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Spring Awakening National Tour Review |
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Written by Lyndsi
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NOTE: There are spoilers in here (plot summary).
Unlike my previous reviews, I have NEVER seen "Spring Awakening" performed before, so this is review is truly a review of the performance, not a review of a comparison.
So, arriving at "Spring Awakening" I was so surprised, the audience consisted of many elderly folk! It was great, that had a LOT to say about the show; "My the youth of today!" "Did you see what he was doing?" and of course "Wow Barb, this is nothing like Wicked!"
It was a great show, it started off with Christy Altomare as Wendla performing "Mama Who Bore Me" she did a really lovely job, she made the song sound sweet (like Wendla!), but not like she couldn't suppport it/breathy quality. She also handled the movement well to add to Wendla's precociousness. When she finishes, Angela Reed comes in, this time as Wendla's mother (as the adult female, she plays all the adult female roles, Wendla's Mom, Melchior's Mom, The Headmistress, Moritz's Mom, etc), and she has GREAT comedic timing. I had no idea this musical was so funny! Reading the Wikipedia summary, I was prepared for tears from beginning to end -- Not the case!
After some playful banter between Wendla and her mother, the other girls come in for the "Mama Who Bore Me (reprise)" which sounded great! I noticed that the orchestrations had also been changed for this (as well as some other pieces), with more drums and guitar added in from the way it is on the Original Broadway Cast Recording.
After this, it's the boys turn to take center stage, and they own it! There is a bit of a scene, in which Melchior stands up for his best friend Moritz to the headmaster, and instantly, Kyle Riabko's portrayal, has made you LOVE Melchior forever! He then proceeds to go into "All That's Known" it was really interesting, because as Melchior is singing, the other boys are chanting latin in the background the entire time. That must have been pretty hard, for both parties! -- But it results in a great piece! After this, the boys sing "Bitch of Living" which had a ton of energy and got even the Over 60 crowd's pulses pumping! It was so fun, and in it, the actor playing Georg (Matt Shingledecker) actually plays the piano, can you spell M-U-L-T-I-T-A-L-E-N-T-E-D?
As the boys exit, the girls come onstage, and there is the nice scene where the girls talk about Melchior and Moritz, and the best line in the whole show ("Melchior Gabor....he's such a ......RADICAL!") is delivered, and then "My Junk" starts. This was always my MOM's favorite song to listen to on the CD, probably not to see onstage though! It was sung beautifully by everyone in the cast, but midway through the song, Hanschen comes on and starts masturbating, which was fine by me, the Andy Mientus (Hanschen) did it tastefully, comically, and let's face it, I'm in high school, this wouldn't exactly SHOCK me! But the older couple sitting next to me, were definitely shocked (and it wouldn't be the first time!).
Afterwards, is "Touch Me" which has the whole cast, and they all sing different parts, which is REALLY pleasing on the ears, and Georg gets to take center stage and really belt it, he had a lot of emotion, which made it all the more better!
Next, the girls are back, and find out that Martha is abused by her father, none of the other girls can comprehend this, but at the same time, it is all too familiar, their old schoolmate, Ilse, was thrown out on the streets to get away from an abusive dad. Then the two girls launch into their song of their abuse, "The Dark I Know Well" which was GREAT, the two actresses playing Martha and Ilse (Sarah Hunt and Steffi D), had voices that blended really well together. It was especially impressive, sitting in the 2nd row, I was able to see the tears running down Martha's face as she sang, and that made it mean even more. The only complaint was, why does Martha have to have such an ugly brown dress? The character, and the performer, etc deserve so much more!!!! The costume department kind of skimped out on Martha!
Later, Moritz, who is perpetually dysfunctional in school, finds out he has passes his midterms, and leaps for joy. This is the first time the audience gets to see that YES! Moritz is just a kid! Give him a break! Kudos to Blake Bashoff (Moritz) However, the schoolmasters will not have this, and instead tell him he has flunked. This leads to his inner monologue of a song "And Then There Were None" where he writes to Melchior's Mom asking for help after being turned out by his own father for failing.
All the while, Wendla who was out gathering flowers comes across Melchior in his "favorite thinking spot" they have a heart-to-heart and fantasize what it would be like, if they could just be honest about their feelings. This song had really nice choreography to go with it. Being a slow paced, delicate, indie type song, it couldn't be intense movement, but what was choreographed was great. It was subtle, but meaningful. A+!
Another time, shortly after "The Dark I Know Well" they encounter each other again, and Wendla begs Melchior to beat her. This was one of the more unsettling moments in the show. Wendla begs Melchior, because she wants to know what it feels like, to feel anything. He protests at first, but then hits her with a stick, but something happens, and then he full on starts beating her. He gets really upset by this and flees the stage, and a crying Wendla.
Later, Melchior has found a new space to think, the hayloft. The hayloft was actually pulled out the stage and then hoisted up by the actors. I must say, these actors double as grips in this show (Can you spell M-U-L-T-I...). Melchior sings "Mirror-Blue Night" and it is a truly cool piece. The lighting changes, and you fully understand WHY "Spring Awakening" got the Tony for best lighting!!! It was truly dazzling. Once again, Wendla joins him, and apologizes, and the two go back and forth debating whose fault the whole beating incident was. Finally, the two give in to their emotions and have sex onstage (You should have heard the gasps when Wendla's breasts were exposed, and the exclaims when Melchior's bare butt was in the air). All the while, the rest of the casts, harmonized beautifully, for the ridiculously repetitive "I Believe."
**Intermission**
Come back in, and the show picks up where it left off, with Melchior and Wendla going at it, as the preacher goes on about God, and religion, Martin Luther and whatnot. When they finish, "The Guilty Ones" starts. This song was another surprising one, it had a lot of unexpected emotion, and again, perfect choreography.
At this point, Moritz is beyond help, and has a gun with plans to kill himself ("Don't Do Sadness"). At the precise moment he is about to do so, Ilse comes across him, and asks him to come join her (Blue Wind). This was a great chance for Steffi D to show Ilse's quirkiness and comedy. Moritz protests and does not go with her, and is disgusted by the fact he didn't go with her (All he had to do was say yes!) he calls out for her, but it is too late, she is gone, and he kills himself.
As Moritz's funeral comes up, the whole cast sings and mourns his death, beautifully, in "Left Behind" -this is a great song, and shows the unity in the show was characters, and as a company. In the show, all the set pieces are moved around by the actors, so there aren't many. During this scene, the actors all just picked up and set flowers on the ground. It felt like the scene was missing something...like a gravestone or a casket or something.
Afterwards, Melchior is confronted for an essay he wrote Moritz about sexuality and anatomy, etc. that is attributed to Moritz's death/corruption. As he tries to explain himself, Melchior realizes it is no use, he can't win. He's fucked. Lead into "Totally Fucked" which was highly energetic and exhilarating. So much fun, and so true.
After this, Hanschen and Ernst are heading home, and Hanschen very cleverly and hilariously tells Ernst of his ideals, feelings and seduces him. In this song Ben Moss (Ernst) finally gets a chance to shine, and he does a great job, even his eyes were in character!
This is when Wendla is not feeling so well, so her mother calls for a doctor and Wendla is diagnosed as anemic...Not the case, she is pregnant. Melchior is sent away to a reformatory school, and Wendla is flabbergasted she is going to have a baby, she was told by her mother that a stork, and then "love" brought about babies. Wendla bares her soul in a haunting "Whispering." The two correspond through letters, but Wendla never recieves Melchior's. Still, they hold hope that they can be together, and create their honest and open world. In one particular letter, Wendla tells Melchior how she is pregnant. This letter is stolen by the other boys in the reformatory. When Melchior finds out, he escapes back to Wendla.
He sends a letter to Ilse telling her to get Wendla to meet him behind the church. Prior to this, Wendla was escorted by her mother to a shady doctor for a "procedure." Melchior looks at the graves by the church, he remembers his friend Moritz seeing his headstone, and checks some other ones. He is shocked when he reads one for Wendla Bergman, who died from....anemia. Melchior is shaken, and upset, and seeing how society has beaten and taken everything he loved from him, he contemplates giving in, and killing himself. He pulls out a blade, but hears the ghost of Moritz emerge and sing to him, the ghost of Wendla joins shortly, and they sing "Those You've Known" a song of remembrance and encouragement. It was beautiful. Kyle Riabko really brought it as Melchior in this number with the emotion, and showing the character's struggle.
Melchior decides not to kill himself, how he must go on for them, and never let them go (again, this song had different orchestrations).
Ilse comes onstage, and starts singing "The Song of Purple Summer" the lyrics were VERY different in this song, completely changed, it was interesting. Honestly, I liked these lyrics more than the OBCR!
The cast comes together again, and sings a song of hope (you really have to after the emotion and death of the previous number), and the show ends.
It was GREAT! It was truly a unique, interesting, and enjoyable experience!
I would reccommend seeing it with friends, because you can really relate to it as a group, but if you have understanding/liberal parents, take them as well, people can learn a lot from this show at any age.
Leaving I heard a teenage say "Wow, I liked it, but the music was okay, after the first few songs I was like 'Okay, we get it, you're indie."
I looked and saw a few middle aged people stunned in seats.
The elderly, were surprising really excited. They thought it was FUNNY. And not "Wicked" but enjoyable.
I would give it 9/10, because it was great, enjoyable, and clearly relatable to all age groups.
Check out www.springawakening.com to find out when the tour is coming to you, don't miss it!
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