Winter Awakening
Spring Awakening has transferred from the smaller Atlantic Theater Company space to Broadway's Eugene O'Neill theatre. And it's none the worse for wear. The cast is intact, led by the beautiful Lea Michele (who wisely chose to stay in this production, rather than take on the role of Eponine in the return of Les Miserables) and the ruggedly handsome Jonathan Groff (who's trying to live down his appearance in the laughed-out-of-town In My Life).
This show is a hybrid of Frank Wedekind's 1891 play (originally banned in Germany for its frank treatment of sexual matters) and a contemporary score by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. The plot involves teenaged students who aren't taught about sex and get into trouble because they're having sex. Leave it to those randy teens! "Oh, Sam," you're asking now, "is this one of those Commie liberal, heart-on-your-sleeve, freedom is everything message pieces?" Well, yeah. And the earnest and thinly dramatized book may annoy the crap out of anyone with at least a high school education, but the score and its performance by this cast of attractive 20-somethings may just blow you away! When was the last time you tapped your foot and bopped your head along to songs about masturbation, parental abuse, lust, teen suicide and obsessive romance? Okay, put down the Christina Aguilera album, I'm trying to make a point.
Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater have written some of the most catchy, vibrant and exciting theater songs since Dreamgirls. Yeah, I know some people thought Rent had some terrific songs, but some people ain't me. Spring Awakening also has some ballads, but as my friend Eva astutely pointed out at intermission, they tend to be minor key opuses with similar structures and dynamics, so they tend to be overlooked after three or four of them wash over you. But those uptempo numbers! My favorite remains Totally Fucked, where the movements created by Bill T. Jones finally explode after being carefully layered throughout the evening. Kevin Adams' lighting design threatens to explode, as well. The whole stage is so alive during this song, it's almost a show-stopper. The applause went on for at least two minutes, and that's a mighty good hand in the theatre!
The first exciting anthem of the evening is The Bitch of Living, wherein the boys (the cast, as repressive conservatives would want it, is divided into the boys and girls camps) expostulate over the cruelty of being forced to conjugate in Latin. Although I know my friend Patience would think the phrase "conjugate in Latin" would be dirty (she's a dirty, dirty girl), it's actually not, and that's why they hate it so. But the song, led by John Gallagher, Jr. (who may be the next John Mayer - look up his band, Old Springs Pike, at their website, www.oldspringspike.com), is a pounding discourse on how tough it is just to get from day to day. I freakin' love it! This is followed by My Junk, a song of obsessive love (or lust?) that I relate to in a way that only Matt Damon could truly understand. Well, actually, I'm not sure Matt Damon would understand my obsessive love at all, but I would like him to know he is my junk.
One of the ballads that works extremely well for me is The Word of Your Body, which likens falling in love to being wounded. Yup, sounds about right to me. Another ballad that works for me is Blue Wind, sung by Jonathan Groff bathed in a blue light. Literalism works for me sometimes, ya know? Like the literal meaning behind the film title Good Will Hunting
(which I'm going to be watching again this weekend). Will Hunting is a good guy, and he's a guy hunting for good will. So that's two ways the title is literal. For a guy like me who loves puns, this title really turns me on. If only the movie did, too. I know Matt wrote it with Afflack, but it's sometimes as cheesily earnest as, well, as the book to Spring Awakening.
But the high energy numbers in the show are the ones that really speak to me, and John Gallagher, Jr. shoots slings and arrows into my soul with his propulsive bites of And Then There Were None and Don't Do Sadness. I'm telling you, I love the way this guy rocks out! And I think he's cute as hell, too.
But Matt, please don't be jealous. I'm gonna be wounded by you, you're gonna be my wound. And I Will Always Love You...but that's another song altogether.
This show is a hybrid of Frank Wedekind's 1891 play (originally banned in Germany for its frank treatment of sexual matters) and a contemporary score by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. The plot involves teenaged students who aren't taught about sex and get into trouble because they're having sex. Leave it to those randy teens! "Oh, Sam," you're asking now, "is this one of those Commie liberal, heart-on-your-sleeve, freedom is everything message pieces?" Well, yeah. And the earnest and thinly dramatized book may annoy the crap out of anyone with at least a high school education, but the score and its performance by this cast of attractive 20-somethings may just blow you away! When was the last time you tapped your foot and bopped your head along to songs about masturbation, parental abuse, lust, teen suicide and obsessive romance? Okay, put down the Christina Aguilera album, I'm trying to make a point.
Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater have written some of the most catchy, vibrant and exciting theater songs since Dreamgirls. Yeah, I know some people thought Rent had some terrific songs, but some people ain't me. Spring Awakening also has some ballads, but as my friend Eva astutely pointed out at intermission, they tend to be minor key opuses with similar structures and dynamics, so they tend to be overlooked after three or four of them wash over you. But those uptempo numbers! My favorite remains Totally Fucked, where the movements created by Bill T. Jones finally explode after being carefully layered throughout the evening. Kevin Adams' lighting design threatens to explode, as well. The whole stage is so alive during this song, it's almost a show-stopper. The applause went on for at least two minutes, and that's a mighty good hand in the theatre!
The first exciting anthem of the evening is The Bitch of Living, wherein the boys (the cast, as repressive conservatives would want it, is divided into the boys and girls camps) expostulate over the cruelty of being forced to conjugate in Latin. Although I know my friend Patience would think the phrase "conjugate in Latin" would be dirty (she's a dirty, dirty girl), it's actually not, and that's why they hate it so. But the song, led by John Gallagher, Jr. (who may be the next John Mayer - look up his band, Old Springs Pike, at their website, www.oldspringspike.com), is a pounding discourse on how tough it is just to get from day to day. I freakin' love it! This is followed by My Junk, a song of obsessive love (or lust?) that I relate to in a way that only Matt Damon could truly understand. Well, actually, I'm not sure Matt Damon would understand my obsessive love at all, but I would like him to know he is my junk.
One of the ballads that works extremely well for me is The Word of Your Body, which likens falling in love to being wounded. Yup, sounds about right to me. Another ballad that works for me is Blue Wind, sung by Jonathan Groff bathed in a blue light. Literalism works for me sometimes, ya know? Like the literal meaning behind the film title Good Will Hunting
(which I'm going to be watching again this weekend). Will Hunting is a good guy, and he's a guy hunting for good will. So that's two ways the title is literal. For a guy like me who loves puns, this title really turns me on. If only the movie did, too. I know Matt wrote it with Afflack, but it's sometimes as cheesily earnest as, well, as the book to Spring Awakening.But the high energy numbers in the show are the ones that really speak to me, and John Gallagher, Jr. shoots slings and arrows into my soul with his propulsive bites of And Then There Were None and Don't Do Sadness. I'm telling you, I love the way this guy rocks out! And I think he's cute as hell, too.
But Matt, please don't be jealous. I'm gonna be wounded by you, you're gonna be my wound. And I Will Always Love You...but that's another song altogether.
posted by Sam at 6:07 AM
1 Comments:
Hey! I majored in Latin! (Now that's dirty).
--patience
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