Soundtrack Review: Spring Awakening

By Douglas Strassler Feb 16, 2007, 0:24 GMT

The most critically acclaimed musical on Broadway is a marked departure from the glut of Disney hits and jukebox joints lighting the Great White Way.  Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter who had a big hit a decade ago with “Barely Breathing” works with librettist Steven Slater (a partner on 2001’s Phantom Moon) to revamp a 115-year-old play.

The result is Spring Awakening, adapted from the Frank Wedekind play, and the soundtrack has just been released on Decca records.  The action revolves around a group of teenagers at a German boarding school just discovering all the best things in life – alcohol, sex, masturbation.  And though the musical remains set in the nineteenth century, the music is entirely modern, and in many cases, quite forward-thinking.

Sheik has upped the orchestration to seven pieces from five in its off-Broadway incarnation, now including two violas.  Lead performers, John Gallagher Jr., Jonathan Groff, and Lea Michele all delight with their work, sounding beautiful while questioning some of the ugliest vagaries of life.  The pop-rock songs “The Bitch of Living,” “The Word of Your Body” and “I Don’t Do Sadness” cover a wide array of emotions: rage, despair, frustration, excitement, and bliss.  For those waiting for a truly innovative musical with real depth to arrive, Awakening provides another emotion as well: relief.