December 11, 2006

Sex, rock and Broadway: 'Spring Awakening' scores

The rock staging of "Spring Awakening" opened on Broadway last night, blowing away critics who go so far as to call it the future of Broadway musicals.

Oddly enough, it's based on Frank Wedekind's 1891 oft-banned German drama about teen sexual angst. But the music is all now -- composed by popster Duncan Sheik with lyrics and the book by Steven Sater.

Staged earlier this year Off-Broadway by the Atlantic Theater Company, the critics across the board say the transfer to Broadway has only made it better. But ticket sales during previews have been slow, and some of the reviewers are clearly hoping to turn that tide, helping to sell the sell this show -- mainly to the intended hip younger crowd who seldom (if ever) pay attention to Broadway. Producers have also gone out of their way with discount seats on the stage that sell for $31.25, (student rush seats for $25,) free video podcasts and an Apple in-store appearance (Dec. 13.)

"Spring Awakening" has an open-ended run at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th St., map.

The reviews:

New York Times - "But in exploring the tortured inner lives of a handful of adolescents in 19th-century Germany, this brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, restores the mystery, the thrill and quite a bit of the terror to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls sometime around the age of 13, well before most of us have the intellectual apparatus in place to analyze its impact. 'Spring Awakening' makes sex strange again, no mean feat in our mechanically prurient age, in which celebrity sex videos are traded on the Internet like baseball cards."

Sun - "'Spring Awakening' is, in my measured opinion, the most thrilling rock musical ever."

Daily News - "For a show that left me so high, it is probably nitpicking to say that Act II occasionally drags. But it also boasts sensational songs, including one unprintably ­titled 'Totally F-.' Here, Bill T. Jones' exciting choreography hits show-stopping heights. The finale, 'The Song of Purple Summer,' sends audiences to the exit doors swooning. The vibrant young cast thrills, and each performer gets a shot in the spotlight. Groff gives a commanding, star-making performance as Melchior."

Newsday - "So, yes, the time is late 19th century, but the stirrings – in cest, mas tur bation, suicide, abortion - are always timelessly modern. In Michael Mayer's lean and juicy production, a ripening young beauty named Wendla (Lea Michele) begs her mother to debunk the stork theory of conception. Standing on a wooden chair, bare thighs exposed between her chaste linen underwear and high woolen stockings, she foreshadows disaster by singing, angelically, 'Mama who bore me / mama who gave me / no way to handle things / who made me so bad.'"

Post - "The good is rare enough in the theater, but the excellent is ... well, just excellent. And so it was at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre last night when the gritty, groundbreaking 'Spring Awakening' gave an unexpected jolt of sudden genius to wake up the hidebound Broadway musical."

Variety - "This strange, beguiling show is by no means flawless, but with subtle, nurturing changes, the creative team and cast have fashioned an already seductive work into something even more lovely and lyrical."

Bloomberg - "Shows can be innovative without being good or vice versa. But when `Spring Awakening,' a new musical, is both, it is grounds for cheering. It has been compared to 'Rent,' but in my view, it is more original and, quite simply, better. This 'Spring Awakening' may well be the first truly 21st-century musical on Broadway."

Newark Star-Ledger - "Bold, brooding "Spring Awakening" may shock ultra-traditionalists, but it's the most explosive new musical since "Rent.""

USA Today - "Luckily, the romantic leads retain all their charm. Lea Michele oozes sweet vulnerability as Wendla, the doomed ingénue. As Melchior, her precocious suitor, Jonathan Groff wields an easy, irresistible intensity that made me wonder where this guy was when I was in high school."

Associated Press - "One notable difference from the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company production is the recasting of all the adult roles, which are played by only two actors. Those tasks have been given to Stephen Spinella and Christine Estabrook, and they manage to pull them off fine. Estabrook, in particular, finds the right note of authority, never allowing her sternness to descend into caricature."

Earlier: Broadway’s blogging, podcasting and map-mashing
$31.25 for a seat in Broadway's 'Spring Awakening'

December 11, 2006 12:00 PM in Broadway

®Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved