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Spring Awakening

 We're celebrating the five-year anniversary of the Deaf West Broadway production of "Spring Awakening." This is a show that has a special place in my heart. The original Broadway production--years before Deaf West--launched three now-massive names: Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff, and Tony-winner John Gallagher.


Also, the score has several canonical moments for theater nerds: "The Bitch of Living," "My Junk," "Mama who Bore Me."


Any story involves a stranger coming to town, and in "Spring Awakening," the stranger is puberty. The kids in the show--residents of 1800s Germany--have no understanding of sex or childbirth; if they ask an adult about conception, they're told this just happens "when you love someone very, very much." Alienation and miscommunication and pain lead to tragedy: One boy, drowning at school, ends up committing suicide. Another student winds up dead during a botched abortion; like Rapunzel, she hadn't really understood her pregnancy, hadn't even understood why her dress was beginning to get tighter.


It's rare to hear a distinctive literary "voice" in Broadway lyrics--but Steven Sater really did whatever he wanted in "Spring Awakening." He understood that kids post-9/11 would just inherently grasp what these German village characters were going through. Why not dissolve all barriers? Why not have a character sing (in an anachronistic way) about stereos and "handling things" and being "totally fucked"? The results were memorable. The character on stage might be carrying a parasol, but she is saying (to a crush):


You have to excuse me....I know it's so off....

I love when you do stuff that's rude and so wrong....

I go up to my room, turn the stereo on....

Shoot up some you, and the you is some song.....

 

Or a youth in knickerbockers might have this observation:


In the midst of this nothing....this mess of a life....

Still, there's this one thing, to see you go by....

It's almost like loving, sad as that is....

May not be cool, but it's so where I live.....

 

I really, really loved this show, and I'm happier to recall simpler times--five years ago--when you could just walk a few blocks to the theater and see it live. The Deaf West production was one of the early dates I had with my then-boyfriend, now-husband. So inspiring to take a look at these smart lyrics. I'd love to see this as a movie at some point.

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