Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening was certainly shocking in back in Victorian Germany. Today, however, in this technologically speeding culture, which ties the world together in smaller and smaller wrappings, -- shocking? Please - we see it all every day on large and small screens.

It is the theatrical packaging that electrifies the production currently at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. A talented young cast translates youth's eternal passions and connects them to the contemporary gritty pop-rock world. Frank Wedekind's original play treated whispered realities of adolescent life with smashing honesty. This adaptation with Steven Sater's book and lyrics and Duncan Sheik's energetic score, gives freshness to a continuing series of vignettes. Director Michael Mayer keeps the interaction between rebellious kids and intolerant adults flashing forward.

Characters dressed in late Victorian age garb deliver the socially acceptable mores. They then yank hand mikes from their jackets or drag standing mikes to rock out what is really going on in their churning, pubescent hearts. While the plot stops for the internal dialogue, it moves on seamlessly in its drama involving premarital sex, rejection, incest. While energizing, this occasionally comes off as wink-wink naughty, provoking inappropriate laughter, as in one cartoonish masturbation segment center-stage. Other times it breaks the mood, as with the young couple having just experienced their first sexual experience before the girl stretches out her arm to grab a mike for her song.

The story centers on Wendla (Lea Michele), innocent and curious, who sings a poetically yearning "Mama Who Bore Me," begging her mother to discuss those facts of life that Mother prefers suppressed. Wendla has the itch; she wants to feel something — even pain. After her opener, the stage erupts in "All That's Known" and then "The Bitch of Living," effectively delivering her distinctly earthy feelings.

Wendla's love interest is a schoolboy named Melchior (Jonathan Groff), a seemingly confident young man who claims to know all the answers. Hormones flare, with the predictable consequences of pregnancy and the ultimate tragedy of a back-alley abortion and death, none of which, unfortunately, is surprising.

Moritz, Melchior's school chum, is a nervous student who fails school. Played by John Gallagher Jr. with an Eraserhead hairdo, Moritz looks quirky, but his failure leaves him humiliated and desperate inside, leading to a harrowing suicide.

Secondary characters are authoritative, including Ilse (Lauren Pritchard), thrown out of her home by her parents. Two adept understudies in the performance reviewed here are Martha, a victim of parental abuse, played by Jennifer Damiano, and Hanschen (Gerard Canonico), a homosexual with his eyes on Ernst (Gideon Glick). Christine Estabrook and Stephen Spinella portray the adults, alternating as parents and teachers. Spinella is particularly compelling portraying the grief of his daughter's death and Estabrook establishes humor and warmth along as stern discipline to her various characters. They are the only cast replacements from the recent off-Broadway Atlantic Theatre Company production.

With a small onstage rock band, Sater and Sheik's pop-rock music moves from the meditative acceptable spoken language, with the idealism of "The Song of Purple Summer" as a stand-out example, to a rhythmic and vital rebellion of songs like "We're Fucked." The message is clear, although some may find faults in the false rhyming.

Christine Jones' set is minimal, like an empty, time-warped church, with audience members seated along each side. It is sparked by Kevin Adams' telekinetic neon and pinpoint lighting. Bill T. Jones' dance design might be considered non-choreographed choreography, like kids letting off steam at a party, no adults welcome. Costumes by Susan Hilferty reflect the period, with flouncy dresses for the girls and boys' tight-bound and knee-high pants.

Like Rent and Hair, also untraditional musicals, Spring Awakening will gather its audience. The performances are convincing. The beat of the music is strong. The beat of the heart is there, but it won't pound for everyone, despite the idealistic anthem at the end.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
January 18, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org