What happens, nearly 20 years on, to a musical that was fresh and revolutionary when it premiered? When “Spring Awakening” debuted on Broadway in 2006, it felt new. With music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater (adapted from an 1891 play by Frank Wedekind), the show explores teen sexuality frankly, using a modern, alt-rock musical language (and ironic swearing, now commonplace) to tell the story of a group of 19th-century German teenagers. Desperate to learn about adolescence and denied information by their repressed elders, they’re hurtling hormonally toward the future nonetheless.
What better than the frantic, frenetic energy of a rock concert to underscore an angsty teen’s inner monologue? Today, this show sits in a tricky sort of limbo: excellent both musically and structurally, not old enough to be canon, like “Carousel” or “Company,” but old enough to have inspired a generation of theater-lovers and theater-makers. In practice, that limbo tends to play out directorially: It’s a show old enough that a director feels the need to put their own stamp on it, but not ubiquitous enough that they can go totally wild and trust that the story will be understood. That task is compounded by the need for nearly an entire cast of actors young enough to read as teenagers but experienced enough to pull off major emotional arcs.
This is all to say, my main impression of “Spring Awakening,” running through June 30 at The 5th Avenue Theatre, is tha.
