Spring Awakening - Almeida / Cinema Release

It'll be a limited run though, it won't be open ended like the original was.

Indeed. 
next week it will rain…

This is kinda what I felt. I liked it, but thought it was a great production of a really unexciting musical...

Saw this last night and it was the third show I've seen in a couple of months that started late with the director coming on stage to deliver some Covid-related disappointment!

This time it was Rupert Goold's turn to tell us they were down a couple of cast members due to positive tests earlier that day, and until 30 mins earlier had thought they wouldn't be able to go ahead.

Luckily they were, with Emily Ooi playing Ilse (and she was excellent!) and Mali O'Donnell covering another of the girls (I don't know all the character names, sorry!). Some spoken lines of dialogue from yet another girl, presumably a more minor character, had to be delivered by a crew member off stage.

Despite all of this, it was an excellent show - I much preferred the second half, perhaps because the incredibly distracting audience member in front of me left at the interval.

Outstanding performances from all of the cast, the leads in particular (I could listen to Stuart Thompson singing the phonebook) and the understudies received a very well deserved reaction at the end.

Hard to judge fairly under the circumstances, but a 4/5 evening for me - imaginatively and intimately staged - and I would have tried to see it again if I could.

Ah, thank you! No wonder it was hard to work out 😂

Bit late to this thread, but I thought I'd add my two cents to the discussion.  I'm among the ones who really loved this production and, while I do think certain things could be improved (and I kinda hope they will, if this production gets to play to more audiences and possibly in a more central location), I also think some aspects of it were so, so good. 

I have an unusual "history" with this show.  When the OCR came out, and all the cool kids were raving about it, I had some reservation.  Primarily, I was to realize, because many of the musical numbers, suspended as they are in a dimension where the plot is essentially put on hold to offer us more of an insight into one or more characters' inner world, were difficult for me to digest fully out of context. 

Cue to less than a couple of years later, I was in NYC and got a lovely afternoon to fill with a matinee, and the good old TKTS booth in Times Square had unusually few options to pick from.  They offered me and my friend a pair of fantastic seats for Spring awakening with such a heavy discount we thought we couldn't say no, although neither of us had the greatest expectations.  And... we were both blown away.  Mind you, we still had a good chunk of the original cast in the show, but it wasn't even about that: all of a sudden those songs and lyrics made a lot of sense, and I just cared for those kids and how emotionally open they dared to be.  I remember that when intermission came I was so thrilled about what I was seeing I ran to buy a copy of the score, because hey, it finally made full sense to me!  So from that day I have definitely had a soft spot for this show, and I've been lucky enough to see the original London production and a couple of years ago the absolutely brilliant Manchester run. 

In my eyes, the Almeida production hit the spot in many respects.  First and foremost, they've gone for a cast of truly young performers who work wonderfully well as an ensemble, and the visual and choreographic impact are up there with the best.  Secondly, they have had the courage to revisit the score slightly, replacing the act two opener with a song that had been cut on Broadway, which works in context because its haunting melody and choral set-up create a stark contrast against the entrance of the male adult figure at that point.  The show sounds and looks great, and the energy on stage is undeniable.  

To me the absolute highlight is Stuart Thompson's performance as Moritz.  There's not a single word, not a single gesture of his that doesn't convey meaning, a choice, an intention... he clearly has done such a detailed work in recreating the role that even in ensemble numbers where Moritz is one among many I found myself checking out what he was doing, so alive and present was he the whole time.  I hope we will get to see him tackle some other challenging role soon, I can't wait to see what he could pull off an entirely different set of circumstances and a different score.   
 

Yes I'd very interested to see this too. He was Jason from Bare the Pop Opera when he was at LAMDA so that was a fairly similar role to Moritz I think.

Cancelled tonight. Got the email just as I was putting on my shoes to leave!

I’m gutted. I bagged a ticket for tonight then found out there were no trains home so just checked into my hotel. Built a weekend around it and had an amazing time at &Juliet and 2 shows tomorrow. Off to todaytix I go

Edit: TKTS online booking for Life of Pi secured

It’s a bit last minute. Just arrived at Islington to get a bite to eat when I got this. I had to reschedule from the beginning of the month when I had covid to today so this is absolutely gutting. Really hope for a transfer as this shows been hit fairly badly by covid too so should get another lease of life. I was so looking forward to seeing this show too 😞

Yep, evening gone too. Last show turned out to be last night.

Erm …..
Maybe calm down?