Spring Awakening Broadway Reviews

True, it may take a few minutes to process the process, as it were. A mild case of sensory overload may have you reeling in the opening minutes, as you adjust to the necessity of taking it all in, and figuring out where to focus your concentration at any given moment. But a heady dose of sensory overload is what the best musicals deliver anyway; that's why people become obsessed with them. Here it's just different elements that contribute to the sensation.

The result is an exhilarating and fluid hybrid of song, word, dance and sign - and a sheer triumph for director Michael Arden and choreographer Spencer Liff. The songs sit seamlessly in the show, often as brightly lit fantasy sequences that snap back into the grim narrative.

It's an admirable undertaking and I wish I could get behind it. But arriving on Broadway so soon after Michael Mayer's viscerally impactful premiere production won the 2007 Tony Award for best musical, this underpowered, unexceptionally sung post-Glee version seems more of a special presentation than a wholesale reinvention.

The results are moving and both visually and musically impressive, if ultimately a bit repetitious. Although the production never quite delivers the knotted punch of the sharp-edged original, the teens' stifled internal lives roil with the power of outsider-ness and communication crises that transcend straightforward storytelling.

They're softer interpretations of the roles pioneered respectively by Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher Jr. (Lea Michele was the original Wendla, Melchior's love interest.) And with supporting actors such as Camryn Manheim and Patrick Page delivering more vocally assaultive turns this time as the oppressive adults in the story, the musical's dynamic has shifted: the teens in director Michael Arden's revival seem less defiant than embattled.

Occasionally - and Deaf West Theatre's production of Spring Awakening is a superb example - something latent in the material meets the mood of the time to make a revival not just a necessity but a great pleasure... This revival would have been unjustifiable were it not for the brilliant idea of placing the story in the context of deafness and using many deaf actors to tell it.

The use of sign language (which functions as a kind of gestural choreography) reflects how the teens are unable to meaningfully talk with their parents or teachers, while the adults cannot hear them. Standouts among the cast include Krysta Rodriguez as the sad but fierce runaway Ilse and the spirited Ali Stroker, who may be the first wheelchair-bound actress to appear on Broadway. Oscar winner Marlee Matlin makes a cameo as one of the adults, alongside Camryn Manheim ('The Practice') and the crisp-voiced Patrick Page.

Frank makes for a magnetic Wendla, not in the least thanks to the vibrance and intensity of her signing. Most of her dialogue is voiced by Katie Boeck, who follows her just off the spotlight. As well, having actors with doubles allows the deaf performers to interact with their 'other' selves. You have to appreciate it when Moritz, overwhelmed with new-found sexual knowledge, hands off a burning cigarette to his alter ego (Alex Boniello, doing great work).

The show combines hearing and non-hearing actors who use American Sign Language. Some roles are played by two actors - one who sings and speaks, one who signs. Many in the cast do both at once. The result: Lines and lyrics look as poetic and provocative as they sound.

Arden is much better when he just mixes things up. Especially inventive are his use of posters, projection of words and silences. Sometimes he shows amazing restraint and creativity, as when Mientus seduces Castille atop an upright piano and Stewart's piano player swivels around on his chair in silent ecstasy. Much less wonderful is the over-the-top act one finale when Frank and McKenzie finally make it, surrounded by a hallelujah chorus complete with priests and incense. As for the adults, Russell Harvard, Camryn Manheim, and Patrick Page play a variety of adult villains. Only Marlee Matlin manages to give her roles a modicum of humanity.

Arguably the strongest turn here is from Durant, whose Moritz is alternately prideful and meek, stoic and sweetly sensitive - in short, like every teenager you've ever met. But his voice counterpart, Boniello, falters as he strains to reach the high notes in 'And Then There Were None' and 'Don't Do Sadness.' The latter, a thrashing cri de couer of a boy considering suicide, should be among the show's most powerful moments, but here falls flat. Elsewhere, Manheim - making a very impressive Broadway debut - neatly defines four different adult characters. But Matlin feels wasted, and never gets a scene worthy of her potentially volcanic talents. See this 'Spring Awakening' anyway, because even a flawed performance of this great musical is still better than most of what's on Broadway right now; and because in a few instances - including the final exit of the teenage characters - Arden really has improved upon the original.

'Spring Awakening' puts such inclusivity to thematic use while keeping the show's rock-music energy high. For most of the show, the band remains integrated into the shadows of Dane Laffrey's industrial-looking set, whose steel walls and rolling stairs look more like a 20th-century power station than a German boys' school. But when necessary, the musicians aren't afraid to run out into the audience, who won't soon forget the sight of Matlin rocking an electric guitar in the boxed seats.

It's been twelve years since Deaf West mounted a Broadway production-let's hope we don't have to wait that long for another. Same goes for the immensely talented first time director Arden, who saw the amazing potential of Duncan Sheik's gorgeous music and knew just what to do to wake up Broadway with it once again. Hopefully there is far more to come from this pairing. A-