By R. Kurt Osenlund, Bucks Local News

The national tour of the Tony-winning smash makes a stop in Philadelphia, armed with rocking musical numbers, energy to spare and inspired performances from two Bucks-area natives

“How will we know what to do if our parents don't tell us?”

Asked in earnest by an understandably stressed supporting character, this question is what essentially drives “Spring Awakening,” 2007's exceedingly energetic Tony, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics Circle Award-winner for Best Musical, now playing at Philadelphia's Academy of Music as part of its national tour.

Adapted by Tony-winners Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik from the notorious, widely-censored 1891 play by Frank Wedekind, “Spring Awakening” explores the carnal and emotional travails of a group of repressed teens in late 19th century Germany who must learn for themselves “the words of their bodies.”

A simpleton would tell you that the show is about sex. It is, most assuredly (and most unabashedly), about sexual discovery and sexual liberation, but what it truly conveys are the bitter consequences of dishonesty and hypocrisy in a puritanical society that demonizes the very nature of being human. These kids, blinded and taught to live numb by the adults in their lives, are curious, confused and not happy about it. Their misguided upbringings ultimately lead to some devastating results, and the audience is offered an original, amped-up version of a timeless lesson: Teach Your Children Well.

I first saw “Spring Awakening” in New York last year, not long before it ended its 888-performance run on Broadway. I was seated ON the stage (one of the more fruitful benefits of knowing a “Spring Awakening” super-fan), adjacent to the band and among young performers who unexpectedly rose up and joined the chorus at various points. While my initial experience was one I'll never forget, the performance I saw at the Academy of Music was infinitely more rewarding. From the intended, unobstructed vantage point of a traditional audience member, “Spring Awakening” is tremendous – a show that takes full, thrilling advantage of its theatrical space, from the vibrant, spectrum-spanning lighting design by Tony-winner Kevin Adams to the stage-spanning lineups of youngsters so sexually and existentially squelched their skin is crawling.

The sheer fury and frustration of the teenagers is what gives the production such momentous power, never more evident than in the stage-shaking numbers “The Bitch of Living” and “Totally F***ed” (you read right). Driven by their characters' raging, bottled-up hormones, the young, uniform-clad actors move about the classroom-like set with vigor, stomping out Bill T. Jones' Tony-winning choreography and often screaming Sater's slyly astute lyrics. Though its envelope-pushing content has infamously turned off conservative types (there's teen pregnancy, suicide, domestic violence, boy-on-boy action, blatant masturbation and intercourse), this musical's greatest achievement remains its widespread accessibility. Its over-the-top theatrics are directly catered to the Broadway crowd, while its rollicking rock music and burning angst could fuel a dozen mosh pits.

The uniformly superb cast assembled for the national tour is on its own worth singing about, and two of its members hail from the Philadelphia area. Christy Altomare, a Pennsbury graduate who grew up in Yardley, takes on the daring lead role of Wendla, a pure-souled sacrificial lamb so desperate to feel something – anything – that she begs a fellow character to strike her with a stick. Altomare doesn't boast the extraordinary pipes and presence of role-originator Lea Michele, but she nails Wendla's innocence (and eventual loss of it), and is at her most luminous when belting out the character's climactic solo. Blake Bashoff, a George Washington High School grad from Northeast Philadelphia who's appeared on TV's “Lost” and “Judging Amy,” plays the show-stopping sad clown Moritz, a tragic, vaudevillian-esque misfit originally portrayed in a Tony-winning turn by John Gallagher Jr. Of all the show's ace performers, Bashoff, alternately funny and fiery, is the one who holds you transfixed. At a close second is Canadian singer/songwriter Kyle Riabko, who capably and confidently embodies Melchior, the rebellious leading man and Wendla's star-crossed lover.

“Spring Awakening” pulsates with life even when its fervid operatics are turned down to a simmer. Quieter, more intimate numbers such as “The Dark I Know Well” and “Blue Wind” are haunting and hair-raisingly personal, like “The Diary of Anne Frank” sung by the gals from Heart. Similarly gripping are the show's dramatic crescendos. At Tuesday's opening night performance, you could hear a pin drop during poignant, music-free scenes such as Melchior and Wendla's inevitable, first act-capping quickie, or Moritz's fateful tipping point. Therein lies what has undoubtedly made “Spring Awakening” so phenomenally and enduringly successful: every component captivates, from the songs to the stillnesses, the lyrics to the lights. If what's being presented at the Academy of Music is any indication, the national tour of this invigorating smash has kept its celebrated spirit well intact. I didn't catch a flaw.

 

"Spring Awakening" will be at the Academy of Music through June 28.  For tickets and showtimes, visit: http://www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway/awakening.php.