Charles Wetzel
"Spring Awakening" plays at the Bartell Theatre through Dec. 2.
Spring Awakening was an unlikely Broadway hit. Based on an incredibly dark 1891 play by Frank Wedekind, the musical revels in the pain, anger, confusion and tragedy that results from a sexually oppressive society — specifically 19th-century Germany. But with a rock music score by Duncan Sheik that screams teen angst, explosive choreography by Bill T. Jones and inventive staging that mixes the original time period with a modern edge, the production garnered eight Tony Awards.
This weekend at the Bartell Theater, Express Yourself! Dance Studio presents Spring Awakening with a large cast of young people, drawn from several area high schools. An ambitious undertaking, the studio’s first full musical showcases some extremely talented teens in the lead roles. Unfortunately, those performances are severely undermined by poor direction, an uneven supporting cast, sloppy lighting and other amateurish production elements.
Isabel Garlough-Shah begins the show on a very strong note as Wendla, the sheltered young teen whose first experience with the opposite sex has tragic consequences. Her strong, lilting voice sails through opening number, “Mama Who Bore Me,” resonating just as beautifully on the lower end of her register as on the high notes, which she nails. A ringer for Lea Michele, who played the part on Broadway, she is wispy in her stark white dress and brittle as she struggles with emotions she doesn’t understand.
Matching her in vocal prowess is Easton Smith, who plays the troubled student Moritz. With spiked hair and a desperate, awkward demeanor, he is all sharp angles and frustrated energy. His outrage is palpable in songs like “The Bitch of Living” and “Don’t Do Sadness.”
Zachariah Sterner anchors the cast as the handsome idealist Melchior, who longs to create a better life by rejecting the church and breaking free from the stranglehold of his parents’ generation. Alternately charismatic and confident, frightened and confused, Sterner leads the ensemble brilliantly in the ultimate teen anthem, “Totally Fucked,” and had terrific chemistry with Garlough-Shah in each moment of their fraught relationship. His clear baritone blended well in duets and ensemble numbers, but was occasionally imprecise on pitch at the preview performance. As he settles into the run, he’ll undoubtedly improve.
Other tremendously gifted standouts include Austin Brummett and Eric Augustine as fellow students, and Ciara Hart and Audrey Accardo as girls with their own sad stories to tell, both abused and ostracized.
Likewise, as the show tightens up, it will probably have fewer problems with erratic sound levels and spotty mics that sometimes defeated gifted soloists. But the visual disconnect will remain: The cast members are clearly wearing body mics so they can be heard over the pre-recorded soundtrack, but they whip out hand held mics (that are purely props) for key songs. It’s one of several homages to the original Broadway show that doesn’t quite make sense here.
The lighting design, by high school student Arthur Sommer, is problematic from a purely functional perspective — it’s hard to see the actors onstage for much for the second act. Several times the entire cast also lines up on the edge of the stage where they are not lit at all, transforming them into an amorphous blob of singers.
Costumes that are better suited to hippies, pioneer farmers and madrigal dinners fill out the chorus, in great contrast to the boys’ school uniforms, which are on point. But this pales in comparison to the lackluster choreography, an area where I expected director Jenna Carol to shine. By far the best numbers were faithful copies of Jones’ original design — notably the boys’ school room scenes and the rhythmic, angry stomping that filters through many parts of the show. The group numbers consisted of many long lines stretched across the stage with only the most rudimentary arm movements.
One long line actually hides a sexually graphic scene occurring upstage near the end of act one, which seems prudish and silly, considering how many times the boys masturbate during the show. The real value of this production is its gifted teens who are clearly performing bucket list roles that were written for performers their own age.
