Steven Sater talks SPRING AWAKENING at the Almeida Theatre

Lyricist and playwright Steven Sater won a Tony, an Olivier and a Grammy for his smash hit Spring Awakening, which originally opened on Broadway in 2007. The musical, which has music by Duncan Sheik, was then revived on Broadway in 2015 in a production by Deaf West that used both American Sign Language and English.

A new revival production of Spring Awakening is now running at the Almeida Theatre in London, directed by the venue's Artistic Director Rupert Goold and led by rising stars Amara Okereke and Laurie Kynaston.

Steven is also currently a Grammy nominee for Best Musical Theater Album for Some Lovers, a brand-new concept album that he has written with the legendary composer Burt Bacharach. His other works include Alice By Heart, a musical based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which ran Off-Broadway in 2018.

We spoke to Steven about returning to Spring Awakening for this revival, and finally seeing Some Lovers out in the world.

How have you been doing? What have you been up to recently?

I've been doing well, I've been here [in London] for a few weeks. We had the extraordinary Broadway reunion concert (for Spring Awakening). And then a few days after that, I flew here. So it's as if I've gone from dream to dream.

After 15 years, they're like my family, you know, the original cast. So that was an extraordinary night, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime event, and a total privilege that we were able to do it. And then to kind of recuperate from that and then arrive here...

I've been working with Rupert [Goold] for so long on the show. And so through lockdown we had been talking about it, and then to arrive somewhat later in rehearsal and see what they were doing, and to see things which I had even written, that we'd worked on together, but I had no idea how they would materialise... It was really remarkable. So I've kind of been in that dream ever since.

How does it feel to be reviving Spring Awakening now? Are there any elements of the story that feel particularly relevant in 2021?

From the beginning, there was an idea that the world has changed, the world has changed for young people. They have a newfound visibility - and power, really - through social media. And there are youth activists like Greta Thunberg around the world, there are young people marching for climate change, and Black Lives Matter. And this had really informed our vision of the show to begin with.

But little had we dreamed we would then go into this total global lockdown for two years, and that young people would be so pent up. And so it seems like the show has always been about young people feeling misunderstood and isolated, but never has that felt more timely. And it's like the grown-ups have all the cards - now, something bigger than the grown-ups kind of has the cards, but the young people are still subject to it.

I think the deeper and deeper Rupert and I have gone into examining the text, the more changes we've unearthed. Krysta Rodriguez [a swing in the original Broadway cast and Ilse in the 2015 Deaf West revival] was here a week ago, and she said she had heart seizure. She said she was just so stunned by what we were doing. And some of her lyrics as Ilse in Act One had changed, and I think she was thrilled by the changes, but she was startled.

There was a production at Central [School of Speech and Drama] and at RADA. These actors are coming to the show. There was a director sitting next to me last night up in the dress circle with her Moritz, who had done it in Durham. So there are people who really know the show well, producers, directors, actors.

And in a way, I would say they're relishing it most, because they understand not only what the show has been directorially, but also what the text has been, what the music has been. They know it backwards and forwards. So they're very attuned to the changes we've made. There are several real musical changes to the show, and some textual changes, some of which had to do with acknowledging the world of 2021. And a lot of which had to do with a particular vision of the show that's evolved, as I've talked to Rupert through the years.

The Deaf West Broadway revival of the show was a reinterpretation that found new meaning in the source material - did that production or this 2021 revival change your perception of it?

When we first set out to turn Wedekind's great play into a musical, RENT was all the rage. And we were really urged by everyone to update the story, to do a contemporary version of the show. And in fact I even wrote one at one point. And then we thought this doesn't work at all. It didn't work for the story, didn't work to my own sensibility. My feeling then was that I didn't want to create a period piece about the early 2000s. And then if we left the show firmly in period and brought a contemporary score to it, we could create a more enduring mirror, which could continue to reflect the times.

And I have to say, I'm so grateful we did. The issues in this play could not be more current. With what's going on with abortion rights in the United States right now... During the pandemic, you know, youth suicide rates have been called the - I'm going to start crying - but they've been called the "pandemic within the pandemic". The play has never felt more timely, and it's really remarkable that our musical has remained sort of a mirror - that it's been open to these kinds of re-envisionings.

