason Robert Brown's 2008 musical 13 is set to be adapted by Netflix into a family film, according to Deadline. Tony winner Robert Horn (Tootsie) will adapt the script, which will be based on the original book Horn wrote with Dan Elish. Tamra Davis (Crossroads) will direct.

13, which follows New York teenager Evan Goldman as he's forced to move with his mom to Indiana, played 105 performances at the Jacobs Theatre, following a run at the Mark Taper Forum.

The show is notable for having launched the careers of several future stage and screen talents: pop star Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Gilles (Dynasty), and Graham Phillips (Riverdale), among them. Jeremy Sams directed, with choreography by Christopher Gattelli and musical direction by Tom Kitt.

Jason Robert Brown is the winner of five Tony Awards, and his Broadway shows also include Honeymoon in Vegas, The Bridges of Madison County, and Parade. In addition, Brown's musical The Last Five Years has been turned into a movie starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.