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Why is there a rock musical about 1890s German school children hitting puberty in a cold, sexually confusing and unhelpful society? Well, because there was a play written in Germany on exactly that time about exactly that.
As musicals go, it’s pretty cool. It’s like the Who’s rock opera “Tommy,” only popular.
After almost a decade of Tony Awards, we now have a production of it produced by the UNM Department of Theatre and Dance. And it’s damn good.
Everyone who’s seen “Dead Poet Society” or similar media, such as its lame girl-morph “Mona Lisa Smile,” will be familiar with the theme of “Repressive Boarding Schools are evil and bad and not at all nice things.”
Those who fight against the grain will be tragically dealt with by a wrathful power structure, and there will be lessons learned and contemplative aftermath for all those within swinging distance of the disaster.
And yet “Spring Awakening” still manages to do things a bit differently.
Firstly, the several layers separating the setting from lovely, modern 21st century ‘merica.
Indeed, it’s a strict and unforgiving boarding school, but it’s a boarding school from the 1890s in Germany. This is so specific and instantly alien a setting that it provides considerable distance to tackle the dark sexual themes so brutally and directly.
Its themes are like a greatest hits of human travesties and sexual perversity: oppression, indoctrination, abuse of power, sexual abuse, BDSM, abortion, suicide, and some morally ambiguous rape-yness to balance it all out. And this all involves children.
Luckily, there are some comical homosexuals in it too, to lighten the mood when needed.
Also, there is singing.
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Yes, it’s Victorian German society on trial, but the characters are immediately and amusingly recognizable to the audience. The whole first act is filled with hilariously sexually ignorant and repressed German school children.
The awkwardness of the sexual content being tackled head-on speaks to its modern day relevancy.
Like good science fiction, “Spring Awakening” comments on society by removing itself from it. We are allowed the luxury of a thick veil of modern commentary, even if the source material really wasn’t.
An orchestra hides delightfully in plain sight onstage, fighting over the sound of the miked performers. The set is striking and simple, a cage of metals bars drawing in a great portico, lit creatively and colorfully. The choreography by Esteban E. Garza is frenetic and exciting when it needs to be, adding considerable energy to big songs like “Totally Fucked.”
The show looks great, visually impressive without being garish.
The performances are varied in ability, though it is rare you forget you’re not watching a professional theatre performance.
Straight out the gate, Andee Schray, playing the lead female Wendla, sings the opening number “Mama Who Bore Me” which provides palpable goose bumps.
The array of angrily rocking schoolboys are effectively angsty, the lead males Melchior, played by Stafford Douglas, adding bohemian revolution and Moritz, played by Cory Meehan, adding the rowdy self-destruction. Meehan’s Moritz unfortunately is a bit limp and not nearly punk rock enough to appropriately express his pain and disillusionment at the play’s events.
These three characters clash with the bulk of society’s woes, though minor characters stick with you thoroughly.
Alexandra Uranga, as Martha, shines like a beacon in her song “The Dark I Know Well” with Tami Leah Lacy playing Ilse, possessing perhaps the musical highlight of the entire piece.
The homosexuals Hanschen, played by Harrison Sim, and Ernst, played by H. Grey Blanco, function as a small but unforgettable part of the production. Blanco’s coy submission and Sim’s towering, hysterical arrogance are a joy to behold, with Sim in particular hitting every one of his limited beats.
“Spring Awakening” is dark, clever, funny, sexual and has lots of bits where people sing about it to rockish tunes. If that doesn’t interest you, you may be a Victorian German boarding school teacher. Sorry you had to find out this way.
