Spring Awakening - Almeida / Cinema Release

Just noticed a new (?) performance on Tuesday 25th Jan, 7:30pm which is onsale on the website with good availability for those still looking for tickets!

Totally agree with this.  I had never seen Spring Awakening before, wasn't entirely sure it would be "my thing" (which is generally Sondheim on a loop)  and my daughter confessed she was slightly dreading watching it with her mum due to the themes involved but we emerged unscathed and I loved it.  I also thought Laurie Kynaston was fantastic, and both D and I agreed that Stuart Thompson had looked quite peaky, but we thought that was just the role.
Didn't realise it was a band member coughing, could definitely hear from the stalls.
There was an audience Q&A afterwards, but late end and a school night meant we couldn't stay, which was a real shame - would have liked to learn more about it.

Oh really? That wasn’t very well advertised. Would’ve liked to have stayed for it as my train home wasn’t until 2330 so was just mulling around the station for an hour and could’ve stayed.

Next Saturday is what should have been the last night. It extended from 22 January to 29. Can't wait to see it in its final week!

I really enjoyed myself. I saw this on tour whenever that was (a decade ago??) and had a good time but wasn’t overwhelmed at the time.

Some negatives.

I didn’t much care for “the bitch of living” last night which ended up feeling a bit corny, and didn’t feel as authentic or as tight as it could have. Watching a clip from the broadway production, I feel that was a better interpretation. The sort of ultra macho stomping around and being led everywhere by their penises is an angle I understand the origin of, but particularly as an early-ish number really put me off. Compare that to the opening of the female cast members singing “Mama who bore me” which was excellent, more subtle, more real.

I totally agree about the negative reaction to the changed “Bitch of living” ending, which is quite deflating after what’s obviously a very exciting song. I think this COULD be effective, but only if you stage it so that the audience cannot applaud. The point of having it peter out (that their shouting and rebelling makes absolutely no difference to their predicament and the outcome, the adults are in charge, children have no respect or power in this society, I’m guessing) is sort of lost when you then have the audience clapping and screaming for two minutes afterwards. Imagine if the next scene suddenly slammed in, that disappointing and unfulfilled ending would linger with you and underline the hopelessness of their situation.

I also ended up feeling quite strongly about the scene later in act 2 between Ernst and Hanschen. I get that it’s sort of alluded to in “the bitch of living” but having their romance blossom at this late stage felt a bit unearned, and a little bit like paying lip service to the concept of homosexuality in teenagers. I’m not sure how that scene served the story, and whilst I would have been keen to see these two actors play out the issues of unknown and confusing feelings towards your own sex in a time when that was presumably verboten, I felt like it needed a bit more development to actually mean anything. Even a quick dialogue scene of sexual tension or something earlier on.

But my god, you forget how beautiful some of that music is, how wonderful those songs play around the dialogue and the action, and Goold has weaved it very well other than the bits above. The cast is outstanding, the three leads, the parents… Laurie Kynaston is an absolute star. The natural and varying accents of the cast were such a treat to listen to in comparison with the middle class south eastern blandness we normally get subjected to. The set and lighting was fun, well designed and utilised. a brilliant production of a good show. I thought the costumes were a bit much, I don’t know why but I got real Shiz University vibes which I don’t think was the aim, but that’s just my taste.

The intimacy of the Almeida really helps, I wonder how this will play when it transfers somewhere larger and more impersonal. Definitely glad I saw it as it is now, and everyone should be getting a ticket to this.

^ andrew the part about the costumes were very SHIZ!

I'd only ever seen it once at college where a board member was a part of the cast ;-) - but didn't really appreciate the story / or was invested. It's always different seeing shows in a professional setting; I really appreciate how the ensemble worked together.

Having seen Cabaret in November (last show I saw!) ... bearing in mind I had never watched the film/stage show...I actually preferred Spring Awakening.

Glad you had an awesome time stevemar! On a side note : they do lovely coffee at the Almeida!

Quite a few tickets for the matinee today have popped up on the Almeida website for anyone looking to catch this before it closes.

There's a small park just round the corner from the Almeida, Battishill Gardens. Walk past the Almeida Theatre from Upper Street, take the first right and you'll see a little park with benches on your left. If you walk through the back corner of that park (as if you were heading back towards Almeida St), you can see a frieze that used to be in the Hall of Commerce but was saved and rebuilt here.

Alternatively, if you walk straight down Almeida Stand through Almeida Passage, the "hole in the wall", that will take you into Milner Square. Both it, and its posher neighbour Gibson Square off to the left, are worth a look as they're architecturally rather nice. There are benches in the middle of Gibson Square but not, I think, in Milner Square.

Transfer discussions have started…

I finally managed to see the matinee today after having to miss a first date and then having the second cancelled before Christmas - I'm so glad I went because I really enjoyed it! It was another show I hadn't listened to before going to see it, and while I wouldn't say that the score itself is something I'm going to listen to a lot, it was thoroughly engaging and had all the emotional depth I was missing at Bonnie & Clyde.

I read the play back in school a long time ago, and while I can't compare this production to others, I found myself really touched today by how much affection this staging had for the hardships of puberty, despite the tragedy of it all.

Funny thought they’d have been locked in place the moment the reviews came in