Through March 1
The Beck Center’s latest musical, Spring Awakening, is not as cheery as its title.
Directed by Victoria Bussert, with music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, the 2006 multiple Tony Award winner is based on a late-19th-century German play by Frank Wedekind. Last seen at the Beck in 2012 (also directed by Bussert), it’s back with a new cast, set, and costumes, but it’s still an unhappy view of adolescent passions and social rules.
The musical elements are beautifully done. The excellent cast races about the stage breaking hearts and singing, channeling adolescent vibes into dynamic theatrical force. The story’s dozen plus students are played by Oberlin College students so there’s a note of reality there.
One early song, “The Bitch of Life,” sums up the play’s vibe best. It’s delivered by the boys in school via well-paced and synchronized movements designed by choreographer Lauren Marousek. I suspect, given the impressive physical workouts demonstrated on classroom chairs, those in the show could have skipped daily gym routines during the show’s run.
The girls get their turn to complain too, in a spooky babydoll opening song “Mama Who Bore Me.” They want to know how babies are made and what their own newly developing bodies are for.
Not to publish spoilers, but a teenage romance between sweet Wendla (Ella Petras) and passionate Melchior (Max Larson) doesn’t end well. Neither does the search for life’s meaning and purpose as shown by the tortured Moritz (Cooper Campbell). Despite their characters’ suffering, their performances give life to what is, ultimately, a gloomy storyline.
Two actors in the play serve as adult figures (parents, teachers, doctors and so on). Anjanette Hall as “Adult Woman” and Matthew Wright as “Adult Man” moved, seemingly with ease, from one role to another. Hall was equally amusing as a sexy piano teacher and frightening as the repressed mother. Wright clearly demonstrated his characters’ authoritarian roles, sometimes with a switch in his hand.
Scenic and lighting designer Trad A. Burns created a (basically) black-and-white stage featuring staggered steps and lecterns on each edge. The background, stark angled lines, seemed to reveal two fierce eyes watching from above. (OK, that’s what I saw anyway.) The set gave the students space to dance and clamber and even turned into a misty cemetery at one point.
Costumes by Tesia Dugan Benson gave a sense of place and time. A small ensemble directed by Matthew Webb provided seamless instrumental accompaniment from offstage.
The show is double-cast. This reviewer saw the Beltane Cast which also included Rebecca Kenjesky (Martha), Ana Rodriguez (Thea), Gabriel Salazar (Hanschen), Isa Noriko Sanchez (Anna), Tate Cinti (Ernst), Cassie Woodward (Ilse), Randy Christopher Castillo (Georg/Dieter), Quentin Davis (Otto/Rupert), Connor Lirio (Bobby Ulbrecht), A.J. Wansack (Reinhold/Franz), Grace Pressley (Marianna) and Kayla Servilla (Greta).
All gave lively multi-talented (singing and stomping and jumping) performances. Age-appropriate for Spring Awakening, the actors persuasively represented the agony of growing up and the perils of adolescent sexual impulses.
Bottom Line: What to tell yourself after this rock musical: “If you think your teenage years were rough, think again. Consider that the young ones in Spring Awakening probably had it worse.” (I hope so, for your sake). While it’s an absorbing, well-crafted show, it is not a show for children.
[Written by Laura Kennelly]