Spring Awakening

I adored this show - simply adored it. This is the first show in quite some time that I've wished had never ended - during the last song, I literally was sad that this two hour event was coming to a close.

Spring Awakening is a new musical playing at the Atlantic Theatre (their first ever musical!) with music composed by Duncan Sheik (yes, the Duncan Sheik you may remember back in the day for the song, "Barely Breathing") and book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Apparently, the two met while meditating at a Buddhist temple.The musical is an adaptation of the play by Frank Wedekind from the late 1800s and is directed by Michael Mayer (known for Thoroughly Modern Millie). Back in the day, this story of young love and exploration into sex, masturbation, and themes of rape was quite scandalous, and it didn't get produced until the early 1900s - several years after it was written. Today, the themes are a bit less shocking but just as powerful.

A cast of very young actors play the German schoolchildren in the musical. They sing of their oppression by their parents, school teachers, and society in general. This is just about the age where kids start to discover their hormones and each other - what a feeling! The leads, Melchior and Wendla fall in love and have several beautiful scenes together. Moritz, Melchior's good friend at school goes through an especially hard time and his life ends in disaster. All of the other young boys and girls complement these relationships wonderfully. As they sing, they pull microphones out of well-stashed places in their costumes - they begin to sing and the music is completely contemporary - whereas the text they've been delivering is straight from Wedekind's original play from the 1800s. It's a nice combination that in theory wouldn't seem to work so well - but Michael Mayer + Sheik and Sater have turned this into a fantastic piece. There are several very energetically choreographed numbers that are particularly fun.

Here's something important - I chose to take Atlantic up on their "theatre for the price of a movie" special $10 tickets, and get this - you get to sit on stage. When you enter the Atlantic, you see that it's a pretty intimate theatre (a renovated church) with a small stage. We sat on the side of the stage and I noticed that there were certain chairs in all of the rows without numbers. Of course, as you can imagine, the actors use these chairs during almost all of the scenes. Sitting here, I felt like I was really a part of the show, without feeling awkward. It was one of the best theatre-going experiences I've had in a long time. There's talk of this show transferring to Broadway - but I say get the $10 tickets while you still can and enjoy it in this lovely space.