Deaf West's production of SPRING AWAKENING floored the critics when it premiered in California, prompting the Los Angeles Times to write, "It's hard to enumerate all the ways in which Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING is so very, very good." Now this unapologetically brilliant new production is coming to New York.
When it debuted on Broadway, SPRING AWAKENING's raw and honest portrayal of youth in revolt shattered expectations of what a musical could do, earning it 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book (for writer, Steven Sater) and Best Score (for composer, Duncan Sheik). Deaf West's innovative new production takes this already revolutionary musical to electrifying new heights by choreographing sign language into the production, intensifying the rift between the lost and the longing teenagers and the adults who refuse to hear them. Directed by Michael Arden, Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING is full of knockout performances, explosive music and soul-stirring emotion.
It's an admirable undertaking and I wish I could get behind it. But arriving on Broadway so soon after Michael Mayer's viscerally impactful premiere production won the 2007 Tony Award for best musical, this underpowered, unexceptionally sung post-Glee version seems more of a special presentation than a wholesale reinvention.
Arden is much better when he just mixes things up. Especially inventive are his use of posters, projection of words and silences. Sometimes he shows amazing restraint and creativity, as when Mientus seduces Castille atop an upright piano and Stewart's piano player swivels around on his chair in silent ecstasy. Much less wonderful is the over-the-top act one finale when Frank and McKenzie finally make it, surrounded by a hallelujah chorus complete with priests and incense. As for the adults, Russell Harvard, Camryn Manheim, and Patrick Page play a variety of adult villains. Only Marlee Matlin manages to give her roles a modicum of humanity.
2006 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2006 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
2008 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
2010 | US Tour |
NETworks National Tour US Tour |
2015 | Broadway |
Deaf West Broadway Revivial Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Spencer Liff |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Michael Arden |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Ben Stanton |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | She Loves Me |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Spencer Liff |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Michael Arden |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical) | Ben Stanton |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Projection Design (Play or Musical) | Lucy Mackinnon |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Arden |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Ben Stanton |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Spring Awakening |
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