SPRING AWAKENING: The Greatest Tragedy Of 2009?

The future of Spring Awakening seemed promising. Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's musical drama became a massive cult hit when it opened in New York in 2006. Its dark themes, contemporary design and unique, rocky score won over thousands of teenage fans, yet like so many shows, Spring Awakening fell foul of the Broadway bloodbath of 2008, shutting up shop early in January 2009. Nevertheless, a London transfer was hotly anticipated by the UK's theatre fans, especially here on the BWW West End board.

Eventually, a London production was announced in August 2008, and Spring Awakening was to begin a brief season at the Lyric Hammersmith in January 2009. Marketing for the show was very much geared to the younger generation, depending heavily on the online broadcast of open auditions and rehearsals. Predictably, the four week run at the diminutive venue sold out rapidly. The fresh, young cast of unknowns, including Aneurin Barnard, Charlotte Wakefield and Iwan Rheon garnered heaps of praise and Spring Awakening won itself reams of five-star reviews. A fresh, young show with lashings of sex, suicide and genital husbandry, Spring Awakening was a sold-out smash with unanimous press support.

However, a cloud was on the horizon. A West End transfer had been rumoured since before the Lyric season had begun, but it was perhaps the handling of the transfer that gave Spring Awakening the kiss of death. Rumours abounded about a 'secret show' that was going to open at the Novello Theatre in March 2009, and it was widely, and correctly, assumed that this show was Spring Awakening. However, because marketing agents refused to confirm the transfer, nothing could be made public and, therefore, no tickets could be sold.

When the transfer was finally announced on 18 February 2009, the news came as a shock after all. The five-star hit Spring Awakening would be opening only four weeks later. After the highs enjoyed by the show at the Lyric Hammersmith, Spring Awakening was clearly in for a tough time in the West End, opening with only a few weeks' worth of advance sales. What's more, Spring Awakening was far from TV friendly, and relied on the virtually underground marketing used to promote its original run.

Charlotte Wakefield, who played Wendla, told me even the cast had not been told anything about the transfer until after the last performance in Hammersmith. The low audience numbers, however, gave them no cause for concern: "We sold out at the Lyric, and the audiences here are wild." She added, rather poignantly, "I just hope people who come to see it tell their friends about it."

Sadly, word of mouth was not enough to save Spring Awakening and the only sold-out Novello performances came after its closure was announced. By 30 May 2009, the much lauded, surefire hit London production of Spring Awakening was finished, ironically closing in the same week as critical failures Joseph and Shout.

Other shows learned lessons from the tragic fate of Spring Awakening. The marketing for the London production of Legally Blonde had had a fractious past, but eventually won public support for its celebrity casting and regular TV appearances. Slow starters Priscilla Queen Of The Desert and Sister Act both upped their marketing game and also took to our screens to pull people in.

Spring Awakening was undoubtedly the victim of some appalling decision-making behind the scenes, but now serves as an example, or warning rather, to the West End's marketing folk. Especially in these shaky financial climes, there is no longer any room for snobbery when it comes to promotion.

Let's just hope that the shows opening in London in 2010, such as Hair and Love Never Dies, know what they're in for. I wish them luck and hope to see them pay their dues on the daytime TV circuit very soon.

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