Broadway's Spring Awakening is Being Put to Bed

Spring Awakening's last Broadway performance will be on January 18, 2009. Why? Is it a victim of our economic times? Sadly, I think it is. It won the 2007 Tony for Best Musical plus 7 other Tony's. A blockbuster, a juggernaut. Well, it should be. In my opinion it's the best thing on Broadway. In fact, it's one of the best shows I've ever seen with a brilliant score by Duncan Sheik and lyrics and book by Steven Sater based on the first play of German playwright Frank Wedekind. Written and staged in 1891, it was banned as scandalous. It's an adult musical about children. Children left in the dark about their changing bodies and raging hormones. It's about ignorance and denial and their often dire ramifications. The staging is ingenious, taking teens coming of age in 1891 Germany, wearing clothing of the times, settings of the times, but modernizing it with bursts of lights and rock music as these frustrated children on the brink of adulthood express their teenage angst. It's emotionally charged with the joys and sorrows of sexual discovery and the consequence of ignorance thanks to unapproachable parents, teachers and clergy. The opening song sets the tone with the beautiful 15 year old Wendla singing "Mama who bore me, Mama who gave me, No way to handle things, Who made me so sad". Wendla who is so full of life and curious and asks questions that need to be answered but are glossed over by her puritanical mother. When it is later found she is pregnant, she has no idea how it happened.
This is musical theatre for theatre lovers who don't love musicals. The story is sensitive, profound, breathtakingly emotional and, in my opinion, a must-see.

The good news is, although it will soon close on Broadway, it will continue to touch audiences across the United States with it's American tour, and around the world with productions soon to open in London, Vienna, Toronto, Helsinki and Seoul. And I read in Playbill News that a film version is likely.

Spring Awakening is set to begin performances at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith on January 23, 2009 with an official run from February 3rd to February 28th.