Better Nate Than Ever – A Review

Better Nate Than Ever comes from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series creator Tim Federle based on his novel of the same name. Even if this film did not include High School: Musical: The Musical: The Series lead Joshua Bassett in a supporting role, it would’ve been obvious this film came from the same creator. Both Disney+ entries have the same humour and deep love for all things theatre.

Rueby Wood plays the titular Nate, a total theatre nerd but with the vocal chops to back it up. Unsung and relegated to the background at his school his life seems to be on a rebound when his best friend Libby (played by Aria Brooks) finds out about open call auditions for “Lilo and Stitch The Musical” in New York, and all the stars align for these middle schoolers to sneak off to New York alone from Pittsburgh. Rueby Wood is a young guy who currently has a soprano vocal range. In his middle school production of Lincoln, it is unlikely he would’ve been able to carry what would’ve probably been a lower vocal part that the music director would’ve unlikely wanted to rearrange for him. His voice is perfect for musical boy parts (ie Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd, Jojo in Seussical, and Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which Rueby Wood played in real life), so it is weird that with the talent (and enthusiasm) he possesses he was not cast as Lincoln’s son. But these setbacks were plot devices needed to motivate him to set off on his journey.

Nate has built a fantasy of New York, one that is very much a stage set and lives stuck in the 50s, but he is undeterred by the reality of New York and the bags of trash, or the subway. He takes everything in the stride of youthful innocence that most of us have unfortunately lost along the way. Like one of his favourite musicals, he’s dancing through life. Though of course, some of that is a front to cover for not feeling like he belongs, and all that comes to a head at his final callback where he has to either let those inner insecurities let him crumble or sing out and show that he belongs.

There were lots of veiled references to queerness. Normally, I would just let those pass. As someone that went to an arts high school, I’m very familiar with a generalization by people both within and outside of the arts to lump guys interested in music theatre as gay. Very few guys were in my music theatre major, in large part because this preconception would be placed on their sexuality that they are only still just discovering. Nate may be gay, bi, straight, or a myriad of other things, and until he’s ready to do more than identify as someone that knows all the lyrics to “Corners of the Sky,” that’s okay. However, these nudges at his queerness, but never fully voiced, by outside characters, appear in a new light under the recent statements made by other writers within Disney General Entertainment about how they had to scale back queer characters from their work (most notably the Pixar Letter). So, despite having openly gay characters on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, I was left wondering if all the implied queerness in Better Nate Than Ever was a creative choice to not fully impose on a character still in the discovery phase, or if Nate wasn’t allowed to be an openly gay/queer character because the target audience for Better Nate Than Ever is younger than High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. 

Better Nate Than Ever is available on Disney+.

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