Deaf West's Spring Awakening Broadway Previews — Page 8

Is is true: I can't imagine this show being done any other way.

Saw this last night and enjoyed it pretty thoroughly. I'm sure they're still ironing out some rough spots, and those projections need to be handled in such a way that EVERYBODY IN THE THEATER CAN SEE THEM, GODDAMMIT. The cast is able, the musical itself works (or not as you like, but it has always blown me away) and there's no reason not to go see this. Just make VERY SURE INDEED that you get seats as close to the middle of the auditorium as you can. Seriously.

My one quibble is about one piece of casting. I mean no disrespect to the actor in question, who does very good work indeed, he's admirable in every way. I just think that casting the dashing and sexy Mr. Durant as the helpless neurotic Moritz is a mistake. Moritz isn't supposed to be hotter than Melchior. It's like casting Marlon Brando as Charlie Brown. That scene of all the girls sitting around swooning over how hot Melchior is, and then getting all "ewwww!" when one of them brings up Moritz almost got laughs -- I was reminded of that revival of 110 IN THE SHADE where a man had to tell Audra McDonald to her face that she was plain.

More than a quibble, really, but less than a significant complaint. I was carried along by the show, and got damp-eyed and wobble-voiced by that Song Of Purple Summer, as usual.

Updated On: 9/16/15 at 09:07 AM

I think Durant is handsome, as well, but I do think McKenzie is pretty much generically teen idol good-looking, which helps for Melchior.

Boy, are you missing the point about Durant and his character. He is an outsider, a disrupter, a "dummy" to the other students. It has NOTHING to do with "looks". If you don't get that, you are not really understanding the play.

Two questions; one regarding the show, one the production. 1) In “Whispering”, who is Wendla referring to here: Herself? Her mother? See the father bent in grief (Melchior? Her father? Moritz’s father at the funeral?) The mother dressed in mourning (Herself? Her mother?) I always assumed Melchior and he mother, just because it made the most sense to me but really I have no idea. Anyone? 2) How do we think Moritz and Wendla will be ruled re: Tony nominations? I would assume they would be considered under one nomination. Thoughts?

CurtainPullDowner said: "Boy, are you missing the point about Durant and his character. He is an outsider, a disrupter, a "dummy" to the other students. It has NOTHING to do with "looks". If you don't get that, you are not really understanding the play."

I certainly understand the play -- I'm complaining about more than looks, but I can see how it might seem that way. I always saw Moritz as being the absolute bottom of the food chain in that school, he's a total loser, neurotic and going through a more than usually tortured adolescence, obsessed with his own body and what's going on with it while having to learn sixty lines of Homer and all those damned quadratic equations. Mr. Durant's Moritz was, to my mind at least and certainly there's room for disagreement, more the romantic "outsider, disrupter, trouble maker" than anything else -- those enraged glares he keeps directing, his open pugnacity just didn't seem right for the character. Durant's Moritz is far more the rock star, and it has always seemed to me that the point of the character is that Moritz is very much NOT a rock star until those songs, delivered to the audience, prove otherwise.

Which probably also just means that Mr. Durant is playing the role differently than Mr. Gallagher played the role originally. Gallagher's Moritz was a walking open wound, really coming apart at the seams during that "And Then There Were None" number in ways that made Mr. Durant's performance of the song seem more like a mere temper tantrum in comparison. Opinions are gonna differ, of course.

Updated On: 9/17/15 at 09:42 AM

I went tonight, and I'm 90% sure I saw Michael Arden watching the show from the rear center mezz. We were on the left mezz, and the first word on the top projections was almost always cut off somehow. I've seen the show before, so I knew what I was missing, but I'm not sure how well other people could piece it together.

Anyway, I loved this production. I'm really glad it's here and we're so fortunate to have it. I was blown away at having the headmaster be an awful person in an oralist school, without any changes to the text. It just totally worked. And there were other things that needed no changes to the text -- just changes in emphasis or in staging. Like, of course Moritz would be friends with Melchior's deaf mom. In other productions, he latches onto her because she's what he doesn't have at home, but here it's something even deeper. And the scene with Moritz and his father struck me as deeper, too -- his parents are deaf and want him to rise above what they've been able to accomplish as deaf adults, but he doesn't, and he's even more of a failure.

It's sad, but I does seem true. Was Ali on the glee project?

Saw this last night. I LOVED it. I didn't think I was going to as I really don't like Arden's acting work but man, this production far exceeds the 2006 production. I don't need to waste anyone's time going into further detail (unless you have a specific question) but I highly recommend this one.

There are obviously some problems with the book that even this problem couldn't resolve but this is a very, very strong show. The cast and musicians are uniformly great and worked together as a cohesive group. The 2006 cast played as a bunch of individuals and while it helped their careers it did not help the storytelling. Here they all shine together.

The show was far from perfect and there are some things I would have liked to have been done differently but no point in being a downer.

Just get tickets and go.

For the record, I sat in the rear side balcony and I could see everything just fine.

I would recommend sitting in the mezzo. There's a lot going on all over the place. Distance is wise.

Saw this last night, and thought it was great overall. Admittedly, Spring Awakening is one of my favorite musicals,and the original production was very special to me. There were times last night where I did think Arden's direction was a little heavy-handed but I also think the whole thing was way more seamless than the original. It had a better flow to it, and scenes that dragged for me in the original production (i.e. "The Word of Your Body (Reprise)" worked better for me this time around. The cast is uniformly great (with a special shout out to Treshelle Edmond as Marta) and the four adult actors were all miles above their predecessors in the original. Those adults didn't even register for me but Camryn Manheim, Patrick Page, Marlee Matlin, and Russell Harvard were all fantastic.

juice23 said: "I saw this last week and enjoyed it, but had one question about staging.

All of the deaf actors had a voice counterpart that were in modern dress EXCEPT for Amelia who played Thea. Her voice was Lauren luiz, who also had a role in the ensemble as melitta. I was confused as to why you would have Lauren voicing two characters inside the action as opposed to how they handled Martha and the others.

I thought this was odd as well.