Duncan Sheik has died at 56

CJRochester said: "So sad. RIP Duncan."

Wow! RIP Sir!

Like everyone else my age, Spring Awakening was one of my first entrypoints into loving musical theatre. Most of the other shows I first listened to at that age, I've softened on or even cringe at now. Spring Awakening just gets better and better every time I listen to it.

RIP Duncan, you were a real one.

Updated On: 9/18/26 at 10:44 AM

Beyond devastated. RIP to a true genius.

Terrible news. RIP.

Sheik was one of my favorite examples of someone for whom lightning struck again and again; just when you were ready to count him out or assume his best was past, he'd come back with something that made you realize he hadn't even slowed down. He was the closest thing the musical theatre community has ever had to a genuine cult hero, and his ability to create work that resonated with the mainstream while being decidedly alternative will not soon be forgotten.

I am a huge fan of the Spring Awakening demo album, which someone first gave me back in college circa 2008 and which I consider not only one of my favorite theatre records but maybe my favorite indie record of all time. If you haven't listened to his stripped back, 2000s indie recordings of the score, definitely do so today. It could have been released as a solo album in its own right.

Updated On: 9/18/26 at 11:25 AM

darquegk said: "I am a huge fan of the Spring Awakening demo album, which someone first gave me back in college circa 2008 and which I consider not only one of my favorite theatre records but maybe my favorite indie record of all time. If you haven't listened to his stripped back, 2000s indie recordings of the score, definitely do so today. It could have been released as a solo album in its own right."

I haven't listened to it yet to verify, so I hope this is the album you're referring to:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B53EF70CC487E11

Re-post of my comment in another thread. Didn't see this one:



I met him at The Atlantic Theater during intermission for "Spring Awakening". (It was the evening they found out they were transferring to Broadway) Told him how much I was enjoying the show and congratulated him. I also got the chance to tell him how much I loved his original music for the film "A Home at the End of the World". He chuckled and thanked me and said he didn't think anyone heard it or was even still listening to it. I told him I was and will continue to (And I still do). I know I have listened to the song "There's A Home" , my favorite song by him, way more than "Barely Breathing"(So that's a lot!).

May he rest in Peace. Gone too soon.

There's A Home:

https://youtu.be/PYYeFVPwDl0?si=klBbzCq9mNJBn_Fc

Updated On: 9/18/26 at 02:22 PM

John Adams said: "darquegk said: "I am a huge fan of the Spring Awakening demo album, which someone first gave me back in college circa 2008 and which I consider not only one of my favorite theatre records but maybe my favorite indie record of all time. If you haven't listened to his stripped back, 2000s indie recordings of the score, definitely do so today. It could have been released as a solo album in its own right."

I haven't listened to it yet to verify, so I hope this is the album you're referring to:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B53EF70CC487E11

"

Yeah, that's the one. There's some fascinating stuff on there: the demo of "I Believe" is this VERY 2000s mix of indie acoustic rock and hip-hop beats. It's the sort of thing you'd expect Kanye to go nuts for, before Kanye just went nuts period. "A Comet On Its Way" is a much darker and less upbeat teen-masturbation-emo anthem than "Bitch of Living," and there's a VERY different take on "Totally F*cked," performed as what I'm assuming is a Magnetic Fields homage.

There's also one of my favorite oddities, a half finished song called "Great Sex," an acoustic ditty where most of the lyrics are "la dee da, great sex," and a spoken word vocal keeps coming in to echo "GREAT sex." It's both very Lonely Island esque, and an interesting look at a version of Spring Awakening that leaned more into its comedic sensibility than its emo sincerity.