Spring Awakening Reviews- Page 3

[shiksa_goddess]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 9:55pm

Thanks Margo! I always enjoy reading your reviews over most of these other ones.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 9:56pm

The San Francisco Chronicle review is the AP review that's posted on the first page of the thread.

[Smartful Dodger]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 9:57pm

Dude, that's the AP review Margo posted hours ago.

[brainpolice23]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:00pm

i realized that seconds after my post. my b.

check out the blog on duncan sheiks site though.



9:30pm—wow. Three ovations. The kids were awesome tonight. During the third ovation, they brought duncan, steven sater, bill t. Jones and michael mayer up on stage for bows. We’re on our way to tavern on the green for the afterparty.

—

8:20pm—it’s intermission. I’m totally sitting next to regina spektor and we just chatted a little. She’s so awesome. I was gonna try posting during the show but I’m sitting in the front row and already got in trouble for wearing this beer helmet. See you guys after act two.

—

Well, we already forgot a bunch of **** that I had to go back and get, so now they might start without me. The show must go on.

—

Welcome to the spring awakening opening night live blog. This is totally experimental, on the fly, and contingent upon my sobriety. So if I get drunk or bored, updates will probably cease. So keep your fingers crossed.


www.duncansheik.com

[jewelchk]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:01pm

everythingtaboo, they currently offer a ton of discounts and student opportunities for cheap tickets (for example, I know NYU has $25 discounts available for a month or two in addition to the show's student rush and on-stage seating). If they keep those around even as the box office presumably improves, I think students and the younger audience will have an opportunity to see it at better prices.

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:01pm

YAY! Good reviews!
Updated On: 12/10/06 at 10:01 PM

[Benzy92]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:03pm

i also find it interesting jonathan gallagher jr isn't getting the greatest reviews.. i thought he was a shoo-in for a Tony nom!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:04pm

Isherwood's review in the Times is a Rave:

"A straight shot of eroticism steamed open last night at the Eugene O’Neill Theater under the innocuous name of “Spring Awakening,” and Broadway, with its often puerile sophistication and its sterile romanticism, may never be the same.

In “Spring Awakening,” with a ravishing rock score by the playwright Steven Sater and the singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, flesh makes only a single, charged appearance. And for all its frankness about the quest for carnal knowledge, it is blessedly free of the sn*ing vulgarity that infects too many depictions of sexuality onstage and on screen.

But in exploring the tortured inner lives of a handful of adolescents in 19th-century Germany, this brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, restores the mystery, the thrill and quite a bit of the terror to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls sometime around the age of 13, well before most of us have the intellectual apparatus in place to analyze its impact. “Spring Awakening” makes sex strange again, no mean feat in our mechanically prurient age, in which celebrity sex videos are traded on the Internet like baseball cards."


http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/theater/reviews/11spri.html

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:05pm

YESS!!! I really hope this helps the show's box office!

[shiksa_goddess]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:05pm

Excellent! I'm so glad Brantley didn't get this one.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:06pm

Go figure that a person who raved before raves again.

Good for them.

[Smartful Dodger]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:10pm

YankeeFan, Isherwood's previous review was a qualified rave. Tonight's love letter is appropriately updated to reflect the work that's been done on the production.

Now, the challenge has been issued: let's hope the producers get their acts together and focus on the marketing. There's no excuse now. If it fails, it will be because they continue to bicker about a common approach to ride this wave of notices.

[Benzy92]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:10pm

YES.

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:13pm

Awesome! Isherwood's is a rave
Lea Michele's dress got changed...
Updated On: 12/10/06 at 10:13 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:15pm

Dodger, I understand, but I just think that it's a little biased having someone who raved for the show before write the new review.

Also, they can only focus on marketing if they find the money to pump into advertising. If there's no money in their budget, they can't do much. The producers, thankfully, all believe in the show, like many of us do. They won't give up without a fight. Still, January is a tough month.

[broadwaybaby086]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:18pm

Congrats, so far! I'm so excited. :o)

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:19pm

Another sign of relief with the Times notices...

Maybe they'll do one of those three-page ads in the Times, like In My Life did. But with more than one review.

jewelchk, my concern with prices was for those who aren't aware that Broadway does discounts. There always someone out there who doesn't know, even in this day and age.

