by Sam Juliano
Spring Awakenings, which in 2006 won the Tony-Award for Best Musical, and received a plethora of outstanding notices, is in effect an insipid, convoluted and musically turgid work that makes one frightened at the state of Broadway these days. Steven Sater’s book and lyrics were comprised mainly of the full spectrum of issues one associates with teenage angst, many of which were the subject of Jonathan Larsen’s Rent, which was light years ahead of Spring Awakenings both in lyricism of the music and in emotional resonance. The musical attempts to deal with the full gamut of prevalent issues like: abortion, the loss of virginity, death, suicide, homosexuality, incest, bullying, mean teachers and mean parents. As a result, nothing here comes off as anything more meaningful than self-parody, and the in-your-face lyrics are as wooden and as insipid as have ever been transcribed to these vital subjects in any form. (more…)