The starting point for the show was the shootings at Columbine in 1999, and my sense that we were just not listening to what's going on in the hearts of young people. Not only the moral imbecility of adults, but the deafness of adults to what was going on - it's never been brought home more explicitly, or more profoundly, than in the Deaf West revival.

In the classroom scene in that show, the teacher was imposing oralism, which was a technique whereby the deaf and hard-of-hearing students were forced to vocalise: they were denied access to their language. Well, that's what the whole show's about: denying kids access to their language. All the songs in our show function as parts we can't tell, they're our secrets, they're our inner darkness coming forth. So then sign language became illicit, sign language was forbidden. And the signing became the choreography of the show. So the whole show was like a secret act of rebellion among these young people. It was very forceful, and direct. And a huge life experience to be part of it.

Are there any songs or lyrics that stood out to you in particular this time round?

There's something really beautiful going on in the production with Lynne Page. Lynne Page is our choreographer - she's a marvel. And when I watch what she's brought to "Touch Me" it's like rereading my own work through her eyes, through her text. I love "Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind". I love what our actress Carly (-Sophia Dyer) is bringing to Ilse and what she's bringing to that song.

Between Spring Awakening and Alice By Heart, you tend to write about youth and the complexities of growing up a lot. What do you think draws you to that?

There are a lot of answers to that. I had a very odd upbringing myself. I was ill, I was ailing, I was kept home, I was a bit of a bubble boy, I was in and out of hospitals. I was on an oxygen tank. And then I stayed home a lot from school. And I was - I think a lot of people feel this, you know - I was unlike a lot of the young people around me where I grew up.

When Spring Awakening had its second national tour in the United States, it opened in my hometown, which is in Evansville, Indiana. And I came into this amphitheatre and I was seeing all these people whom I hadn't seen in years, and I was seeing their children, and their children were asking me for autographs. And these are people who often wanted nothing to do with me in school. And I thought, "Oh my God, this is why I wrote the show, because I was so miserable here." So I would say that's part of it.

I think that what I learned working on Spring Awakening was the joy and the endless gift of working with young people. Young performers, even when they audition, they bring the future into the room, and they bring their futures with them.

And Alice By Heart did indeed grow out of a desire to create something which young people could perform and do. Again, we tapped into something a story that felt more timeless. It's set during the bombing of London, 1940. And they are holed up in a Tube station. It's a story about being quarantined in a dark space and the boy is ailing, ill, and he's quarantined separately from her. Everyone is locked down in the Tube station. They all are wearing masks. We never dreamed it would become so resonant and so immediate.

You're developing a new musical in the UK at the moment - could you tell us more about that?

I certainly can. It's called Murder at the Gates. And I'm writing it with James Bourne from Busted. Just before the pandemic, we had been workshopping it here repeatedly. And we thought we were going to go to a few regional theatres and then come to an Off West End venue. All that fell apart, needless to say, but yeah, I've been reworking it, and we'll see.

With Murder, that actually came out of that contemporary version of Spring Awakening I was writing back in 1999. And it's a view of very messed-up, privileged young people today, and it's a murder mystery. Clue meets Clueless is what I would call it - a great, mad murder mystery that's alive, with this hot kind of radio-friendly pop score from James and me. I have a great rapport and relationship with James. We've worked on Murder at the Gates and we have a whole new musical that we wrote when he was in lockdown in Cornwall, based on Schnitzler's play La Ronde. That's the first time we've talked about that publicly, right now.

So speaking of other projects, you've been nominated for a Grammy for Some Lovers, which must be really exciting, and it's such a beautiful album.

It's been such a labour of love. First of all, Burt is someone I grew up loving. My parents listened to his music so much, it was really in my home. And I loved him and it was my dream to meet him and work with him. And then that dream came true. With that show too, after years and years of work, and a beautiful opening, a beautiful concert, a workshop production here at The Other Palace, then a production in upstate New York... We thought that we were finally on the road, we were poised to have a bunch of regional dates. And we were hoping we'd have a limited run on Broadway.

And, you know, the pandemic shuttered that, and I thought we could bring theatre to people in their homes by recording this concept album, and the label agreed to do it. And they've been remarkable, it was like, "Well, what is your concept?". We had no concept! So if you're pitching a concept album, it's good to think that way. I hadn't. But I was thinking of Evita, and Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, these shows that launched the concept album. And I knew our score was strong.

