I went back to see Spring Awakening, the 2007 Tony Award winner for best musical, partly because we had an extra ticket, and partly to see if I still thought it was as exciting as the first time.
Based on a controversial 19th-Century German drama, it's a compelling show about lack of communication and understanding between adults and young people. It's full of the angst of sexual awakening and the consequence of repressive authority. For me, it is like "Rent," only with more legitimacy. The protagonists in Rent are Bohemian druggies in New York who don't have jobs and wonder, musically, "How are we going to pay the rent?" In Spring Awakening, the characters are young people dealing with changes in themselves that they don't understand, while being harassed by cruel authority figures who withhold information.
This foundation, built upon by the decidedly un-Broadway-like music of Duncan Sheik, and the dynamic choreography of Bill T. Jones makes "Spring Awakening" one of the best shows you'll see in this season or any other.
Don't expect to see it at The Playhouse. The language is pretty much an f-word festival, with a focus on simulated masturbation and a not quite so simulated sexual encounter.
If you get a chance to see it in New York, on tour, or at one of the local alternative theatres, don't pass it up. For a preview, look on the internet for the clip of the song, "The Bitch of Living." http://youtube.com/watch?v=7JCoA92y24A
Musical theatre has come a long way from "Shall We Dance."
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