A Provocative Anthem for Doomed Youth
Sheryl Jensen
The Duluth News Tribune
April 14, 2016
Teenage sex, abortion, child abuse, incest, suicide and homosexuality.
With these “taboo” topics at its core, it was no wonder that the original version of the play Spring Awakening was considered scandalous. The 1891 work, by German playwright Frank Wedekind, was banned and then later underwent censoring when it was first performed in 1906.
Composer Duncan Sheik and book writer/lyricist Steven Sater used Sederkind’s controversial work as the basis for their provocative musical of the same title that premiered on Broadway in 2006 and won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2007.
UMD’s production hits most of the chords of Wedekind’s story of repressed youth, addressed anew in this modern musical adaptation. Dressed in 1891 period costumes, the cast members perform like rock stars in the show’s anachronistic mix. With all the pain, angst, sadness and anger they can muster, the 17-member cast sings about the bruises and wounds from the repressed society in which they live, and the aching for the spring awakening they hope to find.
Amelia Barr breaks the audience’s hearts as the hopelessly romantic character Wendla who has no idea where babies come from, until she becomes pregnant. Barr’s solo moments are particularly powerful, revealing the innermost soul of every teenage girl, beginning with the show’s opening number, “Mama Who Bore Me.”
Dylan Rugh plays Melchior, Wendla’s love interest, and the most outspoken in word and thought against the closed society of overbearing parents and autocratic teachers. Rugh is utterly believable and honest in every moment onstage as his character tries to beat the system that is intent on breaking him down. His strongest vocal moments come in his solo “All That’s Known” and solo parts in “Left Behind.” Rugh and Barr’s Act II plaintive duet “Whispering” was another musical highlight of the evening.
Erica VonBank, as Ilse, the most free-spirited of the teenage characters, has a lovely duet with the tragic Moritz, played by Thomas McDanel, as they overlap “Blue Wind” and “Don’t Do Sadness.”
In multiple roles as all the adult female and male characters, Kayla Peters and Wes Anderson get to stretch their acting chops by playing both sympathetic and unsympathetic parents and other characters with the most improbable of names such as Fraulein Grossenbustenhaulter, a lusty piano teacher, and Herr Knochenbruch, a really nasty professor).
Strong supporting cast and ensemble members play all the varieties and stripes of angsty teenagers with conviction, moving seamlessly from the exuberance of their explosive musical numbers back to their drab, daily lives. The show’s finale, “The Song of Purple Summer,” beginning with VonBank’s gorgeous solo, and then adding full company, is the evening’s musical tour de force.
Director/choreographer Rebecca Katz Harwood creates both masterful stage pictures and interesting, angular choreographic movements, and has full command of how to make the show’s complex themes relevant for modern audiences. Music director Andy Kust conducts a strong seven-piece onstage orchestra that helps to drive the show’s more hard-pounding rock songs and to underscore the lush ballads.
And while Spring Awakening is ultimately a Tragedy of Childhood, its original subtitle, UMD’s talented cast members bring the audience into the universal collective memory of that ethereal Netherworld, between being a child and becoming an adult.
