By Kim Mayer
Spring Awakening, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, is touring the country and making a stop in Columbus. The musical of teenage self-discovery will be performed from February 3-8 at the Palace Theater.
Sponsored by Broadway Across America - Columbus, Spring Awakening is set in 1890s Germany, and features a generation stuck between youth and adulthood, frustrated by school authorities and their parents. Wendla, an adolescent girl, searches for answers about her sexuality but finds none with her mother, who won’t answer her question of where babies come from.
Meanwhile, friends Moritz and Melchior struggle to pay attention in school and awkwardly discuss their newfound sexuality. Melchior assures Moritz that his thoughts and desires are normal, but Moritz cannot find comfort. Then Melchior meets Wendla during a walk in the woods, and the teenagers are left to discover the consequences of their physical desires without the guidance of adults.
The original play was written by German playwright Frank Wedekind in the early 1890s but, because of sexual content, was considered controversial and banned in Germany. The play was revived nearly 100 years later when it was performed in English, and, with the help of original music by Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening has taken Broadway and the country by storm.
Though more a century has passed since Spring Awakening was written, the musical and the characters’ struggles remain relevant for modern viewers.
“Audiences today can still relate to the messages presented in the play because they deal with timeless human experiences of adolescence. Everyone grows up, goes through puberty, and experiences new emotions, such as love and lust, for the first time,” says Allison Thomas, director of public relations for Broadway Across America-Columbus.
While these themes haven’t lost their shock value since deemed too controversial for the German stage, Thomas considers the issues important enough to portray openly.
“The hope is that the presentation of these issues will spark dialogue among audience members, especially between parents and their teenage children. The main characters in the play experience problems because of the reluctance of the adult characters to discuss these topics or even take the time to listen and empathize with what main characters are going through,” Thomas adds.
Tickets are $64.50, $44.50, and $24.50 at the Palace Theatre Box Office, 34 W. Broad St., and at www.ticketmaster.com. To Purchase tickets by phone, call 614-431-3600. Visit www.springawakening.com for more information about the production.