I caught the final night of the touring cast of Spring Awakening on Sunday evening, with a mixture of apprehension and mock excitement.  Besides the obvious 2007 Tony Winning New Musical Hype Machine that has been following this show across the country, it is also pimping the soon to be “Original Cast Tour” of Rent starring a geriatric Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal hoping to ride the Rent train down to Hades one more time before they die.  I hate hype and musical has-beens, so I was reluctant to see this show, and in fact, was going to avoid it all together, until my friend and fellow musical theatre enthusiast tipped me off that Moritz (the unfortunate anti-hero) was being played by none other than Blake Bashoff (Karl of Lost fame).  There is no question that I want to be as close as possible to anything related to my favorite television program, and Bashoff played a key part in one of Lost’s creepiest episode to date (Not In Portland), so I was anxious to see him perform live, even in a less-than-ideal show scenario.

Seated only five rows back from the stage, my companion and I could not have asked for a better position to take in this “groundbreaking new musical” (unless your preference is to sit on the stage, which mine is NOT).  The house was absolutely packed with slathering teeny boppers desperate to see this show for the 6th or 7th time, their blank eyes like saucers of nothingness, hoping to suck the marrow of knowledge and meaning out of this show.  That may sound melodramatic, but it is exactly what the creator and producers of Spring Awakening were hoping for when they conceived the piece, so there is no question that they achieved their goal.  The stage was bare but the walls were adorned with an abundance of strange odds and ends, classic paintings with words scribbled on them, half butterflies, randomly placed mirrors and odd metallic orbs. It didn’t exactly scream “provincial German town in the 1890’s” as it is described.  Three rows of stage-bound seats on each side held a smattering of audience members and ensemble performers (some of whom arrived with the audience “under cover”- sorry folks, your jean jackets didn’t fool me- even the kids in the audience didn’t look THAT gaunt and awkward).

Set-up aside, I was pleased with some of the performance once the actual show began.  Understudy, Perry Sherman was filling in for Melchior in this performance, which initially bummed me out, as seeing an understudy for the lead is often a show killer, but he did a fairly good job filling in.  His voice was absolutely beautiful, but his acting skills were definitely not on par with the other actors.  After beating Wendla near the close of the first act, I barely believed he was having a real emotional response and not an emo panic attack.  He was nice to look at, and again, sang very well, so I forgave him for the acting slights since he’s probably only played the part a few times in reality.  The voices of all of the actors were fantastic.  There was not a single weak link in the vocal chain.  I was delighted to read that there were a few local heros in the cast, Chase Davidson (swing, u/s Moritz) is a Boston Conservatory graduate, as well as Kimiko Glenn (Thea), and Gabrielle Garza (Anna) is an Emerson Alumnae, just like me!  I was also happy to see a Canadian Idol in our graces, Steffi D (Ilse) stole the show, in my opinion.  There were, in fact, several standout performances besides Steffi D’s, Andy Mientus (Hanschen) and Ben Moss (Ernst) were so wonderfully funny in “The Word of Your Body” reprise in the second act, and Mientus in general was fabulous (and brave! He took on quite the emotional faux pas of masturbating on stage!) throughout the performance- he was absolutely the ensemble member I could not stop watching.  Matt Shingledecker (Georg) impressed me by taking the piano for several of the songs, which gave me a chance to watch the fantastic conducting by Jared Stein.  Generally I wouldn’t think to comment on the conducting but I really appreciated the command he had on the band and the very hip and cool look about him.  Bashoff didn’t let me down in his portrayal of Moritz.  I would argue that he is vocally stronger than John Gallagher Jr. who originated the role.

I am really disappointed that a cast which I considered to be very strong, had to work with a script that I thought was severely lacking in cohesion.  I just don’t think that this piece deserved to win best musical simply because it did a better job at being hip and avant-garde than that tired old one trick pony, Rent.   It’s more than ironic that the two shows would be billed together, trying to lean upon each other’s fan bases as a crutch.

Perhaps the billowing smoke of the cemetery scene or the swinging platform or the nudity-with-simulated-sex was supposed to distract me from a rather dull and under-developed plot line, but it didn’t.  It just made me annoyed that they couldn’t get by on the merits of a good production without the smoke and mirrors and salaciousness (all literal in this particular case).   I didn’t like the show.  I didn’t like the production team’s vision. I did like the performers.  One out of three ain’t bad.

Touring Cast