San Jose Mercury News Review
Review: 'Spring Awakening' rocks San Jose
The daring new musical "Spring Awakening" rocked so hard it took Silicon Valley by storm Wednesday night. An electric jolt of youthful angst and yearning that revolutionized the usually staid genre of Broadway, this musical is perhaps the coolest one ever to grace San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts, where it runs through Sunday.
This audacious mash-up of 19th-century themes and cutting-edge alt-rock takes our breath away from start to finish. Frank Wedekind's once-scandalous 1891 tragedy about adolescents awash in lust, fear and chaos is now the height of hip. The Tony-winning rock musical is worshipped by flocks of teens known as "Guilty Ones," many of whom were texting like maniacs at the intermission....
http://www.mercurynews.com/theater-museums/ci_13669292
Metro San Jose Review
Spring Soars
The acclaimed Broadway musical about growing up in the 1890s in a small German town is more than one thing; it is not easy to define and file away in an alphabetized sock drawer. This show is a collision of a rock spectacle and a powerhouse musical that expresses the angst and inner turmoil of growing up in an oppressive society. And just like the musical itself, the children are not just students. They are lovers, explorers, dreamers and pirates who remind the audience that no matter what the time period or the place, there were always children who felt that anxious tug when they turned from caterpillar to butterfly.
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/10.28.09/stage-spring-awakening-0943.html
Stark Silver Creek Review
Theater review: ‘Spring Awakening’ delivers Broadway hit to San Jose in style
...what makes Spring Awakening so good, is how it all comes together so well. The music blends in with the story, carrying our emotions along for a rocking (and occasionally, joyfully loud) ride. In between the exciting drum and guitar work, though, there is character depth, and meaning behind actions. We feel and relate to their circumstances. Better yet, we are drawn to Melchior’s intelligent perspective, documented in his journal, that prevents the following events from becoming standard melodrama.
Spring Awakening is another Broadway gift to San Jose. Enjoy it as soon as possible (it’s only here for five days; 6 performances remain after this afternoon’s) and thank the lucky stars (or Dutch company Nederlander) we get to experience something so entertainingly fresh and vibrant. Colorful memories of high school years gone by is just icing on the Kuchen.
http://www.starksilvercreek.com/2009/10/theatre-review-spring-awakening-delivers-broadway-hit-to-san-jose-in-style.html
Check out this video blog Stark Silver Creek did of Opening Night and Cast After Party in San Jose. Make sure you make it to the middle of the video, where Christy Altomare, Andy Mientus, and three of our Guilty Ones in San Jose are interviewed!
On Location: Spring Awakening opening night and cast interviews, San Jose from StarkSilverCreek.com on Vimeo.
San Mateo Daily Journal
I needed..to find out whether “Spring Awakening,” justified all of those theater awards it gathered in 2007, and yes, it did...And, if this is a touring company, one would wonder how much better the original show might have been.
With a “knockout” musical score, this “pop rock” musical is one of those theater works that “snap, crackle and pop,” from the opening until the last delicious spoon full. It is one of those tightly written and symbolic masterpieces of modern musical theater that takes just enough time to say what it needs to and moves on, ultimately, to enter the permanent repertoire of American theater works.
My conclusion: The record number of awards was justified and if you, as I, had missed this production before, now is the time to catch an excellent touring version of a certain future musical classic.
http://smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?type=arts&id=118931
Bay Area Stage and Screen (blog)
Not since Hair shocked Broadway audiences in 1968, has their been a musical that has so enlivened the genre. Spring Awakening, currently showing right now with the new company - Broadway San Jose - through Sunday, busts down the doors of propriety and jolts us into a teenage reality. Never has there been a musical that so honestly depicts the travails of growing up.
With the departure of our beloved American Musical Theatre of San Jose, the Nederlander Corporation is doing a wonderful job of bringing Broadway to the South Bay. I miss AMTSJ very much for a myriad of reasons, but I am glad that Nederlander seems to be making a valiant effort to keep us in the Broadway loop so to speak.
http://bayareastage.blogspot.com
ALSO, CHECK OUT THIS GREAT INTERVEW WITH JAKE EPSTEIN IN THE MERCURY NEWS:
Q: Why did you choose to try out for "Spring Awakening"? More specifically, what is it about the play that particularly drew you to this role?
A: Well, I saw the show on Broadway in 2006 and just completely fell in love with it. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, like I was just on the edge of my seat the whole time. I had chills for half the play. I thought it was just the amalgamation of rock music and theater, and I just thought it was so cool. Two years later I (actually went to) an open call in Toronto, my home, 'cause I heard they were looking for replacements on Broadway. ...
Q:In "Degrassi" you played a brooding musician with bipolar disorder and in "Spring Awakening" you play a kind of rebellious trickster who leads his classmates against
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society. So, why did you want to play a character so drastically different from Craig?
A: (laughs) Well, it's funny. I don't even think of it as that totally different from Craig. I mean, I brought so much of myself to "Degrassi," and I think in the same way I sort of related a lot to some of Melchior in "Spring Awakening" as well. So, yes, they are two completely different characters, but I think of them as parts of myself. And I think if anything, it's actually the opposite — that I recognized parts of myself in these characters and (it) made me want to play them, not that they were so different, but the fact that I could relate to them.
Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_13645370
2 comments:
I watched the matinee show at SJ yesterday. I was wondering what went thru Taylor's mind when the microphone fell after "Don't do Sadness/ Blue Wind?" Andy left such an inspiration on me. Keep truckin', keep rockin'!
Another review of the San Jose production:
http://tinyurl.com/SpringAwakeningOnTour
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