‘Spring Awakening’ Original Broadway Cast: Where Are They Now?
usmagazine.comTheir song of purple summer! Upon Spring Awakening’s Broadway debut, it catapulted stars Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff and Skylar Astin to fame — and created an original musical that inspired a generation.“I’ve known since day one of working on Spring Awakening — back in 1999 — that it was special,” the Scream Queens alum told Playbill in July 2015. “I think that the idea of using this piece that was written in 1890 and was banned for years and piecing it with Duncan Sheik’s amazing music and Michael’s fabulous directing was special.
Every little piece just fit into place … everything just flowed.”The coming-of-age rock musical was initially inspired by Frank Wedekind’s 1981 play of the same name.
Nearly a decade later, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater came together to pen the music, book and lyrics.
The show, set in 19th century Germany, follows a group of teenagers as they discover their sexuality. Michele and Groff, who became close friends during the Broadway run, played leads Wendla Bergmann and Melchior Gabor, respectively.Spring Awakening was eventually revived in 2015 by Deaf West Theatre and director Michael Arden, casting hearing and deaf actors in the principal roles and integrating American Sign Language (ASL) into the choreography.“I think the show tells a slightly different story, which makes it so special,” revival actor Alex Wyse told BroadwayWorld of the reimagined production. “We are using the same text, yet it is different.
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