Spring Awakening return trip - quick thoughts

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 10:25am

okay.. just a few brief thoughts on my last minute return trip (ala TKTS).

Sound design is great from the house. Speakers are not overly attention grabbing, sound is not too loud, but still gets the style across, and well balanced.

Several changes in staging since my last view.

I was surrounded by press.

Jenn Cody and Hunter Foster were in attendance.

I think that the audience members laughing at the beating scene are the fanny-packed tourist crowd used to seeing violence and abuse played for humor. At least based on what I saw when I looked around last night at who laughed.

I wanted to beat the tourist B**** behind me who lugged a bag of popcorn into the theatre from a store. UGH.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 10:29am

Someone brought a bag of popcorn? Sigh.

Thanks for posting your thoughts. I enjoyed it the first time I saw it on November 18. I'm interested in going back to see what these changes in the staging are.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 10:35am

Very solid review there, BroadwayGuy. I thank you ever-so-kindly for the continued support. It's quite the rarity to find it oftentimes -- on *other* message boards, anyway. As to the "popcorn incident", I feel for you - wholheartedly and sincerely. That's just...wrong.

Best,
- Mike

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 5:46pm

Well, Spring Awakening is one of the best staged shows, not to mention well written, that I have seen in a LONG time and it deserves a long life. I have seen just about everything running, at least once, and have done so since I moved here. Spring Awakening, in all honesty, stands as one of my two favorite shows/productions. Tonight I am going again. First time, I went on a whim with a friend, yesterday, a friend got tickets for us at TKTS, mine was a Christmas present as he is in town for only a few days, and tonight I am taking my best friend who has NOt seen it and knows very little about it. Several people that I have told about the show have gone on their own and loved it, admittedly more so than they thought they would.

Another thought - the handheld mics. I do not understand the griping. They are used sparingly and as a very valid and well used theatrical device that takes us out of the literal, 'real' world of the play, and into the characters' heads, giving us a distinction between them and the 'real world' songs where those mics are not used. VERY well used and very well thought out dramatic device.

I will be there first thing next Tuesday to purchase the cast recording.

[rickydrummer]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 7:07pm

As is sometimes the case, does anyone know if the CD will go on sale at the theatre before the in-store release date?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 8:14pm

No, but it's coming out two days after the show opens.

[brainpolice23]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 9:37pm

I can understand why people were laughing at the beating scene. It comes out of left field, and is one of the most awkwardly acted scenes in the show. The segue into the sadomasochism theme can also be found humorous by some. Some people have different reactions... it's not merely finding humor in abuse, it's partially the plays organization that may be to blame for the laughter at the beating reference.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 10:29pm

Exactly, brain.

You don't understand the griping about the handheld mikes? Well, I wish you did.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:20pm

Just to clarify...hopefully, for the last time...SPRING AWAKENING's Original Csat Recording will be released on Tuesday, December the 12th 2006 (Two days after the official opening of the show)

I hope that clears everything up for those still wondering.

Best,
- Mike

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:24pm

I definitely understand and appreciate the thematic reasoning behind the hand-held mics, but they DID take me out a few times in transition.

I agree, brain. That scene didn't work for me; the placement is awkward, the acting is awkward and it needs to be fixed up and made more serious, if that's the intent.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:30pm

and it needs to be fixed up and made more serious, if that's the intent.

How would one even make that scene "more serious"? I don't think the problem is that it's not serious enough - not that I know what the problem is at all - but clearly, something is not meshing well with it. I remember early in previews when people came back saying that scene received laughs, there were posts from people who saw it at the Atlantic who said that was not the case. Apparently, something got lost in the transfer.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:34pm

I remember the dialogue being fairly straightforward and... not all that funny. I think the loss in translation is in the acting. I don't really know how staging it differently or anything like that could help it. To be honest, the whole scene is kind of extranneous, IMO.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:39pm

Oh, I definitely agree about that.

I felt like the audience was laughing in that "this is kind of uncomfortable; I don't know what else to do" type of way. Most of the audience was comprised of....well, not teenagers, so I don't think the laughter can be attributed to immaturity.

[Lauren_T]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:50pm

I saw the show for a 3rd time tonight. First night people laughed, 2nd time they laughed, tonight they didn't laugh once...at the beating scene. It was perfect. And I found that it has a lot to do with Lea Michele. Tonight she made it sound more violent through her voice. And that scream tonight made it almost hard to watch. Before she was a little weak on that. So someone is getting better! lol

[.LittleWing. 0224]

Posted: 12/5/06 at 1:06am

I saw it tonight for the first time and the way that scene was done, i don't understand how anyone could have laughed. it was wonderfully handled. really, the entire show was. i'm still trying to soak in everything i saw and experienced. the piece was so powerful for me. many, many return trips are being planned. my only regret is that i never took my chance to see this in a smaller, more intimate venue before its bdway transfer. i can't even imagine how amazing it must have been then.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/5/06 at 10:59am

one more touch in the show that I had noticed from onstage seating that I neglected to point out.... the costumes. Kudos to those as well. All of the boys wear identical school uniforms, yet their shoes and stockings are used to differentiate as well as give insight into the character. Small, subtle touch, but very well done.

Last night, THE Liza was in attendance. Did not know this until intermission. I was in my seat and she was towering over me in full on Liza-mode.

Also seen -- Miss Piggy. Okay, not the puppet, but a overly larger white woman in a pink tracksuit on a rascal scooter with curly platinum blonde hair with a diva attitude (don't MESS with her obnoxious coat or annoying cane when she swings it in the air!) and a bad habit of, LITERALLY, snorting through out the show.

I was in orch Row R, seat 4 last night. Still felt intimate and not too large/far away.