Life With….

Last week, I was fortunate to see the national tour of Spring Awakening at DPAC.   I went knowing only that it was about teenage sexual awakening in Germany in the 1890s, the music was pop rock by Duncan Sheik, and that it won the Tony for best new musical in 2007 – and started the career of two cast members on Glee.  I was honestly therefore not expecting much  – figuring it won the Tony for taking on controversial subject matter and being provocative.  I was wrong – it was wonderful.

I loved the set; it was so simple – audience seats on either side of the stage  (with characters mingled in with the audience) and a walled background that could be from café of this era.  But the lighting would highlight a specific item on the wall to emphasize the theme of the scene – be it a painting of a coffin for a funeral, or a horse running when a girl expresses a desire to be free and feel.   A band sits on stage and performs, but otherwise any other set changes needs – such as seats, are brought by the characters on for the scene and then danced off.

I enjoyed the music so much I bought the soundtrack.  Although completely anachronistic to the time, it captured the anger and energy of being a teenager and confused about yourself, hiding things form yourself and your family all the while being confused about everything – but thinking you knows it all.  (That being said, I did find the song about incest a bit much).  I also loved that the music played more as inner monologue then not – emphasized by the singing into wireless microphones, that looked useless and like and a toy from the 1980s.  Very rarely if at all did a ballad truly felt like it was being song to another character.  Even the group pieces played as if group thought rather then show advancement as is more typical.

I honestly sat there captivated by the entire production – the actors were honest and believable, the script worked for me, and I felt moved.  Recently, I have seen or re-seen quite a few shows – but this was the first time in years I really could not find something to complain about, and it was not a simple musical that was pure froth (like say Mama Mia) or epic in scope (the Color Purple/Phantom of the Opera).  It made me think about life, teenagers, history (I started considering how this culture just a few years later had WWI on its hands followed by the decadence of the Weimer era and then fascism – this was a culture one generation away from massive change from within and two from change being forced upon it by world condemnation).  The producers and directors wanted you to explore this – and all so to see parallels to today (abstinence only education, fears of abortion, not fully exploring sex in education) without only a somewhat preachy analogy – instead they mostly let the plot work for itself.  The audience can relate to or often is a teenager and they can simply relate to the somewhat stock characters and make the jumps on their own.  The director and producers have let the universality of these debates speak for themselves – all through the lens of parental oppression (for both good and ill – though mostly ill here)- for the benefit of the production overall.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it – and understood why it won the Tony, why it was compared to Rent (though I think it may have more staying power as Rent may date itself, and it may become more about that time place, and generation then about the universality of the themes).  There were a lot of young people in the audience  – more then normal – and I could see this appealing to the Holden Caulfield in them (even though I am not a Catcher fan).  At the same time the nudity and acted masturbation, did not offend the elderly members sitting near me – nor did the gay kiss (although to be fair the audience was pre-warned about all of these mature acts).

I enjoyed it so much – that I went to find an English Translation of the original play.  Finding one by the contemporary author Jonathan Franzem (who I often find is provocative just to be so), I bought it, only to find out he blasted the musical as insipid and that it destroyed all the humor of the play.  I found myself wondering if he saw the same musical I did – yes some things were different – and some themes slightly changed (there is a rape in the play and no incest really) from the original play – but much remained the same, and script could work, in my mind, either as he claimed or as the producers. (Additionally, it is an adaptation for contemporary audiences and playing with slightly different themes then the 1890s verison and for good reason – its a different time – if the play were acted today I am sure directors would make changes for a contemporary audience as they do when performing Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde, where some scenes, lines and characters are played more vibrantly to appeal to modernity).  To me – that is the magic of scripts – they lay a foundation, but in the hands of a good director a scene can go two different ways.  For example, as in both the play and the musical – a girl may ask to be beaten in both.  In one it may be clear that she is masochistic, in the other she simple is numb and wants to experience something – the script can set up both interpretations (as it does here) and a director can choose how to go.  In this case, I found the choice of the director completely relatable for our age, and the ones advocated by Franzen less moving.  That may be my taste –, one, which I look forward to having a director change one day by doing a completely novel reinterpretation of the play, or musical, that challenges all my current assumptions.

In the meantime – I encourage you to see Spring Awakening – the kids on the tour right now are young (24 and under) but acting their hearts out, many of them in their first professional role. It really is a show that stuck with me – and will hopefully stick with you as well!

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Create Your Badge  All text and copyrights preserved by the author for words and original pictures and may not be used without author's permission. For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/peebesalgy or contact me directly through http://www.peebesalgy.com/blog/contact-me/ Courtney Brown | Create Your Badge