Spring has awakened in Toronto!
LIVE EVENT:
Lunchtime concert at Eaton Centre, Friday March 27th: The cast will perform with the casts of We Will Rock You, The Sound of Music, and Dirty Dancing at 12:15 pm and again at 1:15 pm. We are expecting a lot of people so get there early to get a good seat!
more Live Events to come. Stay tuned!
DVR ALERT:
The Hills After Show on Monday, March 23rd (TODAY!), host Dan Levy shares his review of Spring Awakening on the “What Did You Do This Weekend?” segment, 2:30 pm, MTV
Much News did a taped interview with us. Not sure when it will air, but will most probably be tonight. Much News airs on Much Music on Mondays at 10PM ET and it is often repeated on MOD which airs M-F 5PM ET."
E-Talk hosts Ben Mulroney and Heather Lin will conduct a backstage interview with Steffi D on Tue March 24th. Airdate TBA (E-Talk airs weeknights at 7 pm on CTV).
Performance on Breakfast Television morning show on Thursday March 26th, starts at 6:00 am on CityTV.
*****UPDATED***** Entertainment Tonight(ET) Canada--interviews will air on Wed, March 25th, 7 pm.
REVIEWS
TORONTO SUN-- "In engineering a theatrical head-on collision between the past and the future, Sater, Sheik and Mayer have come up with something that is emphatically and gloriously today. Anyone who has ever been a youth, known a youth or, perhaps more importantly, is still a youth, is almost certain to respond".
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/columnists/john_coulbourn/2009/03/20/8817891-sun.html
**UPDATED** GLOBE AND MAIL --"the overall effect is more jarring, more provocative and more intelligent than Rent" 3 out of 4 stars
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090320.wspringawake0320/BNStory/Entertainment/
NOW MAGAZINE--"Once the story of the teens starts throbbing, there’s no holding it back: not its tragedy, not its abuse and violence, not its anger and certainly not its exuberance...[a] uniformly talented company." 4 out of 5 stars
http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=168562
***UPDATED***HAMILTON SPECTOR--
"It deserved the armful of Tonys it took home on Broadway. this is a beautiful musical that reminds you what it means to be young and in love."
(read entire review for a hilarious account of a senior couple who wandered in thinking it was "Sound of Music" hee hee):
http://www.thehamiltonspectator.com/Entertainment/article/535107
**UPDATED**TORONTOSTAGE.COM--
"In a compelling story where nothing goes right for the characters, this is a musical staging where nothing goes wrong. Sharp vocals combined with stunning choreography gives the production vast audience appeal."
http://www.torontostage.com/reviews/springAwakening.html
They also had an interview with Christy and Blake. The interviewer is kinda hilarious:
TORONTO STAR
"Spring Awakening is one of the most exciting new musicals I've seen in years"
http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/Theatre/article/604742
BLOGTO
"Spring Awakening is a refreshing piece of musical theatre for our time" (They also mention a couple who was offended. Guess Toronto isn't as liberal as I thought!)
http://www.blogto.com/theatre/2009/03/spring_awakening_is_gonna_bruise_you/#comments
Not all the reviews were raves, although all had fantastic things to say about the production. A few wanted more nihilism, akin to the original Wedekind play and argued that we pulled our punches in our adaptation. Robert Cushman at the NATIONAL POST, for instance, wanted us to preserve the unsentimentality of the Wedekind's adults and didn't like that we gave Moritz' father a human moment where he is sobbing silently for the death of his son. This same reviewer also says, "Christy Altomare is a sweet Wendla, though one who looks better able to take care of herself than her story requires." It seems as if Cushman is wedded to the original source material and is not able to see Sater's adaptation as a different take on the material. He seems to think that Wendla should be the passive, innocent girl that Wedekind wrote. Our production team was hell bent on creating more of an arc for Wendla than Wedekind allows and making her a stronger character that young women today would be able to relate to, which I think ultimately makes her story all the more tragic (http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=1406840).
Cushman also wanted us to keep Melchoir as a rapist, and he is not alone in this. Christopher Hoile from EYE WEEKLY agrees, saying that by not making Melchoir a rapist, his character is "significantly less complex." (!!) And argued that "the score is too gorgeous for the material. It’s as if Sheik and Sater, contrary to the source, intentionally want to tone down the volatility of the themes." Canada wants us to be more violent! LOL. I think we need a moment to talk about this. We took great pains to create a more cohesive storyline for our three main characters. We did not believe that a play without a hero could succeed on Broadway. We didn't think the audience would root for Melchoir if he was a rapist. There's a reason this show was banned for 100 years! Thankfully, Hoile ends his review on a good note: "What impresses more than the once-shocking subject matter and Sheik’s languorous score is Mayer’s inexhaustible invention and the white-hot talent of the young performers who make it work (http://www.eyeweekly.com/arts/theatre/article/55230--spring-awakening)."
What do you think about these reviewer's views? We'd love to hear your comments below!
