Well, my
dear friend Manu got free passes to Spring Awakening on Saturday and I can’t
say no to a) free things, b) theatre, and c) free theatre. So, sensing that my last review may have
created a wee bit of drama, I decided to revisit it and give my thoughts on
this performance, as I left with some very different impressions than the week
before.
First of
all, a brief explanation as to why I am reviewing the show in the first
place. Despite what some may think, it
is not out of bitchiness or the desire to make people think they are doing a
bad job. With tickets being $500 (which,
let’s face it, is not cheap), I believe that people have the right to share
their thoughts and advise others to see or not see a show. That is a big investment, and since Mexican
media generally doesn’t really review theatre, it can be hard to really know if
it is worth it or not (and 100-character glowing tweets from 13 year-old girls
don’t really count as useful reviews, in my book). In the end, we all want to see good
theatre. I don’t want to bring down
others, but the arts should be reviewed and create a discussion. So yes, that is me and my “don’t mess with my
1st Amendment, bitches!” explanation.
Anyway, the
show! Overall, I was much happier with
this performance than a week before. I
think a lot of this stemmed from the fact that they had a much, much better
sound mix. The very distracting sound
booth has fortunately been moved elsewhere (the audio guys and their very
bright laptops distracted me for the entire performance a week ago, as they
were between the orchestra and mezz section), I could understand all of the
lyrics, and the entire mix just sounded much more professional. One of the poor conductor’s keyboards was out
of commission for most of the second act for some reason, which did lead to a
rather empty orchestra sound at times, but I am willing to ignore that, since
that is a performance-specific issue and the rest has improved so much.
This time
around I saw Melissa Barrera as Wendla and I thought she was quite good. She has a nice voice, acts well, and despite
the fact that she seems to be very tall, she acted innocent and young enough to
make me believe her as Wendla. Once
again, I saw Mauricio Romero as Melchior, and I enjoyed his performance just as
much as the week before. He has the
register to hit the (quite) difficult high notes and is overall a good
Melchior.
I continue
to be obsessed with the lighting. I am
going to hire the lighting designer to follow me around so I can make dramatic
entrances everywhere I go.
The girls
harmonize beautifully and I do admit that I wanted to hop around along with
them to “My Junk.” Unfortunately, I
can’t say that the male group harmonies are up to the same level; separately
they can sing fine but when all of them sing together it doesn’t sound quite
right.
I still
maintain that the book parts need work.
They are too rushed and you don’t connect with the characters nearly as
much as you should. They feel like brief
interludes between rocking out, and that isn’t how it should be. It is a very challenging show to direct, as
you have to find the right balance between modern and old, and that balance
still hasn’t been obtained, unfortunately.
The script is a bit strange even in English, but there are some very
powerful lines that don’t have the “oomph” that they could.
I could go
on and on, but I’ll wrap this up and share my final thoughts. I am not saying that the show is perfect, but
it is quite enjoyable, and if you go in with a blank slate maybe you will
immediately fall in love with it. No
matter what, Spring Awakening is a great show and even if there are points that
could be improved, you should see it.
There were very few people in the performance I went to, and they
deserve a bigger audience than what they are having. Tickets are 50% off for “el buen fin” so go
see it and let me know what you think.
And since I am completely re-obsessed with the cast recording lately,
maybe I’ll see you there.