Anyway, we had the idea that Broadway lovers would sing Some Lovers. So my first couple I asked were Jonathan [Groff] and Lea [Michele], they said yes. And then that helped get other people. I felt so awkward about it. I had to ask favours of so many people: "Would you please record this song on this record? And no, it's like hardly any money. And yes, we're asking you to record it, you know, in your closet, while you're in lockdown in Korea, or wherever." Ramin Karimloo was indeed in quarantine in Seoul, Korea.

But somehow we got it done and somehow miraculously, we made that deadline and we were eligible for the Grammy. So it means so much to me. I know, also, how much it means to Burt - I know it really touches Burt that at this stage of his life he would be honoured with a Grammy nomination for only his second musical theatre album.

How do you feel that Some Lovers fits into your musical theatre career? Does it feel like it has a lot in common with your other shows or does it feel more like its own different entity?

I think it's a departure. I think it's different. It's its own thing. Burt, he had said to me early on when we met, "Love songs. That's what I write. Love songs." And so we kept giving him lyrics that were love lyrics. But what I recognised was that - rather than the conventional pop songs, which I suppose I'd never tried, to be honest - what they were were mid-relationship songs, of disaffection and regret and renewed yearning.

It's based on this story which is very well known in the United States, it's called The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry and it's about two young people who sacrifice everything for each other. And then they're called the Magi because they've made the wisest step for love, which is to give up everything. And I thought, "Yeah, that's good. That's all well and good when you're 18. But what about 15 years later? How are you feeling about that sacrifice you've made?"

And so we began writing this story and in it, four actors play two characters, called Molly and Ben. Ben was named for Ben Platt and Molly for Molly Gordon. They were both 15 years old, I wanted them to have roles when they got older. Little did I know they would be stars. You see them young, there's a young entry way for young people. But you see that all through the eyes of their older selves, 20 years later, looking back on all they do wrong. The older selves want nothing to do with each other. And the younger parts of themselves are still vibrantly in love with each other, and they're trying to convince their older selves to wake up.

It draws a little bit from Harold Pinter, Betrayal, I think: this structure that comes in and out of time. I'd love to do it in London. I think fans of my work will really enjoy it. But I think it's a different kind of show.

Have you got any other projects in the works?

I have a couple of other musicals with Duncan [Sheik], which we're bringing forth, one of which we haven't worked on in many years, which we're super excited about. I have the two musicals with James Bourne. And I'm doing songs for a new movie, which I can't announce yet. And yes, we are working on the Spring Awakening movie, which we can't fully talk about. And I have my novel.

That all sounds so exciting! What shows have you enjoyed watching recently, and what are you eager to see?

Well, you know, my tastes are so unusual. Because I'm a sort of literary person. That's what I like. I like classical theatre, I like poetry, I like history, so that's what I draw from in my stories, and it's what I'm drawn to.

Tim Sheader's revival of Carousel I thought was so beautiful. And that's a musical I love. What I'm most excited about seeing when I'm here is Four Quartets with Ralph Fiennes. I was planning to see Cabaret, but now I can't. And of course there was the great, great loss of Stephen Sondheim, who was always so wonderful and warm to me. So I'm excited to go back and see Company again.

Why should people go and see the Almeida revival of Spring Awakening?

When I came into the rehearsals, when I saw all those youths who had been locked down, some of whom this is their first show - like Stuart Thompson, it's his first show post-drama school, and I think for our entire cast it's their first show after the pandemic... They all are using their regional accents. It's as if they were bringing all the lockdown youths of Durham and Leeds and Wales onto the stage with them and speaking for them and letting us into their hearts, so it's a deeply moving experience.

My favourite novelist was Marcel Proust, who said that it's only works of art that allow us to see through someone else's eyes. And working with Rupert Goold, and Lynne Page, and this extraordinary cast: Amara, Laurie, Stuart, the incredible young actors we have, the whole team at the Almeida, Thomas, who works with Lynne, and Jo doing our music... It's allowed me to see my own work through new eyes. And that's an experience I never thought I'd have. So I can only urge people to go see this re-envisioning of our show. It's never felt more timely, it's never felt more of the moment. And it's here for a limited time only.

Spring Awakening runs at the Almeida Theatre until 22 January, 2022

Image Credit: ID PR