Deaf West's production of SPRING AWAKENING floored the critics when it premiered in California, prompting the Los Angeles Times to write, "It's hard to enumerate all the ways in which Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING is so very, very good." Now this unapologetically brilliant new production is coming to New York.
When it debuted on Broadway, SPRING AWAKENING's raw and honest portrayal of youth in revolt shattered expectations of what a musical could do, earning it 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book (for writer, Steven Sater) and Best Score (for composer, Duncan Sheik). Deaf West's innovative new production takes this already revolutionary musical to electrifying new heights by choreographing sign language into the production, intensifying the rift between the lost and the longing teenagers and the adults who refuse to hear them. Directed by Michael Arden, Deaf West's SPRING AWAKENING is full of knockout performances, explosive music and soul-stirring emotion.
Occasionally - and Deaf West Theatre's production of Spring Awakening is a superb example - something latent in the material meets the mood of the time to make a revival not just a necessity but a great pleasure... This revival would have been unjustifiable were it not for the brilliant idea of placing the story in the context of deafness and using many deaf actors to tell it.
'Spring Awakening' puts such inclusivity to thematic use while keeping the show's rock-music energy high. For most of the show, the band remains integrated into the shadows of Dane Laffrey's industrial-looking set, whose steel walls and rolling stairs look more like a 20th-century power station than a German boys' school. But when necessary, the musicians aren't afraid to run out into the audience, who won't soon forget the sight of Matlin rocking an electric guitar in the boxed seats.
2006 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2006 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
2008 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
2010 | US Tour |
NETworks National Tour US Tour |
2015 | Broadway |
Deaf West Broadway Revivial Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Spencer Liff |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Michael Arden |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Ben Stanton |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | She Loves Me |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Spencer Liff |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Michael Arden |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical) | Ben Stanton |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Projection Design (Play or Musical) | Lucy Mackinnon |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Spring Awakening |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Arden |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Ben Stanton |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Spring Awakening |
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