With sell out houses and five star rave reviews across the board, LAMTA has announced that Spring Awakening, the riveting rock musical, directed by Sylvaine Strike, will be returning to Theatre on the Bay by popular demand on 8 March 2024 for an extended season. The hit production will transfer to Pieter Toerien’s Theatre at Montecasino in Johannesburg from the 12th April 2024.
1 December 2023
Watching a bunch of teenagers figuring out how safe it is to shine their unique and special light into the world in Spring Awakening feels so personal.
Every generation thinks theirs is the toughest journey, the hardest coming out, whatever that may be. Breaking the mould, promising they will be different, swearing they will never be like their parents. And then … sigh … next thing you know you are questioning the dreams and messing up the pronouns of the next would-be mould-breakers.
The description “rock musical by a theatre academy” doesn’t seem to do justice to this powerful and very polished production. Yet “rock” and “academy” are quite possibly key to the intimacy and intensity of this clarion call to let the kids live their truth, not ours.
There is nothing amateur about this production. No one misses a beat or a note in a very slick performance by students of the Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy.
Every performer seems to be telling their own story in so many fabulously choreographed scenes. A few sex scenes, including a solo, are neither sexy nor awkward in a show that keeps pushing the boundaries, but never too far.
The direction combines freedom and discipline in exceptional ways, perhaps like the best parenting.
Loosely set in 1895 and based on Frank Wedekind’s controversial play that was first performed in Germany in 1906, Spring Awakening explores the timeless theme of the heat and the friction of teenage awakening.
The adults – the teachers, priests, the mothers and the fathers – are always there, yet never really present. The role of the “grown-ups” seems to be not much more than providing cause and context for the rebellion.
The rawness of adolescent awakening and teenage rebellion is always centre stage. It is chaotic and immediate yet pulled together into a surprisingly cohesive show under the direction of Sylvaine Strike.
Much less “a musical” than a relevant and powerful drama brought to life by song and dance, Spring Awakening is an evocative exploration of adolescence, that complicated time when each of us starts to decide how much of our truth we are going to live.
In this age of increasing adolescent angst and teenage suicide please let this be a bit of a wake-up call. (And PS it was not harder in our day.)
Design is by Niall Griffin, musical Direction is by Amy Campbell and Anton Luitingh, and Duane Alexander acts as choreographic supervisor to Lamta’s brilliant alumni, Anna Olivier and Naoline Quinzin.
Spring Awakening, a rock musical by Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy, at Theatre on the Bay until December 3. Tickets through Webtickets or the Theatre on the Bay box office on 021 438 3301. No under 13s