Friday, May 22, 2009

Spring Awakening tour review

I went with my friends to see the touring cast of Spring Awakening at the Colonial Theater last week. It was my second time seeing it and I was able to pay a bit more attention to the production aspects instead of being immersed in the story. As a result, I feel more up to writing an analytical review. There will be spoilers ahead!

Overall, I enjoyed the musical and this cast. It is definitely the best musical I've seen in Boston in over a year. With the exception of a decent production of Chicago, the other shows I've seen recently have been pretty abysmal (Dirty Dancing and Legally Blonde I'm talking about you!). Still, it is a compliment to Spring Awakening. It's a solid production that manages to entertain while presenting serious themes.

I appreciate a musical with original music, but (with a few exceptions) I don't think the music and lyrics for this show are great. They certainly enhance the atmosphere of the show and illustrate teenagers' jumbled emotions, but they aren't songs that I like to listen to when I'm not actually in the audience.

The lyrics tend to include a lot of thrown together vague images without much of a narrative. For example, the refrain from the Guilty Ones is "And now our bodies are the guilty ones/Our touch will fill every eye/Huge and dark, all our hearts/Will murmer the blues from on high/And whisper some silver reply."

Sure, it's kind of pretty, but what exactly is a silver reply? Where is the high where their hearts murmer? If their hearts are dark and their bodies are guilty wouldn't they be yearning for heaven instead of possessing hearts already "on high"? They are the type of lyrics that I suspect were created because the words sounded good together rather than Sondheim-like lyrics which manage to be pretty much of the time also without losing the clarity of their images and the direction of the song. I'm not even a big Sondheim fan, but he writes some amazing lyrics.

The songs, with a few exceptions, don't usually relate to the plot or move it forward. Instead, they convey only the emotion the character is experiencing at the time. As a result, a lot of them could be moved around in the timeline of the story without effecting it the narrative much (Ex. The Dark I Know so Well, My Junk, Mirror Blue Night, Mamma Who Bore Me).

I don't hate the music and lyrics at all, but they don't stand out for me for the most part when compared to other musicals. If I think of them as part of a montage of teenage feelings and issues (or more like an artsy concert), then I think they work better. Also, there are a few striking moments. I love the lyrics in Word of Your Body "Oh, I'm gonna by wounded/Oh, I'm gonna be your wound." They're describing an extremely common emotion in a very unique and yet still deeply evocative and accurate way.

The cast, on the other hand, does stand out, especially Blake Bashoff who plays Moritz (Yay Carl from Lost!). He allows his ticks, expressions, and lines to be funny for the audience, but maintains their absolute seriousness to Moritz. Although he is funny, you never sense that he is trying to be funny. The expressions appear to come from his inner turmoil and confusion very organically. His voice is pleasant but not amazing, however the raw emotion and energy in his acting make his performance incredible.

Two other standouts are Henry Stram and Angela Reed, the actors who portray all of the adults in the story. Their roles aren't flashy, but they each have to portray at least six different characters and they both make each character very distinct and real. There was only one part at the very end (when Reed goes from being Wendla's mother to Melchior's mother) that I was not sure exactly which character was present in the scene. Not only do they portray many roles, they portray some difficult roles very well. Moritz's father is only in two scenes and has none of his own background explained, but when he cries at Mortiz's funeral you know that character better than most of the other minor characters.

I find the character of Wendla annoying because she lets herself be everyone's pawn and spends a lot of time doing silly or stupid things. Christy Altomare portrays her well though. She makes me believe in Wendla's innocence (in the sense of her complete lack of knowledge and intentions, not her lack of responsibility for what happens). She has a beautiful voice, especially in the song Whispering.

The only slight disappointment for me was Kyle Riabko. He has the looks and the voice for the part, but his acting was a little one note especially compared to Blake Bashoff's. He does "in love" well and the more low key emotions like warm friendliness with Moritz, but I find the extremely passionate scenes like the beating of Wendla and the final graveyard scene to be not passionate enough.

I've never seen the Broadway cast so I don't know if other actors played Melchior differently, but I felt that Melchior as written in the book of the musical needed to be darker and more intense. He's not your typical noble hero/lover character. He writes and speaks fairly obsessively about social reforms and the wrongs of society and has a lot of anger about it, he beats Wendla badly, and, worst of all, he selfishly sleeps with her repeatedly knowing the possible consequences and not informing her. He informs Moritz, but not Wendla because informing Wendla would probably mean he wouldn't be able to keep having sex with her. Although Wendla as portrayed in this version does give in to Melchior, the first time they have sex she certainly protests at first and is not comfortable with it.

Kyle Riabko tended to play him more as a good boy who makes some dumb decisions rather than a potentially dangerous, angry, and passionate man. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be totally suprised if Melchior grew up to be a criminal. His lyrics at the end of the show, "You watch me/Just watch me/I'm calling/I'm calling/And one day all will know" have a very ominous ring to them and not just because he's standing in a graveyard with a knife and some dead people who could have come from Les Mis.

My review has already gone on to long, but I'll conclude by saying that the set was simple and perfect. I'm a fan of the one set show since it lets you focus on the performances rather than stage wizardry. The historical paintings and seemingly random yet relevent items on the walls which lit up during different scenes were excellent and played into the artsy concert feel while giving a hint of the time period. The geometry of the round (boob-like) lights and straight lines of bold colored lights fit with the geometry of the frenzied rigidly shaped arm choreography that goes on at times. I hate that choreography, which resembles a crazy robot dance spasm to me instead of the release of repressed feelings as I assume it is intended to be, but I'll admit that it sort of fits when you think about it for a long time.

In conclusion, it is worth seeing for the great cast and originality. It's not among my all-time favorite musicals, but I do think it's a solid show, enjoyable, and well-performed.

No comments:

Post a Comment