Thursday, March 19, 2009

T.S. Eliot's kind of Spring


Except for all the multisyllabic German names and the harsh cut of the boy's school uniforms, Spring Awakening doesn't make much of a show of its late 19th Century German setting. Considering the 2006 musical version gleefully tampers with Frank Wedekind's play--I doubt the original had bare-butted simulated sex and lines about "My Junk" and being "Totally Fucked"--you wonder why they didn't go all the way and make the thing contemporary or in a more trendy conservative era like the early 1960s of Mad Men. I doubt you have to go back 130 years to find teenagers who believe in the stork stumbling innocently into sex, though I suppose I can more easily imagine young Germans than young Americans stumbling from innocence right into SM sex play.

Duncan Sheik's songs--the same sort of adult-oriented indie pop that made him beloved by critics way back on his debut 1996 album, that got him recognized as a smart songwriter that was perhaps out of sync with the industry's whims--are the show's main selling point. They're emotional without being theatrical, so we see the cast members grab a hand-held mic and break character every time they launch into one. The performances by the young cast are good but, since the soundtrack comes from MOR land, not Broadway, there are few opportunities to punch the audience in the gut.

Spring Awakening's caused some buzz for its racy content. You can see atypical theatre audiences buying into the passion. But as far as stage time goes, "happy sexual discovery," though its the main story line, accounts for about 15 percent. The rest is taken up by revelations of suicide, sexual abuse, pregnancy and abortion, with side trips to masturbation and homosexuality. Though it might claim to be an unexpurgated High School Musical--its teens Barbies moulded with genitalia intact--Spring Awakening actually comes a little closer to Jerry Springer: the Musical.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for the comment!