Review: Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING Revival Expands on The Original's Passionate Themes

The word of youthful rebellion spreads quicker when set to music, so naturally Broadway's most rebellious musicals attracting younger theatregoers - WEST SIDE STORY, HAIR, RENT and certainly the current HAMILTON - have been purveyors of musical styles not commonly heard in Times Square houses at the times of their openings.

Half of the company of the current Broadway revival of Spring Awakening cannot hear the alternative rock score of the show they're in; at least not in the same way composer Duncan Sheik and bookwriter /lyricist Steven Sater heard it when they created the piece, but that makes the musical's statements about communication between adolescents and their parents all the more potent.

Los Angeles based Deaf West Theatre presents the 2007 Tony winner for Best Musical with most roles double cast between deaf actors who sign the lines and lyrics and hearing actors who speak and sing them. (There is also, on occasion, signing done by hearing actors and supertitles projected onto the set.) While the musical's source, German Frank Wedekind's 1891 play that was often banned and censored for its frank depictions of suicide, abortion and teenage sexual awakening in a society that keeps them ignorant of how their bodies work and demands the suppression of natural urges, director Michael Arden adds vivid references to the fact that during the time the original opened, deaf people in Europe were often sterilized, forbidden to marry and forced to attempt speaking and lip reading instead of signing.

The original production sharply divided the evening into a non-musical play set in the 1890s and a contemporary rock concert with actors pulling microphones from their school uniforms when the music blared. Arden achieves the same divide by contrasting the young actors who share roles. When deaf actress Sandra Mae Frank, dressed in period garb as the confused adolescent Wendla, looks into a mirror and signs the chilling opening song, "Mama, Who Bore Me," she's reflected with actress Katie Boeck, looking 21st Century indie while accompanying her own singing with a folk guitar.

Daniel N. Durant's emotionally scarred, underachieving Moritz is voiced by angsty rocker Alex Boniello, but the charismatic Austin P. McKenzie takes on the role of sexually aggressive rebel Melchior himself.

All five are making impressive Broadway debuts, as are 13 other company members, including the production's two star names who share the female adult roles. But since Camryn Manheim, brutal as Wendla's abusive mother, can also sign, it cuts down the stage time for charming Oscar winner Marlee Matlin.

The ominously classical tones of Patrick Page serve the male authority figures well, but his signing partner, Russell Harvard, also seems underutilized.

In the original production Krysta Rodriguez understudied the role of Ilse, who scandalously ditches conformity to live in an artist colony. Now the role is hers and Rodriguez, who recently completed treatments for breast cancer, absolutely glows with joy onstage as she leads the company in the "The Song of Purple Summer." Also quite noticeable, in the small role of Anna, is Ali Stroker; not just for being the first wheelchair-using actor to appear on Broadway, but for her infectiously spirited presence.

SPRING AWAKENING is Sheik and Sater's first, and so far only, musical, and it tends to glide on the strength of its dynamic tone and passionate themes rather than its dramatic craft. Along with its opening, the score has three more solid theatre songs in "The Bitch of Living," the first crush anthem, "My Junk" and the ironic admission of defeat, "Totally Fucked," which is the highlight of Spencer Liff's revved-up choreography. The rest of the score tends to indulge too much in the kind of poetic imagery that sounds great on an album that you get to play over and over, but lacks the immediate clarity needed to tell a stage story.

But Spring Awakening has enjoyed enormous popularity with college and regional productions since closing on Broadway six and a half years ago and this excellent production should please its fans and those who appreciate musicals with high ambitions.