Amazon.com: Decca Broadway presents the cast recording for the acclaimed new Broadway production, SPRING AWAKENING. Written by pop music composer Duncan Sheik and playwright/lyricist Steven Sater, the musical explores emotional earthquakes in the lives of teenagers.
SPRING AWAKENING is based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 drama, which was scandalous in its day for addressing sex violence and suicide. The story, dialogue and costumes suggest the 19th Century, and are perfectly wedded to a beautiful alternative pop music score by Grammy® nominated singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik. The creative team also includes Tony® Award Winning director Michael Mayer (Thoroughly Modern Millie) and legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones.
Amazon.com: Who would have thought that Duncan Sheik would succeed where Paul Simon and Randy Newman failed, successfully transitioning from the pop-rock world to the Broadway stage? With Spring Awakening, Sheik and book writer/lyricist Steven Slater (who had already worked on Sheik's 2001 album Phantom Moon) have created a thoroughly exciting show that incorporates a contemporary art-indie idiom (including a small rock band instead of an orchestra) into a dramatic musical-theater context. The unlikely setting is that of a Frank Wedekind adaptation, but as it turns out, teenage angst is perennial, whether it's in contemporary America or in a 1891 German boarding school. Songs such as "The Bitch of Living" ("with nothing going on, asking just what went wrong"), "The Word of Your Body," "I Don't Do Sadness," and "Totally Fucked" ("You're fucked if you speak your mind and you know you will") resonate with the rage, frustration, confusion, excitement, joy, anger, and of course budding lust of those hormone-driven years. The show is greatly enhanced by its youthful cast members (they're all pretty close in age to their characters), who sing their hearts out. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Love it!
Well I never saw this Musical but from word of mouth and researching it I really love it! This was and still is a good CD I love listining to it and hope I can soon see them on the tour cause I cant really go to New York to see them unless someone wants to buy me a ticket and everything else haha! LOVE IT I am actually listing to it right now!
Rating: - So this is why it won the Tony...
I originally borrowed this CD from a friend and played it in the car on the way to work... then again and again... Reading the liner notes, I got the plot of the play down and could put the songs in context. But most of them stand on their own, as passionate pop-play songs, with interesting melodies, empassioned vocals, and that all-important factor: sing-along-bility.
I've since purchased my own copy and love it. The play is coming to my town next month and I cannot wait to it and experience the songs in their true context.
Rating: - The awakening of songwriter Duncan Sheik
The awakening of songwriter Duncan Sheik
by Jason W. Lloren
(Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 9, 2007)
Duncan Sheik walks into a Starbucks in Menlo Park and instead of a coffee he grabs two bottles, a sparkling mineral water and a mixed juice. He settles down at a table and mixes the two into a plastic cup.
"I think I have the market cornered on Pellegrino and Odwalla," jokes Sheik, taking a short break from a recent theater workshop a few blocks away in Palo Alto.
It's the kind of creative alchemy that has worked successfully for ... Read More
Rating: - Don't judge till you have seen the show!!
I have read many of the reviews of SA here and I must say...to all those who have ripped apart an absolutely amazing show...get off your couch and go see it before you say it is garbage or trash or asking what has Broadway become...you are the same people who ripped apart another amazing and Tony winning show..In the Heights....If you actually do a little research, you would learn that SA the Musical is based on a German play from 1892...A time in which sex and talking about sex was taboo...This is the same time period in which Ibsen wrote a Doll's House and Chekhov wrote Three Sisters and The Cherry ... Read More
Rating: - Not Just for Youth
I have yet to see the musical SPRING AWAKENING (but am planning to see it February 2009 when it comes to the Fox in St. Louis). However, I have a friend whose favorite musical is SPRING AWAKENING and he recently gave me the soundtrack to listen to. I have to admit that I really enjoy it. The songs are sung in a variety of genres, but mainly have a pop-rock ballad feel to them. Many of the songs are very moving and have an emotional depth beyond just the context of the show for which they were written. My favorites include
#1 "Mamma Who Bore Me"--a bluesy folk song of remembrance. Many ... Read More
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