"Spring Awakening" at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway

Hey Minnesota friends, I'm in New York City! To celebrate my 15th year of annual visits to my favorite city in the world and my 15th year of running, I ran the NYC marathon (raising $4500 for the MS Society in the process). Now that those amazing, excruciating, inspiring 26.2 miles are done, it's time to see some Broadway shows! Last night I received my first ever press comps for Broadway (after 5 years of this blogging thing, does that mean I've finally made it?). And I could not have chosen a better show for this milestone than the absolutely exquisite revival of one of my favorite musicals, Spring Awakening. But this new production by Deaf West Theatre in L.A. is less of a revival and more of a re-imagining of the 2006 original Broadway hit (to borrow a phrase from our own Theatre Latte Da, who did a pretty amazing re-imagining of this show a few years ago). Director Michael Arden and his team (including ASL Masters who translated the songs and dialogue into ASL) have created something truly unique and original with this Spring Awakening, which not only examines the sexual awakening of teenagers in late 19th Century Germany (which perhaps isn't all that different from today), but also the treatment of deaf children in the same time period, when, according to the Director's note, sign language was banned in schools. This has brought more layers and a new urgency to this already powerful, poignant, devastating, moving, and beautiful story. In short, if you're planning to be in NYC sometime before January 24, go see this show. Even if you've seen Spring Awakening before, you've never seen it like this.

I'm not going to go into the brilliance of this Steven Sater/Duncan Sheik-penned musical based on the 19th Century German play by Frank Wedekind, and how they took this ahead-of-its-time play and made it modern and relevant. I've written enough words about that here and here. Instead I'll focus on the brilliance and uniqueness of this particular interpretation.

Whenever I happen to be at a theater performance with ASL interpretation, I have a hard time taking my eyes off the interpreters because they're so expressive. With this production, I didn't have to. ASL has been incorporated into the show not as an addendum, but as an integral part of the storytelling. Even if you don't understand a single sign, the sign language adds so much depth to the words and music. Musicals express a heightened reality, where things that cannot be expressed in words are expressed through music. Here, things that cannot be expressed through words or even music are expressed through sign language, which may be the most beautiful and expressive language in the world. It's like a dance, and for a show that featured repeated hand movements and choreography in its original form, ASL is a perfect fit. Many of the roles (including Wendla and Moritz) are double-cast with one actor playing the character and signing, and another actor speaking and singing in the background, not just providing the audible voice of the character but also the inner voice. It's like the two actors are playing two parts of the same person, often interacting with each other like we all interact with that inner voice in our heads. At some point I lost track of who was singing and who was signing as it all joined together to create one singular voice.

Melchi und Wendla (Austin P. McKenzie and Sandra Mae Frank)

The original Broadway production of Spring Awakening featured a cast of talented young unknown actors who have gone on to become stars on stage and screen, including Lea Michelle, Jonathan Groff, and John Gallagher Jr. Similarly, this cast is full of talented young people, most of whom are making their Broadway debuts, some of whom also play instruments, and many of whom are destined to become our next generation of stars. I'm curious what's going to happen when the Tony nominations come out, if two actors will be nominated together for the shared roles, because it's impossible to separate their performances. Sandra Mae Frank is so wonderfully appealing as the sweet, innocent, and curious Wendla, and Katie Boeck provides a lovely voice for her. Daniel N. Durrant beautifully portrays the confused and tormented Moritz, signing in a speaking world adding to the characters frustration. Alex Boniello provides his voice and inner rocker. As Melchior, Austin P. McKenzie is a special kind of triple threat - acting, singing, and signing combining to create this character who thinks he has it all figured out but has much to learn.

The entire ensemble of young people is wonderful, singing, signing, acting, playing guitar or piano or bass (in addition to the four band members). The four adult actors are great too, including Camryn Manheim (from one of my favorite TV shows of the past, The Practice) in what appears to be her stage debut, and Alexandria Wailes (filling in for Marlee Matlin at the performance I saw). Another remarkable thing about this show is that it features the first actor in a wheelchair on Broadway, which I find astounding (Broadway could learn could learn a thing or two from Mixed Blood Theatre). Ali Stroker (whom I recognized from another favorite TV show of the recent past, Glee) is a delight and adds another layer of inclusiveness and representation to this production.

the beautiful cast of Spring Awakening

The show is cleverly put together in terms of how ASL and spoken or sung English are combined, and when and where surtitles are used. In one particularly effective scene between Moritz and his father, there is audible silence as the elder Herr Stiefel berates his son for being a "failure" in angry ASL and we read the painful words projected onto the back wall of the stage. The rare moments in which a deaf person screams or speaks are particularly heart-wrenching because it only happens when they feel like they cannot be heard any other way ("why didn't you tell me everything?!"). The multi-level set provides a great playground for this energetic and physical cast, and the simple period costumes contrast nicely with the more modern garb on the inner voices (scenic and costume design by Dane Laffrey).

