THEATER MAY NEVER BE THE SAME

Photo: Bitch of Living- Anthony Lee Medina, Andy Mientus, Matt Shingledecker, Kyle Riabko, Blake Bashoff, Ben Moss

“If you have just one night to spend in the theater,” the New York Post says, “awake yourself with SPRING AWAKENING” as the Key Bank Broadway Series continues at PlayhouseSquare, March 3-15, 2009.   

Awards
Winner of 8 Tony Awards, 4 Drama Desk Awards, a Grammy Award, New York Times Drama Critics Award, a Drama League Award and 3 Outer Critics Circle Awards, SPRING AWAKENING has won best musical, best book of a musical, best choreography, best score, best orchestration, best director, best lighting and best featured actor.

“Everything combines for a show that bursts off the stage with heart and vitality,” proclaims The New York Daily News.

The New York Times states this “brave new musical restores the mystery, the thrill to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls.”

The San Francisco Examiner pronounces the show to be, “Electrifying…breaks all the rules and dares to be as bold as it is beautiful.  This expertly crafted masterwork will go down in musical history as one of the greats.”

Synopsis
Germany 1891.  Set to a contemporary rock score, SPRING AWAKENING tells the story of teenagers in a small conservative town struggling with school, parents, God, sex, life, and death while trying to “trust my own true mind.”   For more information, click here.

Did You Know…
Emmy award winning, Tony and Oscar nominated actor Tom Hulce, (The Heidi Chronicles, A Few Good Men, Amadeus) was the lead producer for SPRING AWAKENING? 

In 1973 London, Equus was running in repertory with the first uncensored English language version of SPRING AWAKENING.  When Equus came to Broadway in 1975, Hulce was the understudy for Peter Furth who had played the lead in both Equus and SPRING AWAKENING in the West End.   This was Hulce’s first introduction to what would become best musical of 2007.

25 years later, Hulce began working as a producer and was interested in creating an opera of SPRING AWAKENING.  

A few years later, Hulce produced the film, A Home At The End Of The World, which was directed by Michael Mayer (the director of SPRING AWAKENING), with score and songs by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater (composer/writers of SPRING AWAKENING). 

Mayer, Sheik and Sater were already working on a new version of SPRING AWAKENING.  Hulce joined them in the dream that became the best musical of 2007.

Their new musical, SPRING AWAKENING, opened in London in January.  Hulce says the show will also be produced in Germany, Japan, Korea and Scandinavia.

Click here for more information on Tom Hulce.