She gives Nate some good auditioning advice and lets him stay with her when he gets a callback. When they discover they cannot audition without a parent or guardian, they conveniently run into Nate’s Aunt Heidi (the ever-delightful Lisa Kudrow), an actress supporting herself as a caterer.

Conveniently, Nate’s parents and brother will be away for the weekend, so he and Libby sneak off to Manhattan on an overnight bus. She comforts him when he loses out on the school play with the news that there are open auditions in New York for a new musical based on “ Lilo and Stitch,” the animated Disney film about a Hawaiian girl who befriends a space creature. Nate’s best and apparently only friend is Libby ( Aria Brooks, who has perfected the snap of the Eve Arden-style best-friend delivery). That does not happen, but an even bigger dream appears, leading to an adventure that is exciting, musical, and heartwarming. Nate (newcomer Rueby Wood) wakes up to George Benson’s “On Broadway,” and dances in his bunny slippers, excited and anxious to find out if he has been cast as the lead in the middle school musical about Abraham Lincoln.

Writer/director Tom Federle is a former Broadway dancer who wrote the book this movie is based on and is the showrunner for “High School Musical: The Musical.” Every moment in 'Better Nate Than Ever' reflects his own deep love for musicals and for the people who create them. He also knows that Wicked should have beat Avenue Q for the 2004 Tony award and that somehow, some day, he is destined to perform. That is the case with the title character of “Better Nate Than Ever,” a Pittsburgh seventh grader who knows all the lyrics to “Corner of the Sky” from the 1970s musical Pippin. Also unfortunately, those middle schools are often a far distance from Broadway. Unfortunately, theater kids often have a really tough time in middle school. If not for the mysterious but unquenchable spark in the kids born loving plays and musicals, who would tell our stories? These are the children and teenagers who grow up to create “ My Fair Lady,” “ Hamilton,” “Mamma Mia,” “Les Miserables,” and “The Sound of Music.” They are the people who make us laugh, cry, stand up and cheer, and dance in the aisles.

Better nate than ever book series