Sams Club

Jeremy Sams may not be the first person you'd think of to direct Jason Robert Brown's new musical about and starring tweens, 13 (Todd Graff, of Camp semi-fame, directed the show in its L.A. bow a few years back). I know Sams' name primarily from Indiscretions, which he directed on Broadway way back in the '90s, and from his crackerjack English (very English) translation of Threepenny Opera (which I relished at the Open Fist Theatre in L.A. some years back, but which has yet to play in NY).

But Sams is a great interview, and after I was done chatting about 13-year-olds (Sams has one himself, in fact, with his wife Maria Friedman) for Time Out Kids, we nerded out on Sondheim, Weill, and the craft of musical theater. Incidentally, 13 happens to be competing for the teenage theater audience (such as it is) up against two big Brit imports, Billy Elliott and Equus (unlikely, I know, but trust me--the appearance of Harry Potter on Broadway is all that's on some teens' minds this fall).