StageSceneLA says Spring Awakening “tops the Broadway original in virtually every way”.
“Brilliantly innovative direction, stunningly original choreography, a baker’s dozen revelatory performances, and a Broadway-caliber production design guarantee Southland audiences as outstanding a Spring Awakening as any musical theater lover could ever hope to see.”
“a full-cast showstopper”
“extraordinary and contemporary”
“It’s taken nearly twenty years for Spring Awakening to make it from NYC to the OC’s Chance, but as was the case with the theater’s sensational Rent a couple summers’ back, audiences can expect to have their minds blown and their hearts broken”
“Director Jocelyn A. Brown signals from the get-go that the things she’ll be doing will make even diehard Spring Awakening aficionados gasp at her innovative brilliance”
“Equally ground-breaking is having half of the cast of thirteen join Robyn Manion’s four-piece orchestra at one time or another during the production on both string and wind instruments.”
“Mo Goodfellow’s choreography too feels equally fresh and new”
“Goodfellow focuses on telling these characters’ stories and revealing their raw emotions through hand, arm, and upper-torso moves performed in razor-sharp sync”
“And just wait till you see how designers Bradley Kaye (sets), Bradley Allen Lock (costumes), Jacqueline Malenke (lighting), and Sergio Emilio (hair and makeup) have combined their prodigious talents to create a production design that tops the Broadway original in virtually every way.”
“A supremely multitalented cast”
“Malgoza, who brings power and sensitivity to Melchior”
“Stalling’s exquisitely rendered Wendla, as delicate as she is determined to explore her budding sexuality”
“Sitton [gives] a performance that will break your heart again and again.”
“Jack Thomas Aitken (Georg) and Jaylen Baham (Otto) reveal heavenly pipes throughout the show”
“Not only do Isabella Kaplan as teen outcast Ilse and Emma Magbanua as “Daddy’s girl” Martha reveal scarred hearts and powerful pipes in “The Dark I Know Well,” they join Manion’s keyboards, Curtis Humphreys’s guitars, and Jorge Zuniga’s drums from time to time, Kaplan on guitar and Magbanua on flute and bass, as do fellow female classmates (Linda Bard’s Thea on cello and Naya Ramsey-Clarke’s Anna on guitar, both terrific) again and again.”
“the fabulous James Michael McHale and Erica Farnsworth deliver one distinctive cameo after another”
“Lia Weed’s expert sound design”
“[you] won’t see a better Spring Awakening in your lifetime”
Read the latest review of Spring Awakening from StageSceneLA HERE.
