Photo Credit: Sara Bill
My favorite song in Spring Awakening began to wash over the stage at the Greendale High School Auditorium. There was a pop rock beat and there’s frustration and there’s adolescent singing about the bitch of living. The cast of the Greendale Community Theatre’s production had all the motions and emotions right, but the anger and frustration seemed a little muted. The explosive energy of that song was there, but it seemed held back ever-so-little.
It’s a contemporary rock musical set largely in a school in and around students in late-19th century Germany. Based on an 1891 stage drama, it’s story of sexual awakening in the same repressed Europe that would give birth to Sigmund Freud’s obsession with sexuality. There’s a real ugliness and brutality about the story that speaks to the pulsing reverberations at emotional nucleus of rock and roll. The GCT production doesn’t shy away from the ugliness or brutality present in the musical, but it doesn’t pulsate with the kind of emotional percussion that would fully embrace these aspects of the story either.
Directed by the talented Amber Smith, the Greendale Community Theatre production seems to be toning down the aggression of the musical in favor of a very sophisticated portrayal of the characters in the ensemble. There’s a tender attention to subtlety and nuance in the characters. This is a remarkably vivid production on a dramatic level as shadows of intention and emotion slide between members of the ensemble.
There are some really powerful portrayals here. Jonathan Turner is a heartbreakingly vulnerable Moritz. Turner fumbles around like a house of cards onstage with a sharply clever grace. The central romance between Wendla and Melchior has a brilliantly timid vitality about it. Sally Staats and Stuart Mott have a charming chemistry about them the works its way in and around the silences between them. There’s also more than one vividly dramatic moment between Wendla and her mother (played by Liz Mistele.)
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Ultimately, the production does have a little bit of aggressive rock and roll fire in it. The GCT staging of “Totally Fucked” midway through the second act is pleasingly volcanic in its rhythm and passion. Even though it’s undeniably passionate, the real strengths of this show lies in its complex rendering of emotional vicissitudes in the silence and the shadow between the pretty notes and photons. This is particularly impressive as musicals don’t often have this much beauty in subtlety. Quite an accomplishment for Amber Smith and company.
Greendale Community Theatre’s production of Spring Awakening runs through January 17 at the Greendale High School Auditorium on 6801 Southway in Greendale. For ticket reservations, visit GCT online.
