With the cast on vacation this week, and with hundreds of thousands of people on the road this July 4th weekend, we thought it would be the perfect time to ask the cast to share their road trip stories. So many Spring Awakening fans travel great distances to come see our show, many more than just a few times. We asked our cast: What is the furthest you've traveled to see a band, performer or show? Please describe the experience in two or three sentences (If you have not done this, what act WOULD you be willing to travel for in the future?
MATT SHINGLEDECKER I once drove 8 hours from Charleston, SC to Washington D.C. the summer after I graduated high school to audition for American Idol. I had a friend there and another in Charlottesville, VA who I also saw, but the main reason was the audition.
ANTHONY LEE MEDINA I haven't been to many concerts and considering I'm from New York, Broadway is just a hop, skip and train ride away. However, I would be more than willing to travel to see Kelly Clarkson or Matt Duke perform. I also planned on going with Sarah, Perry and Chase over to London to see and hang out with the Spring Awakening cast but, there closing put a damper on those plans! :-(
JULIE DANIELSON (we miss you, Julie!) When I was 7, my mom's theater company took a roadtrip to Dallas to see the National Tour of PHANTOM. I got carsick, but I still saw the show!
When I was 15, my mom took me on my first trip to NYC to see "Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk" with Savion Glover. We saw his understudy, because Savion was in jail for drug use.
When I was in college, my mom drove with me to Chicago to see my best friend in a drag show. He wasn't in drag - just a backup dancer for alot of other male dancers lip-synching in women's clothes.
In 2005, my family went to London and we had tickets to see the original cast of BILLY ELLIOT. This is really sad, but our tickets were for July 7 and that was the morning that some crazies decided to bomb the London Tube System and the whole city shut down. Luckily, my whole family was safe, but I still was pretty pissed that I didn't get to see the show.
In conclusion, theater is really the only reason I travel.
CHRISTY ALTOMARE I have never traveled a far distance to see anyone perform but I think if I was going to and I had the time - I would travel a distace to see Joni Mitchell perform. She is my absolute inspiration and I think I would be incredibly star struck.
FREDDY HALL Between the ages of 9 and 12 I had a huge obsession with Boyz 2 Men... I made my parents drive me to York PA from Northern Virginia to see them perform at the York County Fair. I was in their fan club so we got front row seats. During one of their songs (I'm pretty sure it was "end of the road") some very nice lady lifted me up and I high fived Nate. I don't think I washed my right hand for a few weeks.
KRYSTINA ALABADO Well, the farthest I've gone to see a show would be when I flew from Phoenix to New York to see my first ever Broadway shows my Junior year of high school. I saw Drowzy Chaperone (loove it), Altar Boyz, and Prelude To A Kiss!
WE WANT AN ARCHIVE OF HOW FAR PEOPLE HAVE TRAVELED TO SEE SPRING AWAKENING. Comment below and tell us your Spring Awakening road trip stories!
HAPPY JULY 4TH! YAY SUMMER!!!!
63 comments:
When I found out that Spring Awakening was closing on Broadway, I knew I HAD TO see it before it did. The only problem was.. I lived in Ukraine. Fortunately, we were making a short trip to the US for Christmas and I managed to convince my mom to fly there with me for a day during that busy time to see the show. A few weeks ago, I moved from Ukraine to Florence, SC, and in a couple of weeks, I am planning to drive about 7.5 hours to see Spring Awakening in DC :D
I only traveled about two hours (Jersey to Philly), but it felt like so much more. My leg almost got sunburned sitting in the front seat of my car because it was so sunny. We sat in VERY slow traffic for about an hour. My mother almost de-armed me when she went to close my window. And, to top it all off, someone had left a watermelon in the trunk of our car for several days, so it smelled like rotton fruit. Lovely, I know!
But, it was all worth it when I got to sit onstage next to Jake for his very first night as Melchior and see this incredible cast perform one of my all-time favorite shows.
I would definitely go through it again. =)
How about the shortest road trip? My sister and I went to college in Providence RI (graduated this past May), and we happened to live literally right next door to the Providence Performing Arts Center. We could walk about 5 steps from our dorm to PPAC. We loved living right next door as we saw as many of the shows that were performing at PPAC as we wanted (and had the money for). In total we saw about 20 shows just while in school. Spring Awakening was the one that we continuously went back to see. Out of the 8 performances in the week that the tour was in Providence my sister and I went to see 5 of them. The only day we did not go see the show was Friday night because we had prior commitments.
