A film that opens with George Benson’s “On Broadway” definitely gets off to a good start.
And yes: For the most part, writer/director Tim Federle’s endearing teen fantasy achieves its modest goals. This is a fairy tale for young theater nerds, and while the first act is a bit ragged, the story — and its talented title character — easily win us over in time.
That said, the relentless “Disneyfication” is quite distracting. This appears to be a world dominated on stage and screen solely by other Disney efforts, which is rather boorish. The Mouse House may desire world domination, but they could be more diplomatic along the way.
At low ebb, with everything apparently going wrong, Nate (Rueby Wood, center in green)
stumbles across a busking band that happens to be playing — what else? —
"On Broadway."
Anyway…
Thirteen-year-old Nate Foster (Rueby Wood, in an energetic film debut), a small-town kid, has long nurtured massive Broadway dreams; alas, nobody else shares his view of his own talent. His parents are quietly tolerant; older brother Anthony (Joshua Bassett) is horrified to discover that Nate attends school wearing — gasp, shudder — lip gloss.
The story opens on what Nate assumes will be his big day, with the newly posted school play cast list granting him the starring role in a musical about Abraham Lincoln. Instead, to his horror, he’s relegated to an ensemble part.
As a tree.
Disappointed beyond words, he’s all but immune to the comforting words of best friend Libby (Aria Brooks), who counsels patience and calls him out at the slightest whiff of a bad attitude.
Ah, but Libby also has Big News. A hot-shot New York director is mounting a Broadway musical adaptation of the 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch (ahem), and has announced an open casting call for the mischievous, blue-furred title character. Better still, this will take place on the same upcoming weekend when Nate’s parents will treat themselves to a spa experience … and therefore won’t be home to monitor their sons’ activities.
Libby has it all worked out (well, mostly). They’ll claim sleepovers with their respective parents, then hop a red-eye bus for the long trip to Manhattan. Once at the casting studio, everything will fall into place … right?
Well, no. Predictably.
The subsequent crises and setbacks are gentle and kid-level; Federle’s script doesn’t stray anywhere near the notion of New York’s mean streets being unsafe for two unchaperoned teens. The major issues are rain (they didn’t bring umbrellas) and the surprise audition edict that requires minors to be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.
Enter Nate’s beloved and worshipped-from-afar Aunt Heidi (Lisa Kudrow), who long ago pursued her own Broadway dreams, estranging herself from her sister — Nate’s mother — in the process.
Kudrow isn’t well directed, and — at least initially — she seems uncertain and uncomfortable in the role: torn between mild spasms of mature reliability, and a preference for her signature Lisa-Kudrow-total-ditz mode. As introduced, Heidi is disheveled and verbally scattered to a degree that’s almost off-putting; fortunately, her performance smoothes out as the story progresses.
The same is true of Wood. Nate’s initial hyper-passion is more disconcerting than endearing; one wants to reach into the screen, push him into a chair, and tell him to take it down several notches. His behavior becomes more reasonable once we reach Manhattan, with Nate’s quirks, tics and eccentricities now making him more sympathetic (and less startling).
Brooks’ Libby is much too cool (in a real world manner) to be seen with somebody as nerdy and frenetic as Nate, which makes their relationship here a sweet touch. Libby is equal parts best friend and surrogate parent, and Brooks handles her character with intelligence, perceptive wisdom and quiet charm.
Little Kylie Kuioka is hilarious, in a few quick scenes, as a condescending stage brat who does her best to unnerve Nate.
Although promoted as a musical, all but one of the not-that-many songs in Federle’s film are organic to a given sequence; only once does the story grind to a contrived halt, when Nate indulges in a Broadway fantasy sequence. A later busking sequence is delightful, as is the duet Wood and Brooks share over the end credits.
And if the happy ending is totally predictable, it’s also somewhat realistic, in a that’s-a-clever-compromise sort of way.
Federle comes to this project — his feature debut — quite appropriately, having created and supervised the two seasons of television’s High School Musical: The Series. He’s clearly comfortable with the genre, although he could have worked harder to get more harmonious performances from his stars.
That said, it’s hard to complain about a good-natured little film that leaves us with a smile.
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