Reviews--Spring Awakening at the Kennedy Center, DC

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus for Spring Awakening

WASHINGTON POST

It's a lot hotter inside the Kennedy Center these days, and the thermometer hasn't budged one bit. The altered state is a matter of tone rather than climate, its source the turbulent stylings of the Eisenhower Theater's new summer tenant: that splendidly soul-stirring musical of raging teenage hormones, "Spring Awakening."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/09/AR2009070902746.html

WASHINGTON TIMES (4 OUT OF 4 STARS!)

The radical scholar Melchior (Jake Epstein, from "De Grassi High: The Next Generation," appealingly broody and intense) is more textbook-experienced in sexual matters, and he strives to put his knowledge into practice with the almost tragically innocent Wendla (Christy Altomare, agleam with vulnerability and hope). Sexuality also is expressed as release — with Hanschen (Andy Mientus, a suave seducer) self-pleasuring in "My Junk" to the meter of Desdemona's death scene from "Othello" — or as a means of control, as Martha (an affecting Sarah Hunt) painfully relates in "The Dark I Know Well." Experimentation is even depicted, with an awkward attempt at S&M and, later, same-sex canoodling ("The Word of Your Body").

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/10/theater-a-spring-of-resonant-fantasies/#

Also some great features.

This one, in the Washington Post, talks about how rock music is changing musical theatre and Spring Awakening is featured prominently: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/03/AR2009070300067.html

Here's a Don't Miss! interview with our "Bitch of 40" stars, Angela Reed and Todd Cerveris on DC Theatre Scene:

http://dctheatrescene.com/2009/07/09/spring-awakenings-angela-reed-and-todd-cerveris/

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus for Spring Awakening

MORE REVIEWS: UPDATED 7/16/09

The Onion

As the great sage Bristol Palin once told People magazine, "If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody."
As the teens in the musical cope with their growing urges and nocturnal emissions, one sexually enlightened student, Melchior (Jake Epstein), writes an explanatory pamphlet—sort of an illustrated, Germanic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
http://dc.decider.com/articles/spring-awakening-at-the-kennedy-center,30224/


DCist (Blog)
Invigorating! With so many cookie cutter musicals and anemic remakes coming out of Broadway, it feels almost a privilege to get a glimpse of one of the more experimental productions to find some New York success...Part of the thrill of Spring Awakening is watching the young but extremely talented cast, clearly in the early stages of their careers.
http://dcist.com/2009/07/an_invigorating_spring_awakening_at.php


DC Theatre Scene.com "Stunning" "Will Blow Your Mind."
Forget the cute marketing advertisements with a free-spirited young couple locked in a sweet embrace with the caption, “You’ll never forget your first time.” Those of us who have seen the show multiple times can attest to Awakening’s tough thematic content and the dark, somber reality of abuse, death, and fragile emotional breaking points just a heart beat away from a fatal snap.
http://dctheatrescene.com/2009/07/13/spring-awakening-3/

The Sentinel Papers (Suburban Newspapers)
Every generation thinks it is the generation that discovers sex. Currently at the Kennedy Center is a rousing production of the Tony Award winning musical Spring Awakening, which takes a century old play about rebellious youth and adds an adrenaline jolt of contemporary angst to the proceedings. Times may change, but human nature does not.
http://www.thesentinel.com/pgs/entertainment/Spring-Awakening

EDGE (GLBT Newspaper)
It’s won 8 Tonys, and has since gone to rock the theatre world with its presence.
This juggernaut production, which has had descriptions ranging from "rock opera" to "teenage melodrama", is best known as Spring Awakening... a no-holds-barred, extensively urgent tale of very small proportions, painting itself as half neo-realist, half dialectical theatre - a paradox in the making.
http://www.edgewashington.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=theatre&sc2=reviews&sc3=&id=92584

DC Met Blogs
Spring Awakening Rocks The Roof Off Kennedy Center
With a strong entertaining story and bombastic musical performances, Spring Awakening is one of the most energizing pieces to come to DC this summer. It’s like American Pie but classier and with music and dance.
http://dc.metblogs.com/2009/07/16/spring-awakening-review-kennedy-center/

Here's the link to the video of Christy and Jake's interview on Let's Talk Live. (I took away the embedded version because it was automatically playing): http://www.letstalklive.tv/n_videoplayer.cfm?video=ltlmusical0715.wmv&id=347

Get your tickets now~ Spring Awakening plays at the Kennedy Center through August 2nd, 2009. http://www.kennedy-center.org or call 202-467-4600.

Have a great weekend, everyone!