I drove six hours from Dallas to go see Spring Awakening in Houston, Best day ever. Well worth the road trip :)
Basically I sat in the car and listened to the soundtrack on my ipod over and over and over.
I'm so happy its coming to Dallas so I wont have to Travel, I swear Im gonna see it multiple times and bring a different friend of family member with me to each performance I can.
I've seen shows while traveling, but the furthest I've traveled specifically for a show was Cleveland to Philadelphia for Spring Awakening the 4th and 5th times (#4 in the house, #5 on stage). #3 was in Pittsburgh, and I'm not ruling out going further :)
Last summer I flew from Guam to NYC to see Spring Awakening. This year I did the same thing so I can watch the tour cast's opening night in DC. But it is all very much worth it.
:)
Well, it wasn't for the national tour but I flew to London to the see the production of Spring Awakening there. I spent quite a lot of money, but it worth it. The shortest I've travelled for Spring Awakening, was last year, for their performance in San Francisco. I drove an hour and a half. If I were older and had the funds, I'd definitely be flying/driving all over the country just to see the show again and again :D
Well, to see Spring Awakening, all I really had to do was take a train. I saw it a bunch of times when it came to Boston, and I live only an hour outside of the city, so it was a shorter commute. Planning a road trip though to go see it in DC!!!! Any distance is really worth it for seeing this show!!! <3
My story's the same as Glenben (who's my best friend). Last summer a group of us flew to the east coast n watched spring awakening on broadway. I'm just flew in to Newark from Guan yesterday. It's about 16 hours of flying. Not to mention I'm taking a 3 hour train ride from New Jersey to DC next week. But it's a price I'm willing to pay. :) see u July 7th! :D
First, I saw the show twice when it was in Boston, which was only an hour trip. Then I drove down to Philadelphia to see Kyle's last performance, which was a 6 hour trip. It was completely worth it! I am also traveling to DC in the coming month to see it again, which is about a 7 and 1/2 hour trip. I also might go to a performance in Chicago, fingers crossed! It is my favorite show ever and I will take ever opportunity to see it! See you all in DC!!!! <3
When I discovered Spring Awakening, I instantly decided to start convincing my parents to take me to NYC to check it out. Unfortunately, it closed on Broadway not too soon after I bought the OBC recording. I was pretty disappointed, but then I found out you guys were coming to me in Chicago! I've got second row seats and I'm only an hour train ride away :-)
And on the bright side, I managed to see the West Side Story revival when I went to NYC with my school, and I'll be seeing Next to Normal and In the Heights when I travel there in a week, so it all worked out in the end.
I'm from Long Island so it's only an hour to NYC. Everything is there so I really haven't had travel needs for performances. However, I would love to follow around Idina Menzel because she is so amazing live. I saw her for the first time at a concert this year and had chills the entire time. That woman never stops being amazing.
For spring break one year, my dad took me and my twin to New York. We were/are obsessed with Spring Awakening and got to see most of the original cast. We live in Iowa so when we heard it was going to Des Moines we went and saw it there, and hope to go and see it again in Chicago!!!
I first saw it in Cleveland which was pretty much a 30 minute drive. Than I saw it in Pittsburgh with was about a three hour drive. And I plan on seeing it in Chicago which is going to be about a seven hour drive but so worth it!
<3.
charlottesville, holler!!
I've road tripped to see it on Broadway (12ish hours), Columubs (3.5 hours), St. Louis (4.5 hours), Cleveland (7 hours), Toronto (12 hours), Pittsburgh (7 hours), Louisville (10 minutes...), and soon DC (9.5 hours) and Chicago (5 hours).
Yikes. Good thing I love roadtrips and have lots of friends I can stay with and who also love to travel for SA.
I first saw SA in LA which is like a 40 minute drive from where I live so it wasn't that long of a trip (I saw it three times there). But now for my birthday, my friends planned this whole trip which consists of on stage seats in DC on my birthday! So we are going to travel all the way from the OC to DC to see the show again (on July 19)! I am so excited lol. But I am also excited for the Costa Mesa stop because the theatre is like a 10 minute drive from my house! I'm gonna be there at all of the performances lol. See you guys in a few weeks! :D
I had a horrible SA roadtrip experience! We were going to drive about 10 hours from Colorado to see the show in Tempe but soon after getting on the highway we hit ice and totaled the car! It sucked soooo bad.
