Review: Spring Awakening

When Spring Awakening opened on Broadway in 2006, its tagline read “A New Musical,” a concept echoed over and over again by critics celebrating the show’s challenge to preconceived notions of theatre. While the musical certainly remains a standout in recent years, having won several Tony Awards after its original run (including the coveted awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score), the story it tells—like the cycle of its titular season—is not new at all. And that’s not a bad thing.

Theatre Baton Rouge, of course, lacks the resources dispensed to Broadway and other massive production houses. So for its production—whose first night of a seven-day run was Thursday, October 24—instead of flashing marquees and balcony seating, a small, ground-level stage tucked beside the main building suffices to transform into a small village in late nineteenth-century Germany. With no room for twinkling lights or architecture, a few minor props—from a handful of stools to an occasional notebook or flower or switch—make do as complements to the collective imagination between audience and actor alike. An imagination, at least in my case, made priceless through the phenomenal efforts of this local cast.

Certain rated-R themes and performances in the musical require most actors playing its teenage roles to be a bit older than their Spring Awakening counterparts; but after watching their characters battle through two hours of classic teenage angst, the Theatre Baton Rouge cast members proved their ability to slip into whatever persona might be required of them.

LSU theatre major Jacob Voisin is especially memorable as Moritz, a manic, studious boy thrust from innocence after a mortal dose of shame manufactured by ineffectual authority figures. Twitchy but devoted, intellectual but emotive, Moritz requires an immense range—both vocally and psychologically—to cement him as one of the musical’s finest examples of failed youth. Voisin, unlike Moritz’ parents and the social hindrances to which they subscribe, does not let him down.

Emily Heck and Gentry Williams play Wendla and Melchior, respectively, both with beautiful voices and the same vulnerable maturity all teenagers struggle to balance as they grow into adults. Act II delivers one of Williams’ most impressive vocal performances in the piece “Left Behind,” a melancholy, melodic break from the folk- and rock-and-roll-infused numbers proliferating most of the show. Even actors playing minor characters deliver leading-role vocals and endearing performances, which, even if on a stage as big as those in New York City, could not be ignored.

As previously stated, Spring Awakening does emphasize fresh takes and bold assertions, and it definitely still holds on to the controversy that led its original version as a 1891 play to be banned in Germany for considerable time. Controversial, that is, for anyone unprepared to encounter soul-wrenching depictions of sexuality, rape, abortion, and suicide—which, needless to say, do not combine into a pleasing impression of adolescence.

But that’s part of the whole point. Perhaps with the implementation of some of the show’s broader themes—from honest communication, to creative thinking, to examining constructs of shame—young people today may at last be allowed to show their true colors sooner, and keep them longer than one season of discontent.

Details. Details. Details.

October 24, 25, 30, 31, and November 1 at 7:30 pm and October 26 and November 2 at 2 pm. Tickets are: $20 for students, $24 for subscribers, and $28 for general admission. 7155 Florida Boulevard. Tickets at theatrebr.org.