Rite of Spring

Their hormones raging, the teenagers of a small town think almost constantly of sex, but they don’t know what to do about it because they haven’t received an iota of education on the subject from their repressive parents or teachers. The guys masturbate, alone and in groups, and two of them become physically intimate with each other. One boy and girl have intercourse that results in pregnancy, which in turn results in tragedy. A friend of theirs, equally horny and clueless, is so terrified of his father’s reaction to his poor performance in school that he commits a desperate, violent act.

This is a brief synopsis not of an edgy indie film or an envelope-pushing new show running somewhere in the East Village but, rather, of German playwright Frank Wedekind’s groundbreaking 1890 drama Spring Awakening. Not so long ago, such a piece wouldn’t have been considered for adaptation as a musical; but that was then, and this is now. Hence Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, which begins performances on Broadway this week — just a few months after completing a highly successful run Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company.

As at the Atlantic, the show is directed by Michael Mayer and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, and almost all of that production’s cast is on board for the transfer. “We’re so thrilled to be on Broadway,” says Jonathan Groff, who plays the show’s charismatic central character, Melchior Gabor. Adds John Gallagher Jr., who plays the unhappy, awkward Moritz Stiefel, “Doing the show at the Atlantic was exciting enough, but the fact that we’re now getting to perform it for a wider audience — well, it just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter.”

Lea Michele, who plays Wendla Bergmann, is so committed to the show that she gave up the chance to play Eponine in the Broadway revival of Les Misérables, a role in which she had already been cast, to do Spring Awakening again. “I originally auditioned for this show back in 1999,” she says. “I didn’t know the play, but I knew Duncan’s music, and I was intrigued. I’ve been doing the show in one form another for about six years, since I was 14 years old. I think the Atlantic was the perfect place for us to start, and we might not be where we are now if it wasn’t for them. But I do think the Broadway audience will enjoy the show just as much; we’ve made a lot of wonderful changes to accommodate the new audience and the new theater.”

Groff hails from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he spent some time during the break between the closing of Spring Awakening at the Atlantic and the beginning of rehearsals for the Broadway run. But being home didn’t completely remove him from the world of the musical, which is still set in Germany in the 1890s despite its pop/rock score. “First of all,” he says, “Lancaster looks a lot like Germany — the rolling hills, the fields. Then I would walk past some Amish people, and they would also make me think of Spring Awakening because of the way they wear all black and cover up every part of their bodies. That is so our show.”

Doing a musical is a new experience for Gallagher, who has been praised for his extraordinary work in such plays as Rabbit Hole and Kimberly Akimbo. “When I auditioned for the reading of the musical at Lincoln Center, that was the first I’d ever heard of the play,” he recalls. “So I went out and bought one of the translations, and I was blown away by the content and the integrity of it. What [the creators of the musical] did with it was just so exciting and original to me that I wanted to get involved — not thinking that I really would be able to. I’ve been so grateful for every step of this.”

Although he’s not yet known to many theatergoers for his musical talents, Gallagher is a member of a folk rock band called Old Spring Pike. “They’re old friends of mine who I grew up with in the Delaware-Pennsylvania area,” he says. “We started playing just before Spring Awakening was done at the Atlantic. Having the show and the band coexist has been great, because the show has been teaching me so much as a singer.”

All of the adult characters in Spring Awakening are played by Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella and stage veteran Christine Estabrook, both of whom are new to the production for the Broadway run. (At the Atlantic, the parts were played by Frank Wood and Mary McCann.) “Joining the cast of this show was like jumping onto a fast-moving train,” says Estabrook. “Neither Stephen nor I saw the show at the Atlantic, and we purposely didn’t watch the video because we wanted to discover it ourselves as much as we could.”

Says Spinella, “The first time I heard the score was at the first reading. I had read the play in college years ago, but reading it again was a revelation. I really didn’t appreciate it when I read it in my 20s. It’s astonishing to think that it was written in 1890.” Notes Estabrook, “It’s very different to read it from an adult point of view. I related to the kids before, but now I’m relating to the older people!”

Indeed, the appeal of Spring Awakening — like Rent, another musical based on 19th-century source material — crosses generational lines. Says Groff: “Although it deals with abortion and teen suicide and all those issues, our show also definitely has a sense of joy and exuberance. My mom came to see it eight times at the Atlantic. She loved it!”