Spring Awakening (2006 Tony winner), is onstage in a touring production through Jan. 24 at the Aronoff Center.
Like Rent, Spring Awakening is based on a century-old work, in this case a controversial 1891 German play about adolescents dealing with coming-of-age anxieties. Like Hair and Rent, the show uses an electrifying Rock score that reflects the contemporary idiom. But Spring Awakening departs in a significant way from its predecessors: Rather than modernizing its source material, it’s costumed and set in the late 19th-century era when the play was written, reflecting prevalent social beliefs and behaviors.
The show portrays a group of high school students evolving from youth to adulthood. In a repressive, provincial town in Germany they struggle with their budding sexuality. The three central characters are Wendla, 14, an innocent girl who has received no sexual instruction from her prudish mother; Melchior, 16, more worldly and knowledgeable but torn by his many emotions; and his friend Moritz, also 16, repressed and frightened by what he doesn’t know and driven to suicide when he learns more.
Read Rick Pender’s feature story here and his review here and get showtimes and buy tickets at either link.
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2010.
