Review: 'Spring Awakening - Tour'

Spring Awakening tells the story of late 19th century teens facing the bewildering hormonal challenges brought on by puberty and faced with a wall of silence from the adult world around them. They stumble like babes in the woods resulting in some tragic outcomes.

Wedekind's play was a powerful indictment against a society that preferred to keep kids in ignorance rather than face the messy but necessary need to tell them the real facts of life.

The good news is that the cast of this touring production is very strong indeed. Christy Altomare combines a youthful head voice with a powerful belt to effectively portray Wendla's curiosity and confusion.  She is paired with a solidly sung and refreshingly well-acted Melchior played by Matt Doyle. Their love scene had all the requisite urgency and tension.

Of all the teens, the idealistic Melchior has a levelheaded approach, which makes his scenes trying to defend or enlighten his pAl Moritz. Blake Bashoff, from the second Broadway company plays Moritz filled with passion for which he has no proper outlet. Bashoff has a terrific voice and knows how to use it.

The remaining characters get short shrift in this adaptation.  The gay couple, Hanschen (Ben Moss) and Ernst (Matt Shingledecker) gets only a few brief scenes to develop their story. Ilsa, played by former top five Canadian Idol finalists Steffi D, and some of the other girls are barely more than walk-ons.

In the show's most Brechtian device, two actors play all the adult roles: Angela Reed and Henry Stram. Stram in particular seems to lean more on caricature, although Reed brings some humanity to her brief scenes as the mother of Melcher and confidant to Moritz.

The show plays on an oppressively oversized set, with some of the most stunning lighting designs we have ever witnessed in a touring production. The performers execute Bill T. Jones' choreography with precision mixing carefree youthful attitudes with intense post-pubescent anger. Despite the best efforts of the performers, however, the show remains curiously remote in the cavernous Canon.

Michael Mayer's direction straddles the boarder between swift and rushed. It's an admittedly fine line that separates the two, but on more than a few occasions you want more time to consider what has just transpired.

This obviously not the fault of this touring production, but rather a vital flaw in the show, one that seems to have evaded most fans, as well as the creative staff.

Steven Sater's book follows the general outline of Wedekind's play, but misses much of the subtext. The original play packs a huge emotional punch that is absent in Sater's adaptation. The result is that the finale, "The Song of Purple Summer" doesn't break your heart and it should.

The lyrics are stream-of-consciousness run-ons. The songs cannot fully explain what these teens are feeling because they themselves do not full understand it. Yet somehow they miss the mark with their generic blandness.  An idea is presented then repeated endlessly with no real development.

Duncan Sheik's eclectic musical score give the performance an energy boost even if the music and lyrics do not always sit well together. The problem with the score is that it is totally at odds with the text, and deliberately so. It is effective in communicating the angst of the characters, but the trade off is that it doesn't engage the heart. The outcomes of three main characters should pack a much more powerful punch. It seems the music isn't the only thing that has been modernized.

Spring Awakening plays at the Canon Theatre until April 19. Tickets are $20 to $99 with on-stage seating available for all performances for $25.00. Box office: 416-872-1212 or visit: www.mirvish.com

 

 

 

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