Spring Awakening Stars to Perform at the White House
(© Joan Marcus)
The full cast of Broadway's Spring Awakening will perform at the White House on Wednesday, November 18, to perform as part of the event Americans With Disabilities and the Arts: A Celebration of Diversity and Inclusion. The event, which will also feature director Michael Arden and writers Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, will be live-streamed from 4pm-7pm on the White House's website.
Arden's production of Sheik and Sater's Tony-winning musical, which originated in 2014 in Los Angeles as a production of Deaf West Theatre, is performed simultaneously in English and American Sign Language. Based on the 1891 Frank Wedekind play and set against the backdrop of a repressive and provincial late-19th-century Germany, Spring Awakening tells the timeless story of teenage self-discovery and budding sexuality as seen through the eyes of three teenagers. The production opened September 27 for a run that concludes January 24.
The cast is made up of deaf and hearing actors, a list that includes Patrick Page and Russell Harvard as the Adult Men, Camryn Manheim and Marlee Matlin as the Adult Women, Smash costars Krysta Rodriguez and Andy Mientus as Ilse and Hanschen. Also in the cast are Miles Barbee (Otto), Katie Boeck (Voice of Wendla, Guitars, Piano), Alex Boniello (Voice of Moritz, Guitar), Joshua Castille (Ernst), Daniel Durant (Moritz), Treshelle Edmond (Martha), Sandra Mae Frank (Wendla), Kathryn Gallagher (Voice of Martha, Guitar), Sean Grandillo (Voice of Otto, Bass), Amelia Hensley (Thea), Lauren Luiz (Heidi, Voice of Thea), Austin McKenzie (Melchior), Daniel David Stewart (Voice of Ernst), Ali Stroker (Anna), Alexandra Winter (Harp, Gretl), and Alex Wyse (Georg).
