I went to see the evening performance of Spring Awakening on Wednesday 18th of Feb, full cast performed.

Just in case people don’t know the plot, here’s a brief synopsis;

Spring Awakening is a musical based upon the play of the same name which was highly controversial due to the issues it dealt with, so much so that it was banned for years when it was written in the 1800’s. Set in late 19th Century Germany, the show follows a group of teenagers as they explore their sexualities for the first time and rebel against the adults in their world who are constantly telling them “no” and filling their heads with discipline.

With all the hype that’s surrounding the show, and after listening to a few of the songs before going to see it, I was in high hopes for this musical, especially since all tickets were only £10, which is MEGA cheap for London theatre tickets! Now that opinion has changed to; thank god those tickets were £10 because if I’d paid anymore I would have been really angry because the show its self just doesn’t work in any way.

It’s based on a play which was written to not only shock, but also make people think. The musical attempts to shock (forgetting that we’re not as easily shocked these days) and fails to put across any message at all due to the extremely messy writing. The plot has been massacred in favour of some songs which really don’t need to be there at all, and sometimes actually stick out of the show rather than aiding its flow. I got the overall impression that the creative team were attempting to do something new and exciting...but failing to do either. It’s not nothing new (being based on a play) it’s not shocking (how many shows feature sex, suicide, abortion and abuse in them?) and it’s not exciting (Rent already did the whole rocky musical thing)

Further to this, whoever wrote the book clearly wasn’t paying attention. There are both heterosexual and homosexual storylines within the show. The heterosexual relationship, when it surfaces, is a massive deal, with the two involved being very secretive and the adults who discover it, being extremely shocked and horrified at it. The homosexual storyline, which in the time the show was written, would have been MUCH more taboo than two heterosexual teenagers in a relationship, is dealt with in this odd kind of parody/comedy way which sticks out of the rest of the show something awful. It makes no sense for a heterosexual relationship, which is pretty bad in that time, to be dealt with extremely seriously (so much so that a death results from it) and a homosexual relationship, which was and still is very taboo, to be dealt with no regard for the characters emotions and situations so much to the point that it’s played up to the point of pantomime. Another problem with the book was that nothing happens for a long time, and then suddenly all of the sprawling plots are yanked together quickly for the ending so fast that you lose all feelings towards the characters featured and therefore care nothing for the story which is over so rapidly that you don’t even notice half of it.

The actors themselves are all really good, having little or no training they are all amazing but I was left feeling really sorry for them because the show its self is poor. The direction at points is really odd as well. At a few points, people dressed in normal clothes, sitting amongst the audience jump up and sing for no reason. I see what they’re trying to do (linking the teenagers in the play with teenagers today) but it’s all really messy and un-needed.

In all honesty, I think it’s a really love it or hate it musical, the group I went to see it with were pretty divided, a lot of the reviews are negative towards the production, but it is playing to full houses and has it’s West End transfer already sorted. So it must be doing something right. My advice would be, go see it before the transfer and the ticket prices move from being £10 for any seat to the £60-£25 range for a west end production because it’s most defiantly not worth it. I have no doubt that it will run for a while in London, and will do reasonably well, but I for one will not be visiting the show again. I left the theatre thoroughly let down and un-affected by the whole thing. Such a shame, could have been really good as well :(