Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

#1

Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:22am

I recently saw a few clips from Spring Awakening and wondered if the ensemble singers (it's four, right?) sit in the onstage seats throughout the show or only for certain songs? And which songs do they sing at all, as you can't really tell from the CD? Do they ever enter the stage? In the clips I've seen, they stood up on their seats at times, but I haven't seen them onstage. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything through the search.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 06:22 AM

#2

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:27am

Go see the show.

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"Hey, you! You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" -Family Guy

#3

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:29am

I would, only that I'm in Germany and it won't play here for at least another two years.

But thanks anyway

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 06:29 AM

#4

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 7:07am

There are supposed to be 4 ensemble singers, however that's not always the case when understudies are needed. They sit onstage throughout the entire show and sing whenever there's group singing. The only songs I can remember them standing up for are Totally F***** and The Song of Purple Summer, which I think they also go on stage for (?). I recall them standing at another point but can't remember when.

I'm sure someone else will correct me and hopefully give you a bit more information.
Hope that helps though.

#5

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 8:42am

They stand up for a bunch of songs (B**** of a living, My Junk, Touch Me...) but Anna you're right they only go on stage for Totally F****ed and Song of Purple Summer. They do sit on the on stage seats for the entire show but go off during intermission and come back on like the rest of the cast.

#6

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 8:47am

Thank you all for your help! So it's true they sing whenever we hear "background singers" (for example during "Left Behind")? I always assumed that in such an intimate scene, only the main characters sing.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 08:47 AM

#7

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:15am

I sat next to Gerard onstage once and he sang: Touch Me, The Dark I Know Well, And Then There Were None, Mirror Blue Night, I Believe, The Guilty Ones, Left Behind, Totally F***ed, Word of Your Body (Reprise), and The Song of Purple Summer.

Updated On: 3/19/24 at 11:15 AM

#8

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:45pm

**SPOILER**

They actually come on before the rest of the cast, as if they are audience members. They even have fake tickets, are shown to their seat by an usher, etc. For first-time audience members (esp. on stage), it's quite a surprise when some of your fellow "audience" pull out a microphone and start singing.

Between songs, they pretty much sit and watch the show like the audience.

#9

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:57pm

The ensemble doesn't start singing until "Touch Me". They join in at the "oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh my god" part. As for standing, the girls pop up in "Dark I Know Well", the boys stand for "Mirror Blue Night", they all stand for "Left Behind", go crazy during "Totally F***ed", and stand on their chairs for the second part of "Purple Summer".

Updated On: 3/19/24 at 01:57 PM

#10

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:50pm

I saw the show for the first time two weeks ago and was completely shocked at the four people on stage who were apart of the cast! It's like all of sudden they stand up and start singing. lol. They are all SO nice at the stage door too!

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"Everytime you step on that stage it is somebody's first Broadway show and somebody's last Broadway show. Make it count."

#11

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 5:47pm

They never go onstage until curtain call. The rest of the time they are standing/sitting near or on their seats.

~Steven

#12

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:03pm

Are there only four Ensemble members? On the "Spring Awakening" website, it lists five people as 'Ensemble.'

#13

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:07pm

the website's not entirely updated. Jenn Damiano left and Eryn Murman has taken her chair. Alexandra, Matt, and Gerard join her and Jesse is an offstage swing.

#14

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 8:39pm

Thank you for the answer, skander2.

#15

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:57pm

so jesse won't be in the show unless an understudy is needed that day? like he won't be there full cast days? cause i wanted to meet him on sat when i go.

#16

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:59pm

Well, he'll physically be at the theatre but he won't be onstage or anything. I'm sure you could probably catch him at the stagedoor.

#17

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:07pm

wait a sec, when did jenn leave? That kinda upset me just now cuz she was so amazing when i saw her as ilse.

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<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado

#18

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:10pm

Jenn's doing Next to Normal; she left a few weeks ago.

#19

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:10pm

I always feel bad for Jesse. He went on as Hanschen last night for the first time ever: I heard he was great.

ALL the male swings were on last night
Matt as Ernst
Gerard as Otto (I think...might have been Georg)
and Jesse as Hanscen.

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If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

#20

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:13pm

Why do you feel bad for Jesse?

#21

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:15am

Jesse can be caught at the stage door. And don't feel bad for him, he's getting paid!

So when all the male swings go on, who sits in their "Ensemble" seats?

~Steven

#22

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:37am

From what I've heard, when all the male swings are on they just leave those seats empty.

#23

re: Spring Awakening - Ensemble songs / questions

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:58pm

When I was there in October or November, Gerard was on for Georg and Matt D. was out, and some of the female ensemble were out, so there were only Jesse and one female (sorry, I can't tell the girls apart) in the seats, and two chairs were literally empty. (The ones most downstage...the two esemble were in those back corner seats.) I didn' tlike it....it just seemed off-kilter.