Kyle Riabko in Spring Awakening

Check The Guilty Ones site. There were some reviews there.

Basically, he has been directed to play it a lot differently than Groff. People are gaga over his voice, mixed on his acting. Mind you, this is coming from the show's diehard fans, so take it with a grain of salt.

I hope to catch him in the role later this summer.

I saw his second performance and while I wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan I agree with them. His acting does need some work but he has the singing part down. He and Alexandra have great chemistry.

Updated On: 5/26/08 at 12:18 PM

How is Alexandra?

I've heard such different reviews.
I've heard hes either INCREDIBLE or HORRIBLE.
Not sure who to listen to...

---

According to the article I linked below, the hayloft scene is played very differently because he and Socha look so much younger.

"And they play the concluding scene of Act One, in which their characters lose their virginity to each other in a hayloft, as a sexual assault by Melchior which turns consensual: a darker choice than the smoother scene of seduction between the original stars Groff and Lea Michele, 21.

"Yea," Riabko chuckled self-mockingly. "They made me do things differently from Jonathan just because of how I look. If I were to try to be sexy in that scene, I think it would be too One Tree Hill."

He also acknowledges his acting has a ways to go:

"I know that I'm wrong on so many things, and there's so much room for improvement. It's great to know there's this upward climb. That's just something that really helps me to wake up in the morning."

If nothing else, he certainly seems ready and willing to work at the acting.
The Prairies' instant star

The important question is,
How's his butt cheek?

Good. As it should be.

My thoughts exactly.

i have been hearing and reading the same reviews on kyle but planning on seeing next month as well as alexandra onstage.

so i will put my reviews up then.

I second the question about the buttcheeks, as I've been gaga for Riabko since he first hit the music scene. I hate this show but sadly now have a reason to return.

In the play it was a rape. In the musical it was made consensual. So now it is a rape that turns consensual? This is absurd, people. How this won all that acclaim is BEYOND me.

---

iluvtheatretrash- the show did not win all its acclaim because of the sex scene, please.

I'm not saying it did, Jake. The show is mind-numbingly confusing and bizarre. Choreography that closely resembles a seizure, a consensual rape, a circle jerk to shock the masses, lyrics like "my junk is you" and the only remotely decent acting coming from Stephen Spinella...

This show is a mess.

---

Ah, yes, let's put it up there with SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, SOUTH PACIFIC, A CATERED AFFAIR. Yes, yes, yes. Or let's even put it up there with our recent beauties: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, CAROLINE, OR CHANGE. Let's even go further back! It's just as beautiful as CAROUSEL and SHOW BOAT.

The show is a triumph of the messiest degree. It's a teenage soap opera with some pretty music. Awarding that Best Choreography? What a laugh! The only awards it deserved were for its superb lighting and Gallagher's incredibly layered performance.

But I'll bow out now and leave you to your terrible taste in musical theater, show up, sit through 3 hours of teenage torture just for Riabko and wondered why he's where he is when he should be making more albums and performing nightly in my bedroom.

---