THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPRING AWAKENING

Photo: And Then There Were None- Anthony Lee Medina, Ben Moss, Blake Bashoff, Matt Shingledecker, Andy Mienus

Frank Wedekind, the author of the original 19th century play SPRING AWAKENING called the show “a tragedy of childhood.”  He dedicated it to parents and teachers, hoping the script would open their minds and hearts to the thoughts, struggles, trials, tribulations, sorrows, despairs, hopes and dreams of youth.

Wedekind said in 1891, “parents and teachers are, in relation to the child's needs, the most ignorant and mentally indolent class.”  SPRING AWAKENING was his effort to open the eyes of the repressive 19th century middle-class by bringing sexual freedom and problems of puberty, to the foreground.

Sater and Sheik continue opening eyes with lyrics such as these from their musical SPRING AWAKENING.   

ON LOVE:
“They walk with my heart - I’ll never let them go.”

ON LIFE: 
“My whole life’s, like, some test.”

ON ANXIETY:
“Pulse is gone and racing - all fits and starts…you try and look into this brave new you that you are.”

On SADNESS:
“Just don’t need it in my life - don’t want any part of it.  I don’t do sadness.”

ON MUSIC:
“Music’s like the only thing I can ever get at all.”

ON FREE THINKING:
“Still I know to trust my own true mind…to wonder and to learning.”

ON PARENTS:
“They’re not my home, not anymore, not like they so were before.”

ON DEATH:
“Those you’ve known and lost, still walk behind you.”

ON AUTHORITY:
“You doubt them but soon they bark and hound you.”

ON TEACHERS:
“Blaa, blaa, blaa, blaa, blaa.”

ON RELIGION:
“Nothing is OK unless it’s scripted in their Bible.”

ON EDUCATION:
“All they say is ‘trust in what is written’.” 

ON CRUSHES:
“I spend the day wonderin’ what you do, where you go …We’ve all got our junk, and my junk is you.”

ON FRIENDS:
“Without them, the world grows dark around you.”

Click here for more lyrics from the show.