preview

Spring Awakening Play Analysis

Decent Essays

As a musical theater junkie, I was ashamed to admit that Bucknell’s performance of Spring Awakening was the first production of the show I had seen. It was a show I was always interested in and had listened to a few times over, yet I had passed over the opportunity to see it on Broadway (or at other play houses). Despite my excitement to see Bucknell’s performance, there was something missing in the show that kept it, in my opinion, from being truly great. It appeared that there was an imbalance of acting, singing, and dancing skills, where one talent excelled at the fall of the others.

Despite my criticisms of this particular performance, I liked the musical overall. It was clear that the play’s central theme was one of self-discovery. The musical was very much a bildungsroman, as we saw each character coming-of-age with either sexual or intellectual changes. For example, Melchior underwent a sexual and intellectual change. He realized the tyranny in his educational experience, whilst also discovering his sexuality in his relationship with …show more content…

Despite each character’s predicament, the actors appeared to empathize with their feelings. Often, I find young actors over-acting intense sadness to the point that it appears cheesy; they make their predicament an external struggle rather than a deep, emotional internal predicament. Yet in this production of Spring Awakening, the actors all had an understanding of what their character was dealing with. Rodney West best embodied this in his portrayal of Moritz’s struggle with suicide. At no point did Rodney become hysterical and overdramatic. Instead, he took a more serious approach to portraying Mortiz’s suicidal thoughts and portrayed his internal struggle well. Rodney’s acting allowed Mortiz to appear helpless and internally conflicted, rather than just upset at the

Get Access