Saw the musical "Spring Awakening" at the Kennedy Center tonight. It was good and well-deserving of its haul of Tony Awards. As have a thousand stories before it, it works the inexhaustible mine of teen angst. Despite the fact that it's among the oldest of story lines (as supported by the fact that the non-musical version of the play was first performed -- and promptly banned -- over 100 years ago), it still manages to seem as fresh, frenetic, raw, and real as youth itself.
This may not be the first choice of play to go and see with your mom or minister given that it deals quite bluntly with sex, sexuality, incest, child abuse, teen pregnancy, masturbation, suicide, and abortion, but it is certainly worth seeing. The set design is excellent, the costuming is quite good, the performances are all solid, and the songs (for the most part) are both good and hummable.
My only quibble really is with the final number, which comes across as a desperate ploy for a "Seasons of Love" type moment. It seems jarring and out of place given the scene that precedes it and the overall tenor of the play to that point. A key character faced with a very trying ordeal decides to resist rather than surrender in a powerful set piece, and then the cast effectively joins hands and sings 'Kumbaya" and chipperly asserts that everything will be alright? WTF? The play should end with a defiant, 'set the world on fire' anthem instead of a limp, treacly, ballad.
(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)
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