“Spring Awakening,” a musical written by Steven Sater with music by Duncan Sheik, follows the lives of a group of adolescent students during the late 1800s in Germany as they navigate their budding sexualities and come to terms with the realities of adulthood.
My introduction to “Spring Awakening” was a poorly filmed performance of the original Broadway cast, starring Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele. I came across it scrolling the depths of YouTube when I was not much older than the characters themselves.
Not only did I immediately become obsessed with the soundtrack, I fell in love with the witty characters, finding their innocence relatable.
Wichita State’s School of Performing Arts put on “Spring Awakening” from Feb. 21-22, piquing my interest almost immediately. I appreciate that the director, Jacob McGlaun, decided to bring the joys and tribulations of teenage angst to Wichita State’s student body.
Overall, McGlaun’s rendition of the coming-of-age rock musical was reasonably entertaining. It adhered to the original Broadway production fairly closely, not taking many outlandish creative liberties.
However, McGlaun did make some questionable casting decisions that, I think, led the mood of the show to feel sloppier than I’d expect for a college-level production.
Solomon Puckett made his Wichita State performing debut starring as Melchior Gabor, an intelligent yet perverse schoolboy.
I was optimistic during the beginning of his first song “All That’s Known,” impressed with the quality of his tone. However, Puckett’s performance quickly fell flat when the music faded and dialogue ensued.
What was confusing to me was how haphazard much of his performance was. While Puckett is undeniably vocally talented, his acting between numbers could have easily been improved upon by providing more interesting facial expressions and body language.
There are multiple scenes where Gabor is sitting by a stream monologuing about his extremely pensive thoughts on society.
I wasn’t impressed with Puckett’s unchanging face throughout these monologues. It didn’t feel like he was acting; it simply felt like he was reading out loud.
There were a couple of outstanding scenes, though, that I felt truly encapsulated Puckett’s acting potential.
There is a moment toward the end of the performance where Gabor discovers Wendla Bergmann has died. Gabor falls to his knees, sobbing over her fresh grave.
Puckett’s portrayal of this scene was gut-wrenching and I think is further evidence that he could have put that much energy into the rest of his performance.
Hayley Loya played Bergmann, Gabor’s naive and melodramatic love interest. The reality of Bergmann’s innocence is that it makes her slightly obnoxious at times, but Loya’s strong vocal performance brought a deeper tone to Bergmann’s usually meek character, which I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I did.
Once again though, the decision to cast someone with a dark and rich vocal tone didn’t quite match the vibe of Bergmann. Despite this, I enjoyed Loya’s performance.
Admittedly the standout acting performances in this production did not come from the two lovebirds, but rather the supporting actors.
Jack Wilson’s depiction of Moritz Stiefel, Gabor’s high-strung best friend, was beautifully heartbreaking, and Zoe Phillips’ wonderful portrayal of Ilse Neumann, Bergmann’s free-spirited classmate, came as a pleasant surprise as her character stayed in the background for much of the first act, only stepping into the spotlight in the second.
Even though McGlaun was not spot on with casting this production, I think he got away with those decisions thanks to the alt-rock and folks-y influences of the score. The vocal performance doesn’t have to be perfect.
“Spring Awakening” exposes almost every part of a teenager’s overly hormonal psyche, both the bad and the good.
It addresses sexual assault, abuse and suicide, but it also takes the emotions and actions of these repressed students very seriously, refusing to dwindle their feelings down to the immature thoughts of children who don’t know how the world works.
“Spring Awakening” was the perfect choice for the School of Performing Arts to put on because its message is a universal truth, fresh in the minds of Wichita State students.
While I believe McGlaun made a risky decision casting two individuals with very little professional theater experience as the leads, it ties in the innocent and transformational spirit of “Spring Awakening” masterfully.