Spring Awakening is a beautiful, inventive, and inclusive production of a brilliantly written musical, and a wonderful start to my week of Broadway. Get your tickets now (or check out the TKTS line in NYC). Next up for me: a pretty rotten two-show day seeing Hamilton and Something Rotten!


Read more of my Broadway reviews here.

"Peter and the Starcatcher" at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway

Usually when I go to NYC, I see as many Broadway shows as I can fit in, sometimes as many as four or five in a long weekend. On this most recent trip, I spent most of the time visiting friends in and out of the city, but I couldn't possibly go to NYC and not see a Broadway show! Most of what is currently playing I've either seen already (Once, Book of Mormon), was not available at the half-price TKTS line (ditto), or I had no interest in seeing (Rock of Ages, Annie, Mary Poppins and the like). The two exceptions are the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater, and the five-time Tony-winning Peter and the Starcatcher, which falls in the slightly odd category of "play with music." We chose the latter, and I found it to be delightful, innovative, creative, and totally different from what you usually see on Broadway (which is a good thing in my book). Incorporating music (a few songs accompanied by keyboard and percussion, which also provide a soundtrack to the action), elements of physical theater (similar to Minnesota's Live Action Set and Transatlantic Love Affair), low-tech stage illusions, and good old-fashioned storytelling, it's a delightfully successful theatrical experiment.

Peter and the Starcatcher is based on the 2004 novel Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, a prequel to the Peter Pan story we're all familiar with. The play was written by Rick Elice and is directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers (who, along with several members of the creative team, was also responsible for the wacky and fun satire Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson). The title character is an unnamed and unloved orphan who's sold into slavery along with two other boys. They're being transported on the ship Neverland, captained by Slank and his rough and rowdy crew. Also on board are 13-year-old Molly and her nurse. Molly's father, the well-to-do and important Lord Aster, has entrusted her to the captain while he travels on a more dangerous route aboard the Wasp, on a mission for the queen.  He's transporting a trunk that unbeknownst to him has been swapped with a similar trunk of worthless sand by the devious Captain Slank. This set-up is explained to us largely in narration by various characters.

Aster's ship is overtaken by pirates, namely the dastardly Black Stache (Matthew Saldivar in a delightfully over-the-top hammy performance). He gets the key for the treasure-filled trunk from Aster, only to find sand and deduce that the trunk with the queen's treasure is on the other ship. He orders the crew to turn around and attack the Neverland. Meanwhile, back on that same ship, Molly has befriended the orphans and told them that her father is really transporting "star stuff," that must be destroyed because of its great power to turn anyone who comes in contact with it into whatever they want to be, whether good or evil. She has a secret means of communicating with her father (they're "starcatchers!"), so she and the boys help the Neverland get caught. The ship splits in two and Peter and some of the others are cast overboard!

So ends the first act. The second act takes place on an island, whose unfriendly native people speak a foreign tongue that seems to be mostly comprised of the names of Italian foods. Other dangers include crocodiles and sweet talking mermaids. Everyone is eventually reunited and must make some difficult decisions about what and whom to save. Molly and the orphan, now named Peter, save the day, but Peter realizes that he must stay on the island and remain a boy. He comes in contact with the star stuff and since what he wants most in the world is to be a normal boy, a boy he must be forever. The plot is wrapped up a little too neatly to make it fit into the Peter Pan story (Molly grows up to have children named Wendy and Michael, Black Stache loses his hand and becomes Captain Hook in a hilarious prolonged bit). But it's a sweet and engaging story with a heroine and a hero to root for.

the cast of Peter and the Starcatcher

Each member of the twelve-person cast has many roles to play and is fully committed to the story-telling. This is the fourth time I've seen the actor playing Peter - Adam Chanler-Berat (twice in the original cast of Next to Normal and in the Off-Broadway production of RENT last year). He's such an expressive and present actor, he makes Peter someone to believe in and root for. Celia Keenan-Bolger as Molly (the lone woman in the cast) is also wonderful, believably and joyfully playing a precocious British teenager despite being a grown up American woman. Other standouts, besides the aforementioned Matthew Saldivar as Black Stache, are Arnie Burton as Molly's ever-supportive Nurse and Rick Holmes as her father.

While the whole show is delightful, I enjoyed the first act more than the second. Most of the 12 actors are on stage for the entire act, playing many different roles or providing the backdrop for the scene. The ship set is nice and close in, providing an appropriate sense of claustrophobia and darkness of a sea voyage. In contrast, the island is all openness and light, and the characters are more scattered in separate groups.

What I appreciate most about Peter and the Starcatcher is that it's a really creative and fresh form of storytelling. It was easy to get tickets to this show, as opposed to the blockbuster Newsies, which is more accessible and familiar, and therefore, sold out. I wish more people would give this show a try, it's delightful for kids and adults alike. When children's entertainment is done well, and doesn't talk down to them and spoon feed them easily digestible morsels, but rather engages their brains and imaginations as participants in the storytelling experience, it's something that children of all ages, including the hated grown ups, can appreciate.