OTHER FEATURES
E-Talk Interview with Steffi D on CTV
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090320/steffi_d_090320/20090320/
Toronto Star: feature on Steffi D
http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/Theatre/article/597251
Canadian Press feature on Steffi D
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jGH_GHNPTrFl9qkQTixauqI3gxsw
Toronto Sun: Interview with Tom Hulce, “Musical Awakens New Career”
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/stage/2009/03/18/8789536-sun.html
KYLE RIABKO: THE LEAD DOCUMENTARY
Perhaps the biggest exposure we've had in Canada was the airing of the brilliant documentary "Kyle Riabko: The Lead" on Bravo Canada (rumored to be re-airing on April 1st). We're so happy we gave them open access when they were filming.
What was remarkable about this doc was not only how it captured Kyle's journey to Broadway and beyond, but that they interviewed some of our fans-- and what emerges is an eye popping testimonial of how our show has helped these brave, young teens such as Chris from Houston, who had tried to commit suicide until our show gave him renewed strength to fight on, and Frances from Canada who was shy and withdrawn until she found a community of Guilty Ones where she belonged. It brought tears to my eyes. A fan posted clips from the documentary on Youtube. So cool to see the Broadway Guilty Ones being interviewed! Miss you guys! Enjoy!
12 comments:
When I was posting links to the reviews on TGO, I noted the same thing -- that a lot of the reviewers seemed to spend an awful lot of time arguing about how they dislike ways that the musical differs from the original play rather than actually reviewing the show they were seeing. What I thought was particularly interesting about this is that it's arguable that it's because of the musical that the stage play has had such a resurgence, so these reviewers were possibly more familiar with it than they would have been two-plus years ago when Spring initially launched. Of course one of the reviewers (I think it was the National Post) had clearly hated the show on Broadway so much that he was relishing an opportunity to have another go at insulting the adaptation. I was glad to see that the cast's performances were generally well received, and it shows the strength of the leads that no one seemed to agree whether Blake or Matt was the best.
Oh, please ignore the National Post. Most Canadians do, I assure you!
If critics want to argue source material and interpretation, let them have at it. I know that for myself, it's the strength of the acting, voices and music that are of interest to me at a musical. If I love those aspects, and I'm moved by them, that's what matters.
For example, I loved the musical Wicked, and couldn't possibly care less about its faithfullness to the source material. The same goes for Spring Awakening.
Loved the clips, as always
Lol, just like anonymous said above me, the critics were harsh when they were talking about wicked, they said that it would never become popular, that although the score was gorgeous it was too complicated. And look at it now, it's a phenomenon, =D. Plus, the job of critics is to criticize work, no matter how good it is. If they have so much to say about it, I would like to see any one of them get up on stage to do what the performers in this show do, or go behind the scenes and try to write a better score, honestly, XD. If you want a true review, go read the ones written by audience members, not critics. On the topic of reviews, www.psychopathicsanity.blogspot.com. I was there on stage for the evening performance on the eighteenth, and it was amazing, =D
Also, why did the eaton's center show have to be at noon? XD I would have loved to go (I've seen all four shows, XD), I have schooooool, lol.
Did you not find the one in the Globe and Mail?
3 stars, out of four, but it takes perfection to make them happy and they don't give out halves, so it's pretty darn good.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090321.ASPRING20/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Theatre/
I'm sure the theatre sizing is difficult, but I'm not there, so I can't say for sure.
Canadian society isn't that much different. I suppose we are a bit more moderate, but not that much so.
The musical is not the play, and that is really not a particularly effective way to look at the musical.
All that said, Canada loves you Spring Awakening! (And please come to Vancouver!)
Yes please ignore the National Post. Like Anonymous said, most Canadians do.
I was wondering if there was an approximate time for Breakfast Televison that the cast will be on. 6-9 is a really long time. Will they be on the first half or the second half?
National Post is a piece of drivel puppetted by its owner. It's the worst paper in Toronto save the Sun, which is a sensationalistic piece of crap that encourages moral panic through misleading headlines. Eye Weekly is Toronto Star's competitor with Now Magazine, and it seems they intentionally try to look down at everything Now likes just to be contrary at times. The Torontoist blog does the same (Eye Weekly folk work there) with BlogTo. Oh the drama llamas!
I happen to feel, as someone who was raped, that the changes to the character of Wendla give her more modern appeal, and as much as I appreciate the daring of Wedekind's work for its time, I much prefer the changes made for the musical. I love Moritz, but would hardly love him if he were telling Melchior it's cool to die.
What a wonderful little documentary! Kyle's so lucky that such a huge moment in his life has been documented like that. Amazing :))
Ummmmm... so the interview never appeared on ET:Canada on Wednesday March 25. What happened??
Can someone please take a video of the performances at the Eaton's centre and throw them up on the blog. I wish I could be there because I also saw We Will Rock you and thought it was great, but Toronto is a bit of a trek from Sarnia and I have school...
Hey everyone,
Does anyone know when Kyle will be back as Melchoir in TORONTO? I am hearing rumours as April 12.. does anyone know?
I just saw the promo on E-Talk. Steffi's interview airs tomorrow (Wednesday April 1rst) at 7 on CTV.
-Alison
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