Spring Awakening

ATTENTION: SPOILERS AHEAD

If I surrounded Altar Boyz with a ton of hype before I saw it, it paled in comparison to the hype that surrounds Spring Awakening. I was anticipating this show to be such a huge and amazing experience that I even tried going to the show a day before I was supposed to (my tickets were for Monday night, but I headed over there on Sunday night instead). I just couldn't wait to see this show...but I ended up having to, and on Monday, May 21, I finally saw the show I was so anxious to see.

The brilliance of this show begins with the writing...definitely not the original play (oh boy, I'll get to that later), but the creative team for this production were so creative in their execution, and it is unlike anything I have ever seen on Broadway. The combination of the classic dialogue, costumes, and characters, blended with a contemporary rock/folk score, lighting, set, and vocals creates a unique and rewarding theatrical experience all around.

Many people are calling this show "RENT for the new generation," which in itself is a bit disconcerting to me because I was part of the RENT generation and it makes me feel old, as well as scared that the message of "No Day But Today," is dwindling and soon be forgotten altogether. Indeed, the show has the same bare and powerful feel that RENT has, but its true message speaks to the universality of the sexual awakening in teenagers, as well as the growing rift between youth and their elders (while I believe RENT's messages are universal as well, I feel like Spring is touching on a new subject that people have been dealing with forever with the relationship between youth and their elders, teen sex and pregnancy, suicide, etc., and RENT's universal message were more cutting edge and new).

Duncan Sheik's score is rockin' from beginning to end, although it does falter a bit in the middle due to plot developments (more on that later, also). His contemporary orchestrations, powered by the accompaniment and vocals provides a throughline like nothing of its kind, and makes the entire theatrical experience highly effective.
The thing that truly makes this show worthwhile is the talent that spills their hearts out 8 times a week. Two of the actors, John Gallagher Jr. and Jonathan Groff, are nominated for Tony's, and they are well deserved. Gallagher provides a heartfelt, disturbing, commited, and surged performances as Moritz, the doomed yet blissfully naive adolescent. And Groff's portrayal of Melchior is strong, sexy, and electric (although he has a spitting problem. Sitting in the front row of the orchestra, the only thing I could think of when he crossed downstage was "Please don't let him start to sing."). Unfortunately for the third principal, Lea Michele, whose heart-breaking and passionate performance as Wendla, was overlooked for a Tony nomination. Unlike the rest of the cast, Michele has been with the show since its inception, through countless workshops, readings and productions (now 20, she has been with the show since 14). And it is safe to say that in any other year, she would definitely be in the running for a Best Actress nod, but unfortunately with the divas on the Great White Way this season, this newcomer (well, relatively new) didn't stand a chance.

Although I feel most of the supporting plotlines were vastly overlooked and overshadowed by Wendla, Moritz, and Melchior's tracks (again, more on that later), the supporting actors helped carry this show along until the final blackout. They all had great pop/rock voices, especially Skylar Astin. His song, "Touch Me" is among my favorite in the show, and his raw and solid performance started the chills that continued through the end of the show.

Surprisingly, one of my favorite staging moments was at the opening of the show. Wendla sings a ballad while standing on top of a chair and exploring her body. The other girls join her onstage for an uptempo version of the same song, and it was the first point in the show where I thought, "Ok, I'm on board with this." And in addition to "Mama Who Bore Me" and "Touch Me," Melchior's song "The Mirror-Blue Night," when he is hoisted up on a platform and does an interpretive dance while hovering above the stage while blue lights descend from the fly system was really awesome to watch (it sounds really awful and cheesy right now...guess you had to be there).

And there's nudity. And sex. Lots of sex. Very graphic sex. With boobs and butts in the air.

With all this great stuff going on, it may be shocking to learn that there were some major issues with this show. While I haven't read the play the musical is adapted from, I think it is safe to say that most of the issues I have are with the story itself, and not this musical production. The supporting characters begin to have character developments and their plots are touched on briefly. Then, with the events of the Act I finale into Act II, all other characters and plots are put on the back burner except for that of the three principal roles. And seriously, Wendla, how could you NOT figure out how to make babies?? The guy who boned you was even tutoring Moritz on the damn stuff! And further, the show seemed to be ending on a really uplifting, proactive point, with Melchior deciding to 'stick it to the man' and fight for his beliefs and the memory of Moritz and Wendla. My interest was all of a sudden peaked again (it was dwindling throughout the second act), and I thought something interesting was going to happen at the end. Instead, the lights go black, come up, and everyone sings about Purple Summer. What the fuck is purple summer anyway? And although I couldn't speak higher of Sheiks score, the sparce plot apparently calls for dreary ballads that, while beautifully sung with conviction by Michele, were there to further the plot and nothing more. So while the show took off like a rocket musically, It reached a peak in the middle of the first act, and went downhill until the finale, with a tiny bump in the middle with the exciting "Totally Fucked" (which is fun to listen to, but gains a new sense of appreciation and humor when put into context with the plot).

Overall I'd give this show a B+. I wish I could give it an A-, or even an A, but the plot just made it too hard to stay with the show through the end. The plot was sparce and predictable, and even Sheiks songwriting couldn't save my mind from wandering and my attention to go from the plot to the actors, costumes, set, band, etc.