Review: Spring Awakening Transfers to the West End

In a time when the average musical theatre menu served in the West End consists of revived old musicals, bland and rather inconsequential new musicals or purely commercial vehicles with little originality of content and no original score - it is a breath of fresh air to have a musical theatre piece open at a West End house that is new, innovative, has a serious plot with layers of thought-provoking sub-text and also has an original, vibrant score. A breath of Spring air, in fact. The multi-Tony Award winning Spring Awakening, currently playing at the Novello Theatre (fresh from an "out of town" triumph at the Lyric, Hammersmith) is one of the most exciting shows to hit the West End in years.

A musical re-telling of Frank Wedekind's daring and highly controversial play written in 1890, Spring Awakening examines the sexual awakening of a group of German teenagers in an age when both parental and scholastic repression of and prejudice towards sexuality were the norm. The story is brought vividly to life by Michael Mayer's direction, which is a perfect blend of subtlety and raw energy, and is taken to an even higher level by Duncan Sheik's hauntingly beautiful and desperately powerful score and Steven Sater's ascerbic and deftly poetic lyrics. The result is a show that makes you laugh, makes you think and then rips your heart out and makes you cry.

The show succeeds on every level and much of the credit for its success lies with the incredible young cast. Aneurin Barnard as Melchior delivers one of the most accomplished West End debuts one could wish to see. He reveals all the outward charm and confidence of the character and suggests his inner torment in a way that is never clichéd and always believable - and his vocals are a pure joy. In the other two central roles, Charlotte Wakefield as Wendla and Iwan Rheon as Moritz also give star quality performances and there is not a weak link in the entire ensemble cast. Every single character is perfectly defined by the high quality acting and the raw energy that explodes upon the stage during the vocal renditions is tangibly electric - especially in the second act blockbuster number "Totally F***d", which is a show-stopper to top all showstoppers.

This is very much a show for "today". But it is also timeless in its themes and its emotional content - a timelessness that is highlighted by the rather unique convention of having the characters "step outside" of the 1890's action and perform the songs, complete with hand-held microphones, in modern vernacular and with a powerful rock sound. Spring Awakening is a musical about youngsters performed by a cast of youngsters but it is a show for all ages and for anyone who wants to experience a groundbreaking, utterly compelling and musically breath-taking show. A musical theatre Spring has awoken in the West End. Hopefully it will bloom for a long time.

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