-
- Everything about Spring Awakening, which
premiered off-Broadway in 2006 at the Atlantic before opening on
Broadway the following year, subsequently receiving 11 Tony
nominations and winning eight—including Best Musical, Direction, Book,
Score, and Featured Actor, as well as four Drama Desk including
Outstanding Musical of 2007—is a major treat and sure to send the
genre of the American musical into glorious new directions.
In its second showing in Lost
Angeles for a mere six performances at the Pantages after wowing us all at
the Ahmanson in 2008—winning my top TicketHolder Award honors as the Best
Musical and Best Score that season—this return to LaLaLand is again hits
one out of the ballpark—or in this case directly out onto Hollywood
Boulevard and possibly making guests turning in early at the W Hotel sit
up in bed and ask, “What the hell was that?” There is not one ounce of
roadshow-itis on exhibit here as the energetic and uniquely dynamic
touring company recreates the production gloriously.
Without updating Wedekind’s
original material much, thus leaving the horny kids of Spring Awakening
puzzled by their own testosterone levels dressed in Susan Hifferty’s
bleakly black high-necked Victorian-era costuming all ready to jump out of
their skins under the repressive hold of their stiff-backed parents and
educators, the musical quickly erupts from the standard theatrical format
in its second scene, taking place in a strictly-run Latin class.
Featuring the blossoming boys of
the town seated on austere wooden chairs suffering the wrath of a
miserably Dickens-y schoolmaster (Mark Poppleton, who alongside Sarah
Kleeman skillfully play all the adults in the play), soon the often
too-cavernous Pantages stage explodes with the contagious energy and
raucous volume of a rock concert. This combustive scene signals an
extraordinary evening to come with the spirited “The Bitch of Living,”
introducing Sheik’s remarkably infectious score at its most innovative as
the boys pull hand microphones from the inner pockets of their period
waistcoats and leap high in air to execute Bill T. Jones’ electric
choreography, respectfully recreated for the national tour by JoAnn M.
Walker.
Michael Mayer’s energetic
visionary direction, here recreated by Lucy Skilbeck, is exemplary
throughout, beautifully guiding a knockout ensemble of uber-gifted young
performers, particularly furthering the wonder of the remarkable Coby
Getzug, an 18-year-old graduate of the Los Angeles High School of the Arts
whose local professional debut performance a few months ago in The
Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Taper send critics shouting his praises all
over town.
Elizabeth Judd and Christopher
Wood as Spring Awakening’s resident star-crossed lovers are both perfectly
cast and spectacularly voiced, particularly unforgettable in their
haunting duet “The Word of Your Body,” but it is Getzug as poor doomed
Moritz who steals the show again and again, especially with his indelible
turn in “Don’t Do Sadness.” And although there isn’t a poor performance in
the pack here, from the talented ranks Devon Stone is a major standout as
Hanschen, first in Act One tunefully discovering the pleasures of
masturbation and then emerging again late in Act Two with Daniel Plimpton
to stop the show with their delightful gay-curious reprise of “The Word of
Your Body.”
The bottom line here, though, is
this: as clever as is book writer/lyricist Sater’s concept of taking an
obscure European 120-year-old period piece and innovatively turning it
into a resplendently relevant contemporary theatrical effort still able to
blast the ill-conceived conduct of miserably unhappy adults trying to
repress the human condition of their offspring in the name of religion and
“common decency,” what truly makes Spring Awakening one for the ages is
Sheik’s Grammy-winning and ingeniously evocative score—which soars to new
heights with poignant ballads such as “Mama Who Bore Me” and the haunting
bleak “The Dark I Know Well,” then manages to send the whole usually
hugely austere house rocking with wonderfully youthful and boisterous
energy in full production numbers like the aptly named “Totally Fucked.”
We’ve heard it all before, from
the late 60s when Hair first premiered to 30 years later when Rent took on
the world of musical theatre, shook out all the corn as high as an
elephant’s eye and rain in Spain, and beat all odds for enduring success.
It might be overkill to state that yet another landmark Broadway-bred rock
opus has once again revolutionized the state of the American musical, but
if any production has managed to shake things up the ol’ terra firma once
again, it’s Spring Awakening.
SPRING AWAKENING plays only
through February 13, 2011 at the Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd.,
Hollywood; for tickets, call 800.982.ARTS or
log on at www.BroadwayLA.org
.
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