A Look At Spring Awakening

On Friday, I went to see “Spring Awakening,” Duncan Sheik’s pop-infused Tony winning take on Frank Wedekind's coming of age story set in 19th century Germany.

According to Playbill magazine, many of Wedekind’s works were banned or performed in only censored versions. With “Spring Awakening,” it’s easy to see how controversial his work must have been back in 1891. Wedekind takes teenage angst to a new level, examining sex, abortion, homosexuality and suicide within the confines of a very repressed society.

Innocence Lost: Hunter Parrish (Melchior) and Alexandra Socha (Wendla) come of age together in “Spring Awakening”

The show’s young cast, many of whom are Broadway first timers, bring impressively raw emotion to the stage and perform Sheik’s score with heartfelt intensity.

Hunter Parrish, on a break from his role as Silas on Showtime’s “Weeds,” ably carries the show as rebellious Melchior. Alexandra Socha is affecting as Melchior’s innocent love Wendla. And original cast member Gerard Canonico brings the house down as the tormented Moritz, manically struggling with his adolescence yearnings.

Still, despite its talented cast, “Spring Awakening” often fails to live up to the pathos of Wedekind’s complicated tale -- mostly because of Sheik’s music. Though catchy, his brand of rock ‘n’ roll gets to be a bit much, as does the show’s very graphic content. Multiple sex acts are simulated on stage.

While I’m sure Wedekind would disagree with me, I think some things are better left to the imagination. Then again, I’m the girl who didn’t start watching “Sex and the City” until the sanitized TBS version came along.

A national tour of “Spring Awakening” recently launched. The show wraps up its Broadway run on January 18th.

Farragut North: An Electrifying Ride

Last Sunday, I went to see “Farragut North,” Beau Willimon’s riveting political thriller about the machinations of a presidential campaign during primary season.

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows: A one night stand between press secretary Stephen (John Gallagher Jr.) and campaign intern Molly (Olivia Thirlby) leads to trouble in "Farragut North"

Fresh from his Tony-winning turn in “Spring Awakening,” John Gallagher Jr. (Stephen) ably carries the show as a young, ambitious press secretary whose secret meeting with the opposition triggers a dramatic chain of events. A paunchy Chris Noth (Paul), in a Big departure from “Sex and the City,” plays a salty-mouthed, seasoned campaign manager passionate about politics and handling the media.

Noth delivers a powerhouse performance, matched by Kate Blumberg (Ida) as a hard-bitten New York Times reporter covering the campaign and Olivia Thirlby (Molly) as an intern who gets caught in the crossfire of Stephen and Paul’s downfall. But the show belongs to Gallagher, whose fiery intensity crackles in every scene.

“Farragut North” (which refers to a neighborhood stop on the Washington, DC subway) is an honest, timely look at both the dark side and the idealism of politics -- from the sex, spin and intrigue of campaigning to that most rare campaign anomaly, an inspiring candidate who makes his supporters “starry eyed.”

Curtain Call: Kate Blumberg, Chris Noth and John Gallagher jr. take a bow

After the show, a gracious Gallagher shared with me the excitement of performing on Election Night, before an “electrifying” audience.

All Smiles: Farragut North's charming leading man and me

Of memorizing his heavy dialogue for the show, he admitted that it wasn’t until opening night that he felt like he hit his stride.

Every member of the cast, including a somewhat reserved and cranky Noth, signed autographs and posed for pictures with each of us who braved the frigid temperatures to stick around. All this and I got upgraded from second-to-last row to third row center -- talk about a great night at the theater.

“Farragut North” runs through November 29th at NYC’s Atlantic Theater Company.