Rialto Chatter Exclusive: Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING Heading to New York Next?

BroadwayWorld.com has learned that the highly-acclaimed production of SPRING AWAKENING currently running through June 14 at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is in active talks for a transfer to New York City after the show's West Coast run.

A production source tells BWW that multiple venues on the East Coast are currently being considered, including a potential limited run on Broadway, or at one of the city's not-for-profit theatre companies, who have expressed interest in transferring the production.

Deaf West's production of BIG RIVER moved to Broadway at Roundabout in 2003 following rave reviews out west.

Click here to read BroadwayWorld's own review of the musical!

Based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 expressionist play and featuring an electrifying score by Duncan Sheik and Steven Slater, Spring Awakening follows the lives of a group of teenagers as they navigate their journey from adolescence to adulthood in a fusion of morality, sexuality and rock & roll.

On transferring from the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater, the original US production of Spring Awakening became an overnight sensation. It grossed over $50 million during its two year run at the Eugene O'Neill Theater and a US tour is booked through to 2010. By the end of 2009, productions will have opened in Japanese in Tokyo, Korean in Seoul and German in Vienna. 18 foreign productions are in preparation around the world.

The original Broadway production of Spring Awakening opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on December 10, 2006. Its cast included Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, Skylar Astin and John Gallagher, Jr.

An extraordinary creative team, headed by director Michael Arden, choreographer Spencer Liff, and musical directorJared Stein have reinvented the groundbreaking musical about lost innocence and the struggles of youth in true Deaf West style. Arden previously appeared in Deaf West productions of Big River on Broadway and Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum. Liff is an Emmy-nominee for his work on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" and choreographed the current Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Stein's credits include the first National Tour of Spring Awakening; and Broadway productions of American Idiot and Hair.

The cast includes Joey Antonio, Hillary Baack, Miles Barbee, Sean Barna, Katie Boeck, Alex Boniello, Joshua Castille, Julian Comeau, Daniel N. Durant (ABC Family's "Switched at Birth"), Treshelle Edmond ("Glee," Super Bowl XLIX - signed National Anthem), Sandra Mae Frank, Kathryn Gallagher, Gabrielle Garza, Sean Grandillo (ABC "Secrets and Lies"), Karla Gutierrez ("Switched at Birth"), Amelia Hensley, Lauren M. Luiz, Daniel Marmion, Austin McKenzie, Andy Mientus (NBC "Smash," CW "The Flash," National Tour: Spring Awakening), Krysta Rodriguez ("Smash," Broadway: original Spring Awakening, The Addams Family, First Date), Natacha Roi ("ER"), Howie Seago (Wallis: Into the Woods; Oscar Nominated film, Beyond Silence), Daniel David Stewart, Ali Stroker ("Glee"), Alexandra Winter and Alex Wyse (Showtime's "Masters of Sex").

Photo Credit: Kevin Parry