#1
Posted: 12/2/06 at 10:13am
After suffering through THE VERTICAL HOUR on Thursday night, I was astonished by what is essentially a locked, if not perfect SPRING AWAKENING. I'm told they added one element yesterday and that there's an additional rehearsal on Monday, but the show is essentially ready and will welcome the first official reviewers on Wednesday.
The thing that struck me most about the show is that it arrives at a time when our culture has become insanely "prissy," where talk of sex is taboo and we struggle to protect our kids from the dangers of growing up too quickly. More than 100 years after Wedekind wrote the play in Germany, this new SPRING AWAKENING shines a very bright light on the reality that we are all living, feeling creatures and that the instinctive and very real biological changes we experience during adolescence cannot be stopped, no matter how hard our parents want to protect us and despite how forecfully one ideological perspective tries to censor who we are.
Others have commented here on the inconsistencies of the performances. I saw none. It's an incredibly tight ensemble of likeable, sympathetic characters. Jonathan Groff, Lea Michelle, John Gallagher, and Lauren Pritchard inhabit their characters to the core. And, Stephen Spinella and Christine Estabrook bring to life an ensemble of adult characters that are unique and easily identfiable, all without being tedious cariactures of the "enemies" in the kids' lives.
Some have commented on the challenges of mixing a classical cadence in dialogue with contemporary language. It works. In fact, it's an essential conceit of the show. The handheld microphones are meant to accentuate the fact that the characters "step out of themselves" to comment on a situation, create an outlet for their inner voices through song. It's smart. Note: the performers are also fitted with head mikes.
And, the "blah, blah, blah" refrains in "Totally F*CKed" are as funny as the "yadda, yadda, yaddas" of a certain SEINFELD classic. The brilliance of the song -- and so many of the others in the show -- is that it's spontaneous, honest. As I hinted previously, these are not songs that characters necessarily sing to one another or that move the plot along. They are windows into inner feelings -- joys, pains, disappointments, hopes -- that underscore the narrative.
With that, marketing this show is going to be a huge challenge. Like the detailed and illustrated essay that Melchior writes for his friend Moritz (the clandestine sharing of things that others dare not speak of), I think the producers have got to post clips of some of the musical performances to YouTube. I don't see this playing on any of the morning shows, but I could see pieces of it on THE COLBERT REPORT. It might work on ELLEN, but she's in Los Angeles. If it wins the Pulitzer, for which it has a serious shot, I believe, then it may get some coverage in some of the weekly news magazines. Until then, this has got to be promoted virally.
Indeed, the Bitch of Living. And, of creating genuine ART that actually makes it to Broadway.
The thing that struck me most about the show is that it arrives at a time when our culture has become insanely "prissy," where talk of sex is taboo and we struggle to protect our kids from the dangers of growing up too quickly. More than 100 years after Wedekind wrote the play in Germany, this new SPRING AWAKENING shines a very bright light on the reality that we are all living, feeling creatures and that the instinctive and very real biological changes we experience during adolescence cannot be stopped, no matter how hard our parents want to protect us and despite how forecfully one ideological perspective tries to censor who we are.
Others have commented here on the inconsistencies of the performances. I saw none. It's an incredibly tight ensemble of likeable, sympathetic characters. Jonathan Groff, Lea Michelle, John Gallagher, and Lauren Pritchard inhabit their characters to the core. And, Stephen Spinella and Christine Estabrook bring to life an ensemble of adult characters that are unique and easily identfiable, all without being tedious cariactures of the "enemies" in the kids' lives.
Some have commented on the challenges of mixing a classical cadence in dialogue with contemporary language. It works. In fact, it's an essential conceit of the show. The handheld microphones are meant to accentuate the fact that the characters "step out of themselves" to comment on a situation, create an outlet for their inner voices through song. It's smart. Note: the performers are also fitted with head mikes.
And, the "blah, blah, blah" refrains in "Totally F*CKed" are as funny as the "yadda, yadda, yaddas" of a certain SEINFELD classic. The brilliance of the song -- and so many of the others in the show -- is that it's spontaneous, honest. As I hinted previously, these are not songs that characters necessarily sing to one another or that move the plot along. They are windows into inner feelings -- joys, pains, disappointments, hopes -- that underscore the narrative.
With that, marketing this show is going to be a huge challenge. Like the detailed and illustrated essay that Melchior writes for his friend Moritz (the clandestine sharing of things that others dare not speak of), I think the producers have got to post clips of some of the musical performances to YouTube. I don't see this playing on any of the morning shows, but I could see pieces of it on THE COLBERT REPORT. It might work on ELLEN, but she's in Los Angeles. If it wins the Pulitzer, for which it has a serious shot, I believe, then it may get some coverage in some of the weekly news magazines. Until then, this has got to be promoted virally.
Indeed, the Bitch of Living. And, of creating genuine ART that actually makes it to Broadway.
Updated On: 12/2/06 at 10:13 AM