[Smartful Dodger]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:19pm

Now that the reviews are good, the money for TV and other advertising will be released. The run costs on this show are lower than any other musical that's opened this season, for sure. January will be a lean month, as you suggest, YankeeFan but it will be a good time to give the cast some breathing room. They've obviously been racing all year to make it to tonight. After the holidays, they'll be able to pace things a little better and prepare for voters that will determine what happens in the spring awards season.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:27pm

YAYAYAYAYAY!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:27pm

Theatremania is Positive:

"Whether Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's decidedly 21st-century musical version, also titled Spring Awakening, will still be produced 100 years hence remains to be seen. But there's no doubt this innovative, frequently brilliant piece of theater will speak to many young theatergoers -- and thrill anyone who is willing to meet this work on its own terms.

_______________________________________________________________

Sheik's absolutely haunting and often breathtaking score still outshine Sater's poetic lyrics, and many of these songs clearly stand up to repeated listening. What's most remarkable about Sheik is his adeptness at so many musical styles, from the girl-group harmonies of "Mama Who Bore Me" to the Elvis Costello-like rock of Mortiz's "Don't Do Sadness" to the art-rock balladry of "Whispering." (One song, "The Guilty Ones" has been added to the beginning of the second act.)

One aspect of Spring Awakening that has undeniably deepened is the cast's performances. The brooding, handsome Groff seizes his moments with gusto; Gallagher is nothing short of galvanic; and the gorgeous-voiced Michele is absolutely heartbreaking. Of the supporting players, Wright is not just fearless, but so supremely confident that he quickly becomes an audience favorite, and Cooper (daughter of Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper) scores big in her solo "The Dark I Know Well."

Meanwhile, two new additions to the cast, Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella and Christine Estabrook play all the various adult roles -- including a pair of nasty schoolteachers and the kids' clueless parents. Fortuntanely, they --especially Estabrook -- bring some much-needed personality to these essentially one-dimensional roles.

Spring Awakening is the kind of risky show that might not make it through the winter. But if there's any justice -- or at least enough smart and adventurous theatergoers -- this one-of-a-kind musical will be with us for many springs and summers to come."

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/9639

[Benzy92]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:35pm

here is the AM New York RAVE (4 stars):

"When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it." So said Frank Rich in his review of the original Broadway production of "Dreamgirls."

"Now, twenty-five years later, anyone who enters the Eugene O'Neill Theatre will be privileged to behold the wonder of theater that is "Spring Awakening," arguably the most breathtaking American musical since "Rent" or even "Sweeney Todd."

------
"Its invigorating energy runs through you like a bolt of lightning, as if you were watching your favorite rock star in concert. "Spring Awakening" is a visceral, funny, beautifully brilliant experience that threatens to change the world and maybe save musical theater."



http://www.amny.com/entertainment/stage/am-spring1211,0,6233017.story?coll=am-theater-headlines

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:35pm

Glad to see the critics accepting something rather untradional.
As many have stated, it's up to the marketing (budget, that is)
Remember they had a (not qualified, but quotable) positive review from the TIMES before and that did not sell tkts for previews.
So the 20 or so producers better get their sh*t together and sell this show properly (if possible).
Remember the TIMES review of SIDESHOW was a rave.
I doubt they can afford a three page spread.
Let's see what happens.
Talk of this show having a low overhead is pre-mature, 20 producers must be paid and their are other concerns.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:42pm

'the 20 or so producers better get their sh*t together ...'

Of course, the producers have a lotta work to do, but let's be grateful they got the financing to put it on Broadway in the first place. Producing a new musical with no known stars, based on a 1891 German play, isn't the most commercial route to go.

If anyone needs to get their sh*t together, it's the audiences. For those who whine that there's nothing new or daring on Broadway, it's time to put up or shut up. You might love 'Spring Awakening,' or you might hate it, but it takes artistic risks and doesn't play it safe. And I say 'Bravo!'

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:43pm

I am SO excited about these good reviews; the show definitely deserves them in my opinion. Congrats to everyone involved with Spring Awakening!

[Smartful Dodger]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 10:45pm

Other concerns, Downer?

Care to be provide "other" details?