Taking full advantage of my proximity to New York, I went to the Great White Way and witnessed a spectacle called "Spring Awakening."
The music was fantastic. The story was not quite there, the acting somewhat shoddy, and so on.
The story was so jammed with adolescent cliches and gaping holes that I had difficulty following the action. Teens were dropping like flies and there were so many vibrant poignant stroylines brought up, briefly sung about, then never mentioned again. Somewhat disappointing. I would be interested in reading the original piece (the one written in the mid 1800's) and see if it holds the same holes as this Tony award winning production. (Though I'd need to take a look to see if it won best book...)
The most disturbing portion of the evening was watching the lead actor spray down the set, his fellow actors and the front few rows with ever increasing sprays of spittle. I thought it was a joke until I realized he never stopped...
Technical merits are mostly high. I thought the light design was effective and original and genuinely added to the play as a whole. On the flip side, I don't think the set did. It seemed simple and practical, a notion which was tossed out in the second act. The costumes were not spectacular, nor hideous.
I enjoyed the show overall, but would only rate it around the six point seven. Out of ten mind you. So almost passing, well, as I write that, I begin to wonder if it should have passed.... (Never you mind the quandary of grading art, I'm grading it) I give it a C-.
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Certainly not that this was a professional production by any means (I mean they even change words in a song so it was more family friendly,) but a highschool near where I grew up did Grease and the "Star" that sang "Beauty School Dropout" would not stop blinking and it was distracting. I asked him after the show if he had too much glitter in his eyes and he sort of glared at me while saying, "No."
They changed "The chicks will cream," in Grease Lightning to "The chicks will scream," which bothered me.
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