spring awakening ending

I get what you are saying. I love the show personally, so you don't have to worry about me hating on you I think that "Those You've Known" would make sense to close the show. It is a very powerful song and I was a little drained by that point :)

I was trying to think if "Purple Summer" could fit anywhere else...not sure if it would...hmmmmmmmmmm........

---

Well I think that the show essentially does end with Those You've Known, when the lights fade on Melchior. Purple Summer isn't really a part of the Spring Awakening plot...it's more of a Children Will Listen or Seasons of Love. A song with a message that has nothing to do with the story.

Like a song during the end credits.

---

"Purple Summer isn't really a part of the Spring Awakening plot...it's more of a Children Will Listen or Seasons of Love. A song with a message that has nothing to do with the story"

I agree!

and then...

"Purple Summer is the tacked on coda which bears no relevence to the plot."

Above shows why I love Yankeefan007!!!

---

I have heard, "Mabey they needed a nice song to close the show so people wouldn't go home saying, wow that was depressing. I wanna cry."

I guess the song just sums up everything and brings people together on stage.

I agree it doesn't have much relevence, but I like the song.

I think The Song of Purple Summer is one of the best songs in the show, but in context, it feels like a rip-off of Rent's ending. I can't figure out why that tactic works for me in Rent and not SA, though.

And no, I don't hate SA, so that's not why.

---

I agree with Emcee - Purple Summer is one of the (if not THE) best song in the score. It's too bad it can be so easily excessed.

I do know that the show was without it (and an ending, itself) early on at the Atlantic.

Although I liked JulianHookbuck's description of the meaning of the song, I still think that Purple Summer is the worst part of that musical. I think it's cheesy and just stupid. I feel like at this point in the score/show the creators had no idea what to do. I think the lyrics and cheap and trite. Ugh...yes, I agree, the show should have ended on Those You've Known ala Les Mis, since this scene is pretty much the last scene in Les Mis.

I think the issue for me (which I couldn't put a finger on last night) is that like several of the songs in Spring Awakening, the lyrics in Purple Summer are too abstract for it to fit tightly into the musical. They're beautiful, but they don't quite work in the context of telling the story. And even though Rent does something very similar with its ending, I think the difference is that Rent, thematically, is pretty solid in that it's very easy to "sum up" with that final song, whereas Spring Awakening is much more scattered and all over the place with what it's trying to say (largely the fault of the adaptation from the original play, I think). So then the result is that you just have a song that feels arbitrary and detached, as opposed to something conclusive... a final reminder to the audience, or something, like you get in Rent. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

---

Exactly - it's not necessarily part of the show, but it's more of a parting message for the audience.

It kind of reminds me of "The More I Cannot Wish You" from GUYS AND DOLLS - it's basically saying to the audience "A paridise and a place of beauty and peace DOES exist - so I wish you the best of luck in finding it."

---