Reviewed by Socks Whitmore
East West Players
Through Nov 19, 2023
RECOMMENDED
As another snowless Los Angeles winter approaches, East West Players is in full bloom with its latest production: the Tony award-winning coming-of-age rock musical Spring Awakening. The story, based on German writer Frank Wedekind’s play of the same name, takes place in 1891 Germany, where a group of earnest adolescents struggle to understand their bodies and desires under the sexually repressive teachings of their religious schooling. As the top student and singular atheist in class, Melchior Gabor shares his acquired sexual knowledge with his uninformed classmates and his lover, Wendla Bergmann. However, the hostile attitudes of the children’s parents and teachers soon lead to ugly consequences for the youth. This heavy-hitting musical favorite is described as “a rock anthem to all the ‘guilty ones,’” unapologetically addressing abortion, verbal and sexual abuse, and suicide.
East West Players presents Spring Awakening with an exciting cast of almost exclusively Asian American actors. Madison Grep stands out as Ilse, delivering a gut wrenching rendition of “The Dark I Know Well.” Thomas Winter as Melchior and Mia Sempertegui as Wendla also shine in their leading roles, finding gorgeous chemistry in a raw, authentic portrayal of clumsy first-time intimacy. Director Tim Dang brings out the tenderness of attraction through gentle tug and pull, balancing the sometimes-comedic nature of the teenagers’ sexual frustration with sensitive pauses to let things take their time. Dang’s use of subtle gestures and hand movement has an excellent partnership with choreographer Preston Mui’s theatrical dance stylings, suggesting Broadway sensibilities in the narratively rooted, abstracted physicality.
Nods must be given to the production’s design team! Scenic designer Christopher Scott Murillo and properties designer Glenn Michael Baker offer a striking, stationary platform — with church-like arches, brickwork, and climbing vines — for the ensemble to populate. Both Dang and Mui make excellent use of the table and chairs, transforming them into everything from messy towering structures to a funeral casket. The orchestral pit is neatly hidden in the shadowed depths of center stage, and the set’s architectural features are cleverly outlined by strips of LED lights that ebb and flow in a variety of colors throughout the show. Derek Jones’ perpetually active lighting design adds an impressive layer of motion and shapes to the narrative’s dramatic moment (though at times the LED’s intense brightness grows excessive and repetitive — as the hours go on, the brilliant series of cues sorely lacks a needed middle ground). Costume designer Jojo Siu and make-up/hair designer Gillian Woodson collaborate to achieve an interesting “punk rock peasant” feel that sits somewhere between SIX and Hamilton. Notably, the costumes for the adult roles are not memorable. (Traditionally all of the adult roles are performed by two actors, so they can grow difficult to tell apart at critical points in the narrative.)
In some ways, the placement of the rock-infused musical numbers feels more vignette-like than dramatically sensible, the stuffy English dialogue hinting at the original play it was based on. Yet the ensemble brings the music to life with vigor and gusto all the same, concluding with a stirring performance of “Song of Purple Summer.” Even today, Spring Awakening offers timely, relevant messages to its audience: the rejection of shame, the criticism of intentional miseducation, and the need to build a better world together.
East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theater,120 Judge John Aiso St., LA. Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 5 pm, Sat., 2 pm; thru Nov. 19. https://eastwestplayers.org/ewpawakening/ Running time: two hours and 15 minutes with one intermission
