"Spring Awakening" playing at Allentown Civic Theatre is a rock musical that is not your High School Musical 4 or 6 or whatever next number is.
The story explores the trials of sexual emergence experienced by a group of German teen-agers in the 1890s.
Various vignettes including problems figuring out what sex is, sexual exploration, a possible rape, child abuse, a homosexual affair, teenage male fixation on an older woman, and masturbation.
The show won numerous 2007 Tony Awards including Best Musical. The original cast album won a Grammy. The book and lyrics were written by Steven Sater with music composed by Duncan Sheik. The musical is based upon a German play Fruehlings Erwachen by Frank Wedekind.
There are three stars of the show in no particular order--- the music performance directed by Justin Brehm; the set designed by Jason Sherwood; and the lighting and sound under the technical direction of Will Morris.
The music was the first highlight with an orchestra carefully prepared and balanced to the vocal dynamics of the singers.
This is the best group of musical singers I have heard on a local stage in the last couple of years and the best of a large cast ever here. I heard fewer flat notes across the entire cast than I have heard from some leads in one show.
Well done!
The set was an ideal supporting character, with a raked platform framing most of the action with books used to cover the area under the stage from the audience in the wings. Sherwood, employing the same technique used in "Next to Normal" last May, left the black cement wall open to the audience.
A wood flat, decorated like the top of a farm shed, that was lowered and raised to give various looks to several scenes.
This was a set design that matched the best I have seen in big-budget, college theaters in the area. It was marvel to watch and appreciate, never an intrusion on the play.
The sound and lighting were notably valuable in this show. Civic has moved to using lighting for significant dramatic effect in the last season or two, and this show used it with particular impact that was always appropriate.
There was a large, bright light bar upstage-right that lit up in sections for memorable dramatic emphasis.
The sound was as good as I have heard on a local stage in a while, and much better than my last couple of Civic shows. I appreciated the balance between orchestra and singers, and the accuracy with which it captured both the music and speech.
Unfortunately, the diction in the music was lost because the singing technique used by the cast was not up to the pronunciation requirements of the vocal line. I missed at least 80% of the words across the entire cast, and in my opinion it was not due to the sound system.
However, the music was exciting and interesting, so I did not need the words. It was a joy to experience.
The vocal instruments across the cast were excellent and balanced each other well. A good vocal instrument, singing interesting music with good microphones, makes for an enjoyable listening experience even if you do not understand the words. (There are no words in symphonies.) The story line was unraveled outside the vocal music, in any event; the music added to the drama even if it did not advance it.
The ensemble acting of the cast captured the pathos inherent in the situations faced by the teenagers in the story.
Michael Barthel as Melchior, Nina Attinello as Wendla and Alexander Michaels as Moritz were compelling leading characters.
The rest of the ensemble was strong, believable and kept me involved in the complexities of the story and the rapid development and completion of the various experiences of the characters.
The performance was crisp, precise and clean. There was never a hint of uncertainty that came through to the audience. Civic is known for its brutal rehearsal schedule, but given the precision of this show, and most Civic Shows, the effort and the time paid off.
While the play itself is powerful drama, there were little niggling things that kept happening that drew my attention and took me out of the story.
For example, Melchior is reading Goethes Faust; Faust is short book, and Melchior is reading a book the size of Cervantes Don Quixote.
One of the male cast members has long hair, which would never have been found on a German boy in 1890.
Another example: At the end of the song, "Totally Fucked", the cast is showing the middle finger to the audience. The German culture does not use the middle finger as a symbol for Sie sind gaenzlich gefickt.
I did understand every word of this song however.
Perhaps more serious for me, were interruptions to my involvement caused by the acting.
Young actors--- and most of the cast is in this category--- often act by following directions given to them, or by thinking about how someone would act if they were sad or happy or whatever.
Michaels, as Moritz, got off to a slow start, acting as he thought an underperforming, school kid would act rather than feeling like an underperforming school kid.
Once he got to the meat of his role, where he has been thrown into crisis by his tutors, he was phenomenal.
One other problem that challenged the actors was the speed at which the various crises developed and finished. There were several occasions where it just did not work because the situation was too complex to be established in a meaningful way within the allowances of the script.
For example, there was a scene in which Wendla and Melchior met in the woods. Wendla had just witnessed a disclosure by Martha (Kayla Weinerman) that she had been beaten and sexually abused by her farther. Wendla, in trying to understand Marthas experience, asked Melchior to beat her with a stick. Melchior gave her a swat, but she told him to hit harder. So he lost control, beat her hard about five times, and she fell to the ground crying. Melchior then explained that something bad in himself had taken over and made him do it. The problem was that this "something" was not given enough time to develop, so it appeared that he just started beating her hard and often for no motivation that I could ascertain.
These quibbles aside, Spring Awakening is a heart-wrenching tour de force, driven by best-in-class, local, young actors, supported by the best show music of the year in the Lehigh Valley.
If you can handle emotional, adult situations, and love-compelling drama within an exciting musical setting, you will find it all in this show.
The stories reminded me that I hope reincarnation is not true. I do not now and never did want to go through the existential angst so infused in the teenage years. It is hard for me to believe that a caring, creative force, whatever called, would want to force me to go through it again.
"Spring Awakening" continues with shows through 10/27.
Tickets are $31 or $28, with special prices on certain days.
For more information, please call (610) 432-8943 or visit www.civictheatre.com