I flew from London to see SA on Broadway, and then to D.C to see the tour. Totally worth it both times!
I live in Los Angeles, so I didn't have to go anywhere when the tour came here. But in November a bunch of my friends and I are going to drive up to Sacramento to see the show again! And also I saw it in New York, but that wasn't a road trip, just a 6 hour plane ride.
Not too impressive but Philly suburbs to NYC.
I'll be traveling from Massachusetts to Chicago to see Spring Awakening in August!!
Drove from Fort Worth/Dallas to houston i january to see SA, TOTALLY worth it.
Im hoping to go down to Austin this october and see it again, along with Dallas next march =D
For the closing weekend on Broadway, I took a two-hour bus ride from Philly to NYC on Saturday, saw the matinee, took a bus back to Philly that night, got about three hours of sleep, took an early bus back to NYC, saw the last matinee ever, and then rode the bus back to Philly. A complete whirlwind, but so worth it.
I've seen the tour in Pittsburgh since I live close to the city, but I've traveled the two hours to Cleveland, and am driving the four hours to DC in a few weeks! I'm also planning on going to Hershey in January, and traveling to Hartford from Philly isn't out of the question either.
I'm taking a 300 mile train trip to DC to see it in Aug. Besides that, 2 hours to Pittsburgh and 8 hours to NYC (twice)
I went to see it in Pittsburgh which is about an hour and a half drive from my house. If I hadn't been in Michigan when SA was in Philly I probably would have gone the 8 hours to see it!
I traveled from Montreal to Toronto which is about 500km (315 miles). The most impressive is my mom. She came all the way from the east coast of Quebec to see it with me. She traveled 1500km (900 freakin' miles) just to share this afternoon with me. Having left my parents' house four years ago, it was nice to share the Spring Awakening experience with her. Even though I had seen it three times in New York, it was an all new show, sitting next to my mother.
I travelled from near Toronto, Ontario to Philly this past weekend to see SA there. It was about an 8 hour drive and I didn't stay over. I drove right after soccer practice on Sat morning, saw the show and then drove home. It was a looooong day, but I'd do it a hundred times!
Coming from Katy, Texas (just west of Houston) and flying to Washington, DC later this month to see the show again. My first time, in Houston, wasn't a bad drive, though when we come to Austin, it'll be a good 3/4-ish hours.
I live in Battle Creek, Michigan, and I saw the show on Broadway 3 times.. driving once (it's a 12 hour drive). The craziest of the Broadway experiences would have to be when my dad and I flew in for a day just to see Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele's last show on May 18th. We flew back the next morning, I missed half the day of school. It was the last week of my senior year in high school, haha, but it was soo worth it.
This year, I went to Cleveland to see Lucas as Hanschen with a few of my friends, and then we drove to Toronto to see Matt Doyle as Melchior! That was about a 7 hour drive and we stayed in a hotel, saw a Friday evening show, and the Saturday matinee, driving back to school immediately after the mat. It was a fun experience :)
Well . . . I saw the show 21 times on Broadway in, I believe (no pun intended), 16 trips to the city. Manhattan is 12 hours round trip, so that's about 192 hours in the name of Spring Awakening!!
I will be seeing the tour for the first time this Thursday. yay!
I drove from Toledo, Ohio to NY to see SA on Broadway last summer! Totally worth it. I saw RENT too :]
Farthest I've ever traveled was from Virginia to New York. I convinced my parents to take the family to New York for summer vacation so I could see Spring Awakening (my second Broadway musical, Wicked was my first). And we're all going up to DC next Sunday so my sister and I can see the show! Can't wait!!
Planning on seeing Spring Awakening next year in Atlanta, it's about four hours away. I'm really hoping my parents let me go...
i live in cincinnati, OH and me and my friends drove to toronto canada to see spring awakening. we have also traveled many other (not so far away) places to see it
I'm sorry you missed seeing the london show because it was brillant! we saw it in may shortly before it closed. i have seen the show on broadway, on tour and in london, and it's so neat to see how all the casts' are putting on the same show, but at the same time each cast made it their own
I'm riding the train to Chicago to see SA there! I saw it in STL when it was here (I'm from STL) so Chicago isn't that far, but it will be a fun weekend :)
I travelled from Argentina to NYC to see the last performance of Spring Awakening on Broadway.
