SPRING AWAKENING Reaction - Ep. 31 of Musicals I Know Nothing About

“This show REEKS of ‘coming-of-age’ story”…Well it IS called Spring Awakening

i recently watched the documentary for spring awakening and the creator said this musical is different from the norm because the songs don’t further the plot. instead they interpret the feelings of the characters which cannot be said out loud. that’s why only listening to the music doesn’t help give you an idea of what’s going on. you’re basically just listening to all the emotions of these teens without knowing what has happened to them so i would highly recommend seeing the show or reading about it!

"Love may make you blind, but I wouldn't mind at all" is NOT about him wanting actual love. In thissong they mean "love" as in "self love" which causes blindness according to old wives tales. He's saying he's happy to, ahem, enjoy himself, and doesn't care if there are problems later. Pleasure over consequences, which is a completely teenage thing.

So much plot you’ll probably need to wiki! Essentially it’s about what happens when you don’t teach kids about sex etc.

“they didn’t really play with the word ‘junk’ maybe they do it on stage” oh if only you know

The last song is to the audience to make them feel less dead inside after 2 main characters die and one has to deal with it. It all gets better

This is definitely a show you need to read the plot to. It's actually based on a German play written in 1891 and takes place at that time period which is why it felt so religious to you. As a teenager born in this generation I really find a lot of myself in the show. It's more than about sexuality it's about this generation of young people and how the adults abuse and unwillingness to open themselves up is ultimately the biggest source of conflict. The adults also never take the responsibility, and they aren't held accountable since the younger people don't have the power to do so. This isn't a musical I listen to a ton so I might be wrong but this is how I remember and interpret it. I wrote a longer explanation but it had spoilers in it and I saw you wanted to catch the revival so I deleted them. To answer your question bare came before spring awakening but obviously the original play was written over 100 years before bare.

Spring awakening BROKE me the first time I watched it, so I'm curious to see your reaction 😆

If you liked Spring Awakening, I HIGHLY recommend listening/reacting to Alice By Heart. It's made by the same people who wrote Spring Awakening. Basically, it's Alice in Wonderland set in WWII, and must like SA, the music is sad and sexy. It's amazing, honestly

I’ve always said that the original Spring Awakening is good, but the Deaf West performance is GREAT. I’m so glad you get the symbolism that elevates it. Personally, I don’t think the deaf west Touch Me performance has any spoilers, so if you want to see an amazing performance from that cast, that’s what I would recommend. The blend of sign and dance is beautiful in that song.

Ok so general plot summary: All the adults in the show refuse to teach or talk about sex, because it’s so “unpure” and “bad for children to know about”. Moritz has a wet dream and considers it “a nightmare” because he doesn’t understand it, he’s literally losing sleep over it. So Melchior, who has read a lot of more mature books, agrees to write an essay about sex the teach Moritz what it is and how it works, after reading it Moritz is just more upset because now that he knows the details his dreams are more frequent and vivid. Moritz is also bad in school, barely passing his classes, never getting sleep, etc etc. So after finals he sneaks into the principals office to check his scores and finds out he actually passed. However his teachers just like hate him so they fail him anyways, Moritz dad is upset and slaps him a bunch, leading to And Then There Were None. Because of all this continuing to build up and eat at him Mortz eventually k-lls himself (I Don’t Do Sadness) and his father mourns at the funeral (Left Behind) While Mortz’s stuff happens Melchior and Wendla get close, Wendla finds out her friend is being beaten by her father and asks Melchior to beat her so that she understands what it’s like, because in her words “I never feel”. Melchior gets… carried away? Calls her a bitch, beats her till she cries and run away, weird af. Anyways the next day they both apologize and then Melchior basically manipulates Wendla into having sex, Wendla doesn’t actually know what sex is or what’s happening or the possibility of becoming pregnant from it. She does become pregnant and obviously goes to the doctor because she’s constantly feeling sick, after finding out she had sex her mom is pissed. They plan to have an illegal abortion for her but she dies during the procedure. After having sex with Wendla Melchior gets caught about the essay he wrote for Moritz, his teachers saying that the essay must’ve ruined Mortz’s brain and was one of the factors of his death. They ask Melchior if he was the one who wrote it, leading to Totally Fucked. He admits to it and get’s in trouble and kicked out or smth I don’t rlly remember. Anyways he keeps sending letters to Wendla, and after she writes him about being pregnant he writes to her (dead by now) to meet her at the cemetery at midnight. While waiting for her Melchior stumbles upon Moritz grave, and right beside his, Wendla’s. He figures he should also die, leading to Those You’ve Known, Moritz and Wendla as ghosts convincing Melchior to stay alive (he does)

"I come to one and all" is also a sexual innuendo, like most of that song

This musical went to Broadway in 2006. It was the first to introduce so many taboos in such an in-your-face fashion. It was quite controversial to many but celebrated by progressives for how daring it was. Set the stage for many progressive musicals.

try watching the revival by Deaf West that ended up on broadway! half the cast is Deaf so the songs are also signed, plus the choreography and stage design are really cool!! the characters being Deaf even adds to the play’s theme of parents not communicating with their children

I saw this with the original cast and had onstage seats. Lilli Cooper sat next to me after The Dark I Know Well and it took everything I had not to hug her. I can not even put into words how amazing the show is and especially sitting onstage. I actually was forgetting to breathe. Not so much spoilers, but for the casting everyone was under 20 and there were 2 adults (one man one woman) that played all the adults.

One of the things that is so beautiful about this show is the way the music functions. I think you noticed that the songs don’t really tell you anything about the plot as they do in most musicals (post OKLAHOMA!). Instead, they serve to “deepen the emotional moment.” The show takes place in 19th century Germany, but when the singing starts the actors step out of the character and become 21st century teenagers expressing the feelings that the characters are experiencing but would never be able to put into words.

The song Totally F*cked has become my new favorite song to play when Life gives me lemons and I need to dance in the rain.🤟

I saw this show last year after knowing the songs but very little about the plot, and you captures the deep feelings so much. The way that the show uses music to express the feelings of the characters that they could never say out loud is so genius!

So you're absolutely on point with the symbolism around the deaf west performance but one more piece of context that really elevated it for me is how it ties into the actual history of deaf education in 1890s Germany. At the time the common educational belief was that sign language was holding them back and deaf kids must be forced (often voilently) to be verbal, and nonverbal deaf students was a failure on the part of the teachers and parents. it really adds a heartbreaking extra layer to Moritz' story. I am not an expert so I may not be remembering all the details but they had an insert about it in the playbill when I saw it and it was really a fascinating piece of context

when they sing “i believe” it’s the scene where wendla and melchior have a full on sex scene on stage so that’s why they kept that song simple