Review: Chandelier's SPRING AWAKENING Lacks Depth and Pitch

If you're a company thinking of doing the rock musical of "Spring Awakening" you need to be ready for it, not only as it's such a difficult show but since it was just done in the area a few years ago and to such acclaim. And while I applaud fledgling company Chandelier Production's courage in taking on such a tough show not to mention their model of using their proceeds to support local LGBTQ charities such as Peace from the Streets by Kids from the Streets, their current production shows that they are not mature enough of a company to handle this demanding show as there were so many issues vocally, theatrically and technically.

Based on Frank Wendekin's controversial play from 1891, the musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater follows a group of German students in 1890 as they deal with their schoolwork, adolescence and their burgeoning sexuality. Moritz (Chance Eldridge) is a volatile young man struggling with his studies as he is plagued by sexual dreams. His friend Melchior (Michael Renny) has no problems with his schoolwork and even has the time to pen an essay for Moritz explaining the intricacies of sex which does not help Moritz's obsession. Then there's their friend Wendla (Jordan Frost) who like most of the girls in town are painfully naïve about where babies come from despite their entering into puberty. So when Moritz flunks out of school and Melchior and Wendla take their relationship to a more physical level, their naiveté causes nothing but trouble.

As I said it's a demanding show. Both musically and emotionally it is a tough one for any performer. And the story weaves in and out of the lives of these students and their friends so much that it needs to be handled carefully. Unfortunately director Georgina Spelvin chose to treat each character and story as if they were in their own separate bubble so much that it isolates them and fails to tell the story as a cohesive whole. She has broken down the show into individual "episodes" for each of the characters complete with a convention that the title of the "episode" is written on a chalkboard. A convention, I might add, that you would only understand if you read her director's notes in the program. Consequentially such isolation doesn't allow for the characters to have much of an arc within each other's stories and so their performances become flat and two dimensional. It almost felt as if she only felt their characters were one single characteristic so much so that they labeled them that way on the marketing images with each character labeled as "unstable", "gay", "pregnant" and so on. That's how they were labeled and so that's all they were. And if that weren't bad enough the choreography reads as a combination of semaphore and groping themselves. Honestly I wasn't sure if they were trying to show us exactly where their breasts were (as both male and female actors kept outlining them) or telling the runner to steal second.

And let's discuss the technical aspect a bit. This is not a highly technical show. In fact it's very minimal in its design. But that didn't keep them from having huge technical issues with their microphones. They have the mics turned up so high and not mixed with the band that each time they yelled (which they did a lot as apparently that equates to high emotion) the vocals would become distorted.

But the mix was not the issue with the vocals of the cast as much of the night had the actors struggling to find the note they should be on. Flat, pitchy moments especially in the harmonies that made this look at best under rehearsed and at worst miscast. There were a few vocal standouts. Eldridge turns in some wonderful vocals but needs to work on giving his characters levels as he just seemed to have his instability at 11 from the top. And Anna Urband and Kate Beesley had some lovely moments with their few solos especially Beesley who had some of the most real and varied characterizations as the cast-out Ilse.

All told it came across as a woefully ill prepared group trying to put on a vision of a tough show from a director who felt she knew better how to tell the story than the authors (complete with two songs at the top and bottom of the show that are not from the show). And so with my three letter rating system I have to give Chandelier's "Spring Awakening" a NAH. I've never been a huge fan of the show but I've found a respect for it from previous productions but not from this one.

"Spring Awakening" from Chandelier Productions plays though August 29th at the Broadway Performance Hall. For tickets or information visit them online at www.chandelierproductions.org.

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