I traveled about three hours from Northern NJ to Philly, but it was really worth every second (not that it is that long compared to some others) I had a blast sitting onstage with the cast and friends. Also, my dad enjoyed it throughly after he denounced almost every show out there, and continued to complain for the whole ride.
I'm way too embarrassed to actually admit the number of miles I have driven through numerous trips to see the tour while it was in a certain city. Let's just say I might as well have driven across the country to see it in New York...
My friends and I ran up to Pittsburgh after our high school graduation to give Blake Bashoff a birthday card. We had seen the show the day before and completely forgot the card, so we bolted out of graduation and drove two hours to Pittsburgh to give him his card. Creepily enough, we made it.
I have had some wonderful Spring Awakening experiences with travel - as all my SA experiences have involved some, being from Scotland. I first saw the show last year when I staggered straight from the plane to TKTS, then flew back for the final show. Then I saw it three times in London over a weekend, which involved a 6-hour train ride each way. I don't think I've travelled less than 6 hours in any direction every time!
The farthest I've travelled isn't too far. I pitched a fit to my parents that I had to see the Drowsy chaperone in Dallas and i told them that and yet they neglected to buy me tickets. My dad caved and bought me tickets. Dallas is about 4 hours away from where i live.
Well, I live in London and am coming to see the show in Chicago on August 7th - that's pretty far!! My rents keep saying "you're going to CHICAGO and all you want to do it see Spring Awakening?!"...I'm like "that's not ALL i want to do..."
We've driven the eight hours it takes to get from my front porch to New York at least a dozen times to see various shows. In two weeks, we're traveling six hours to DC to see Spring Awakening for the sixth time. =]
I live in Columbus, OH, and i didn't know much about Spring Awakening when it came here, so when i got obsessed a month later i was like "it came already? ARE YOU SERIOUS?" so now after all this waiting, i am going on an 8 hour car drive to DC to see it.
I'm from Seattle and thats where I saw the show, but my sister lives in Boston and went up to see the show in New York. Unfortunately, that was during the stagehands strike and she never ended up seeing it. Now, we're trying to get to DC from Seattle to see it there.... Hopefully!
I live near San Francisco, so when the tour cast were here last year, travel time was only 45 minutes by car, which I did twice with a friend, the other half dozen or so times I took BART.
I also flew down to Los Angeles one morning last December and caught the matinee and evening performances, and then took a train back home late that night! Well worth it!!!
I had always wanted to go to NYC and never thought it would be possible, but Spring Awakening gave me the extra incentive to make it happen. After months of planning and scrimping and saving, I flew out to NYC!
I saw the show the day after the Tony Awards were announced...so all the cast were pretty psyched! [I also got to catch a live performance at the Apple Store while I was there, too!]
I ended up going to NYC the following year, mainly to meet up with a friend of mine from Europe, who was holidaying in NYC, and of course, had to see Spring Awakening...but this time I had stage seats! AMAZING!!!!
Can't wait for the tour to come back to California!!! :D
For Spring Awakening: I live in the Los Angeles area, but I went to school in Santa Barbara when the tour cast was here last November. I came home for each weekend while they were here (2 hr drive one-way).
For my 19th birthday, I convinced my parents to let me fly from Los Angeles to St. Louis, Missouri so I could watch the show onstage for the first time! It was my 6th & 7th show overall.
My drama club and I took a 2 hour bus ride to see you guys in Tampa! It was worth it, even if the bus had a weird leaky AC. The bus driver loved the show, too.
I drove for a couple of hours to see it in LA. I know, it's lame. But there was A TON of traffic though!
I saw the tour cast in Philly. I didn't have to travel far, but I did rearrange my entire life because seeing the show 1 time wasn't enough for me. I ended up seeing the show - from the front row - 4 times that week.
The furthest I had to travel was from New Hope in Bucks County, PA - because I was seeing my sister perform in My Fair Lady until 5pm and I had to be in Philly by 6 to see SA!! I literally drover 100 mph on I95. I can't believe I am not in jail right now.
PS - Anthony Lee Medina you are my new best friend because I LOVE MATT DUKE!! I have seen him so many times in Philly in the past 2 years. He is such a cool guy and an amazing musician!
My first time I saw Spring Awakening was in Cleveland. That was just under a three hour drive from the university I was attending at the time. My roommate and I made a day out of it--had to leave pretty early, because it was a matinee, but that was not our first time to Playhouse Square in Cleveland, so we did our traditional Starbucks run when we got there. And then we sat on stage...talk about an awesome first Spring Awakening experience!
