Spring Awakening
Hey everyone… has anyone seen/heard this show?? I can’t belive it hasn’tbeen compared to HAIR yet… it’s an amazing show… I saw it when I was in NYC recently – many of the songs could be placed into HAIR without missing a beat (especially Totally Fucked… it’s a modern GOing Down)
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 1:11 AM and filed under Uncategorized. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.
I missed this show when we were in New York in April. I have heard the CD and honestly I wasn’t impressed by the kind of music nor the story, but I am obviously in the minority. I also understand that a show like this might be much better in person than listening to the record, which was sort of how I felt about Rent too (contrasted with a show like Steel Pier, the Kander/Ebb musical which made a GREAT CD but was not as good on stage).
I guess it is my musical temperment. I just don’t find modern “rock” (or whatever it is being called today) very compelling in the same way that 60s and even some 70s rock was. I also thought it was strange that they would try to communicate the anxiety of modern youth by setting the story 100+ years ago. Maybe this works on stage, but reading it leaves me fairly cold.
I am still open to seeing it, I have mostly heard raves. Then again, we saw Curtains when were in NY in April and everyone else in the audience loved it and we hated it. We thought it was insipid, poorly directed and pointless. Awful stuff coming from the team who wrote Chicago and Cabaret and Kiss Of The Spiderwoman.
So, who knows? 😉 Its all a matter of what you like and what you don’t.
Jon
Posted on 12-Jul-07 at 8:36 am | Permalinkdebbie and i saw it .. the music was pretty good, better than most Bway scores nowadays, including Rent & Ave Q (not saying much, imho) but i agree with Jon that HAiR and other rock from the 60s/70s is far superior
the play in general was kinda weird .. not sure pop rock goes well with an old play (written in 1891) about a German village with characters named Melchior and Moritz .. a lot of times the audience laughed when they weren’t supposed to (esp. the end of Act I after a very melodramatic .. um .. thrust). The kids from the cast were the best part of the show – a few really great singers/performers
Posted on 12-Jul-07 at 9:29 am | PermalinkI agree that the audience laughed at some odd parts – I think it’s obviously an uncomfortable laughter and the play does start out with some funny moments, and then takes a turn and the audience doesn’t know how to handle it. But just goes to show that even 100+ years after the play was originally written, we’re still not comfortable with our bodies and sexuality. I thought the juxtaposition of the modern music and old story was well-done, especially because the musical numbers were “removed” from the action of the play in a way (purposfully taking out hand mikes, etc.)
Posted on 12-Jul-07 at 1:31 pm | PermalinkI think that’s why I said I expect it is one of those shows that is better seen than heard. Just listening to the music doesn’t make it totally clear where that happens and doesn’t (and the liner notes aren’t that helpful in my opinion, a lot of self-congratulation about pulling the show off (which indeed is a feat, let me tell you!) and not very strong exposition.
Jon Rosen
Posted on 12-Jul-07 at 1:37 pm | PermalinkI saw SA back in January. My immediate thought was that the cast of young people were amazingly energetic, and that this was what seeing HAIR must have been like. At a time when Broadway is mostly presenting comfortable “family” musicals, this cast is challenging us with Bitch of Living, My Junk and Totally F’d. While I don’t think the show as a whole holds a candle to HAIR, it was one of my more memorable recent theatrical experiences. I also found it rather ironic to consider that at age 42, I am part of the adult “establishment” being preached to.
Posted on 16-Jul-07 at 12:59 pm | Permalink