Hi
Can anyone help.
First visit to New York. What broadway show is well worth booking. Has to be suitable for an early teen as well.

Rent is always a big hit with teens - but if yours is very sheltered or unsophisticated some of the themes might be too much. (My 14 year old nephew and his 13 yo friend loved it - but they're new york kids.)

Otherwise hairspray - or perhaps Stomp.

Everyone seems to love Wicked - but ticketd are not easy.

Is Lion King still running? Cannot beat this one for ANY age.

Spamalot - if you can get tix.

" but if yours is very sheltered or unsophisticated some of the themes might be too much. (My 14 year old nephew and his 13 yo friend loved it - but they're new york kids.)"

In other words, if you're from Iowa your kids won't be able to handle it since they are sheltered, unsophisticated rubes. Good grief, even if someone actually thinks like this you would think they would have more scruples to word it differently...how about, "Rent contains mature themes so you may want to investigate the story more before you decide to take an early teen."

This is the main reason why after 7 years of living in NYC my wife and I are looking to move out (My God, the horrors! Why would anyone leave?)--I love the city but hate the uber-pretentious attitude. We've never been able to fully assimilate with the natives, and virtually all of our friends are from college/professional school who moved to NYC from flyover country like we did and are moving back once they start having kids. Considering the sorry state of NYC public schools if we want to have kids we really have little choice in the matter anyway unless we want to spend a fortune on education we can get for free in the unsophisticated parts of the country.

But to answer your question...Wicked is a fantastic production. We've seen it twice...we preferred Chenowith/Menzel but the new cast is also good.

I've never like Rent; seen it 3 times, left unimpressed 3 times.

Lion King is another great production, I haven't seen it in 5 years so can't tell you about the current cast.

Beauty and the Beast is ok...I wouldn't pay full price for a ticket but if you like the story its a good production.

Haven't seen Hairspray, heard good things.

Headed back next week - have tix to La Cage, Wicked (second time! glad to hear the new cast is good), and Spamalot. Heard Spamalot is sold out til May.

LOVED Wicked but heard tickets are hard to get - teen would enjoy that one.

Still in previews, All Shook Up is a ton of fun and appropriate for a young teen.

If I was taking a young teen to the theater, my first choices would be Stomp and Blue Man Group...if your main criterion is something he/she would like. (They wouldn't be my first choice for adults!)
I think a young teen is too young for Rent.
Since I'm in the minority who did not like Wicked and neither did the young teen we took(!), I won't recommend that show. However, he really liked both Hairspray and Fiddler on the Roof

Oh, I totally forgot about the off-Broadway Blue Man Group. My daughter and I attended a performance last year and left the theater totally exhausted from laughing so much. It is wonderful.

For a first visit to NY I think a real Broadway show is a must. Hairspray and Wicked would be good choices for a young teen.

NYJets -

Sorry you are so unhappy in NYC - its true not everyone can assimilate here. That was not aimed at people from Iowa - but at parents who know their own children best. Some kids everywhere are more sophisticated than others - and only the parents will know that. Besides - who says the poster is from Iowa?

(IMHO kids who don;t grow up in big cities may bet - depending on the kid - less aware of some aspects of life than big city kids - is it a crime to mention this??)

Beauty and the Beast was our favorite of the three shows we watched in NYC over New Year's Eve this year. We also saw Chicago-just ok to us-and the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular-terrible to us.

I must buy a new dictionary. I wasn't aware that "sophisticated" refers to the amount of understanding and knowledge a person has of sex, drugs, and violence.

Well, Patrick, the third definition of "sophisticate" on dictionary.com is "To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly" which applies I think. (Sorry, don't want to get involved in the debate - just a word dork.)

Wicked!