The most recent time I saw the tour was in Louisville. I met up with some friends there. Louisville is about a three and a half hour drive from Columbus, OH (where I'm from) and that is now officially my longest car trip I've taken by myself. Even better...I had only decided to do this trip a couple weeks before, so it was rather impromtu for me.
I am sooo excited!!! I'm watching Spring Awakening tommorrow in DC!!!
:D
Well, I didn't drive...but I went from Honolulu to London to see Spring Awakening. I think it was roughly about a 15 hour flight time. Totally worth it. :) Wish SA could come to Hawaii!
I travelled from Waynesville, MO to Louisville, KY...with construction and the (forgotten) time change, it comes to 7 hours.
Although I am from the suburbs of Cleveland, I go to school in Cincinnati. For my friend from home's 20th birthday, her mom got her 2 onstage seats for the March 14th Cleveland matinee. I drove 4 hours from Xavier University to Cleveland to see you guys. Then, for my 21st birthday gift, my mom bought us tickets for the June 6th matinee in Louisville, and we drove 3 hours from Xavier to see that one. Both times were amazing, and I hope to see you guys again when you come to Cincinnati!
Well I travelled 3 hours to Boston from NY to see Spring Awakening! And then 3 more to Philly...and now about 5 and a half to DC! Basically as far as my mom will let me go =)
I live in South Bend, IN and my family drove a little over 8 hours and almost 470 miles to see Spring Awakening in Toronto. And we are hopefully going to see it again in Chicago!
Ahhhhahaha this question. Okay, well, it's sort of embarrassing, but most of the mileage I've wracked up for the sake of seeing a show HAS been for Spring Awakening. As a result, I've become a seasoned veteran of the Greyhound bus service in the past year - not a title I really savor, but there it is. At first I was using megabus or vamoose bus to visit NYC from my hometown of D.C. (yes, I do have tickets to see you guys while you're here - the 25th!), and that was only 3-4 hours each way, which was fine. But then summer ended, I started college in Pittsburgh, and things got trickier. Greyhound and Amtrak were the cheapest ways out of the city; the ride was always 8-10 hours each way. I'd usually go overnight, the 1am-9am express bus. No regrets - I'm young, I can take it! And I didn't get shanked once. Every visit was worth it. :) I saw a lot of great performances of SA that way, all the way up to 1/18, and was especially lucky to catch a lot of remarkable understudies in action. Spring made me a real geek about understudies. (Still am - you swings are great!) I saw some other fantastic shows along the way, too - my favorites from that first semester were HAIR in the Park, [title of show], and Farragut North. ♥ All seen in the company of great friends.
The longest of all those bus rides wasn't from Pittsburgh, though. It was last summer. Only my second time traveling with Greyhound. Me and four friends had just spent a week tooling around in Arbor, MI, and together we embarked from there to NYC, to catch SA on July 19th, the matinee show. It took something like...god, what, 19 hours? A real odyssey. But at least the bus didn't break down on the highway at 5am (in July, for 2 hours, WITHOUT VENTILATION), like it did on our way UP to Ann Arbor just a week before. What a romp.
Anyway, that's the longest straight stretch of time I've ever spent in transit to this day, but it was definitely worth it. Brian as Moritz! Shingledecker as Melchior! Jesse as Otto! Our last time seeing the "OBC 5"! Memories. And then we saw the evening show of GYPSY a couple hours later, so, you know. The combination made it one of the best theater-going days I've ever had.
We didn't have to travel very far, but for New Year's this year, a few weeks before the Broadway production closed, me and two of my friends kidnapped another of our friends and got on a bus from Philly heading to New York and didn't tell her where we were going or what we were doing. When we got there, we blindfolded her and walked her blindfolded in New York all the way to the Eugene O'Neill theatre to see "Spring Awakening" as a birthday present. She was pretty stoked when she figured it all out =]
My mom and I traveled to Tampa (from Miami), approximately 4-4.5 hours to see SA for my 16th birthday! I would travel the world to see SA, though. :)
I live in Seattle, saw the show there, LOVED it, saw it again in Seattle. Then I saw you guys were going to Louisville where my dad's job is, so I made him fly me all the way in to see your opening night show. It was magical!
Love you guys!
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.