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Everything old is new again in "Spring Awakening, the sophisticated musical with an alternative rock score by Duncan Sheik, playing at the Shubert Theater April 30 for two performances. Highly praised and showered with recognition, it won eight Tony Awards, including for Best Musical, in 2007, during its Broadway run and its London production carried off four Olivier Awards, England's equivalent.
Surprisingly, this altogether modern-seeming show, with themes of adolescent sexuality, rape and homosexuality, among other racy topics, is based on a late 19th century German play by Frank Wedekind. Though Wedekind caused a scandal at the time, he is now relatively unknown in this country though a New York Times article creates a picture of him as an arts pioneer. "His drama was the fountainhead of not just one form of German modernism, but of all three movements that superseded naturalism: Symbolism, Expressionism and that tertium quid whose creator, Bertolt Brecht, acknowledged him as his master," it says. Wedekind was also the author of "Earth's Spirit" and "Pandora's Box" and his works inspired Alban Berg's opera, "Lulu." Charles Isherwood's 2006 review of "Spring Awakening" in the Times concluded, "Imprinted on the memory is the happy sensation of having witnessed something unusual and aspiring, something vital and new." "Spring Awakening" is bound to ignite Shubert audiences as it seems to have done whereever it's performed. Tickets are $15-$75. Performance times are 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. For more information, visit the Shubert's website.
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