Exclusive: SPRING AWAKENING Revival Saw About ‘130 Hours’ of Auditions, It Will Be ‘Completely Revelatory’

The upcoming Off-Broadway revival of Spring Awakening will be “completely revelatory,” Tony Award-winning book writer and lyricist Steven Sater exclusively tells BroadwayWorld. 

An Off-Broadway revival of his and Duncan Sheik’s groundbreaking musical directed by Tony Award winner Danya Taymor with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall is scheduled to open this fall. 

Sater tells BroadwayWorld that he is intimately involved in the show’s process, working “hand in hand” with Taymor ahead of the Studio Seaview production. 

“It’s a complete re-envisioning of the show,” Sater explains. “I only really agreed to do it when Danya was interested in doing it [after] we met and I heard her thoughts for it.” 

Sater says that there were “multiple opportunities” to bring the coming-of-age rock musical back to New York and even offers for it to play in London. However, Taymor’s approach to the musical is what made the revival of Spring Awakening a reality. 

“She’s really bringing so much heart, soul and dimension to it — and just a new way of looking at it,” Sater explains, adding that choreographer Rowlson-Hall’s vision is unlike anything audiences have seen before. 

“Think of the original Spring Awakening and what a stamp [choreographer] Bill T. Jones left on it,” Sater says. “Celia’s opening up whole new depths of the show. I’m not comparing; I’m saying it’s a whole new view of the show and really integrating choreography a lot into the show. It’s stunning what's going on.” 

While Sater can’t share too many details, he says that the creative team spent about “130 hours” focusing on auditions following the production’s highly publicized open call. 

“It’s crazy how many people we’ve seen,” he says. “So many people wanted to do the show, and Danya felt everyone had to audition, so no one’s come in without auditioning.

Though the cast has yet to be announced, “This revival of the show is really focused on today — and what it is like to be a young person today, and what young people’s relationships are to authority today or to sexuality or to liberty,” Sater explains. “It’s a very different world even than the time 10 years ago when we did [the Broadway revival] with Deaf West.” 

“I would say our cast really reflects that, and they just pull my heart open so profoundly,” he reveals, adding that the upcoming production is a “whole new way of seeing the show.” 

Sater is also celebrating the musical’s original Broadway cast recording being released by Decca Broadway next month on vinyl. 

“Listening to this album is so transporting for me,” he says, adding that simultaneously working on the Off-Broadway revival has been “so hugely emotional.” 

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