Spring Awakening - Almeida / Cinema Release

[BurlyBeaR]

Poll open! (Thanks for the nudge @tom89)

[Deleted]

This was a spectacular production of a show I’ve long wanted to witness. The minimalistic set was used creatively and the cast were phenomenal, their voices harmonised beautifully. If this didn’t transfer it’d be a shame, but I’m grateful at least to be lucky enough to have seen it at the Almeida.

On a side note: the auditorium was like a furnace this evening. With the mask mandate too it made fit some uncomfortable seating. Word to the wise, wear removable layers.

[fiyerorocher]

Saw this tonight and have to concur with previous comments - great show and wonderful staging!! I felt lucky to be seeing anything at all tonight, what with cancellations left, right and centre, but this was truly stunning. Never seen Spring Awakening live but always wanted to, and I was not disappointed. Even with a show stop in act 1 for a medical emergency, it was still amazing.

Warning: try your very best not to go on match day. if you think theatre fans are bad with not wearing masks, just wait until you see a tube station completely full to bursting with rude men refusing to wear masks, shoving you, and yelling at the top of their lungs. Most awful journey to and from the theatre.

[inthenose]

Dec 15, 2021 23:24:35 GMT fiyerorocher said:

Saw this tonight and have to concur with previous comments - great show and wonderful staging!! I felt lucky to be seeing anything at all tonight, what with cancellations left, right and centre, but this was truly stunning. Never seen Spring Awakening live but always wanted to, and I was not disappointed. Even with a show stop in act 1 for a medical emergency, it was still amazing.

Warning: try your very best not to go on match day. if you think theatre fans are bad with not wearing masks, just wait until you see a tube station completely full to bursting with rude men refusing to wear masks, shoving you, and yelling at the top of their lungs. Most awful journey to and from the theatre.

Lots of women attend football matches, as well as transgender, gender non-conforming and nonbinary people. Why, the other week on the Tube on the way to watch "The Prince of Egypt", I encountered this very situation. It was terribly frightening.

[fiyerorocher]

Dec 15, 2021 23:46:15 GMT inthenose said:

Dec 15, 2021 23:24:35 GMT fiyerorocher said:

Saw this tonight and have to concur with previous comments - great show and wonderful staging!! I felt lucky to be seeing anything at all tonight, what with cancellations left, right and centre, but this was truly stunning. Never seen Spring Awakening live but always wanted to, and I was not disappointed. Even with a show stop in act 1 for a medical emergency, it was still amazing.

Warning: try your very best not to go on match day. if you think theatre fans are bad with not wearing masks, just wait until you see a tube station completely full to bursting with rude men refusing to wear masks, shoving you, and yelling at the top of their lungs. Most awful journey to and from the theatre.

Lots of women attend football matches, as well as transgender, gender non-conforming and nonbinary people. Why, the other week on the Tube on the way to watch "The Prince of Egypt", I encountered this very situation. It was terribly frightening.

I didn't say they don't, but it was definitely a majority of men tonight who were the ones causing problems. Just observable fact. Thought people could do with a warning to avoid match days if they can, because it just didn't occur to me to even check.

[FJ]

Had very high expectations going into this tonight, based on reviews here.
My mind was still blown.

This is the third production I’ve seen of Spring Awakening and it was 10 times better than either that I’d seen before.
I thought the whole production of it was absolutely beautiful, the staging was simple but powerful, the acting, singing and choreography all flawless.

Loved the British accents in it, too. I really cannot fault a single thing about it. Going to be thinking about this all night and need to book again whilst there are still tickets left.

[David J]

Saw this tonight. Have fond memories of the original London show and seeing this reminded me why

Even as someone nearly reaching 30 there was so much to relate to. The music is sublime and I find different undertones to the lyrics

Enjoyed the staging and choreography. Not sure the masks adds anything to this. Can’t remember if the different adults were portrayed as such larger than life characters in the original but I felt it was at odds with the tone in the show

The one thing I was disappointed with was Totally F*****. This production extends it and makes it unnecessarily long. The original song was short, punchy and too the point.

At times I enjoyed this version especially when the youngsters start messing with the set as I tapped along to the music. Then it starts adding further business with the characters speechifying for some reason before repeating the same lyrics again…and again…and again. Until the song peters out on a damp conclusion

Was left wondering what I just watched. And that was the song I always look forward to

[Being Alive]

I thought this was a good production of a bang average musical tbh.

Good cast (thought the guy who played Moritz was sensational and hopefully will be remembered for awards in April). Loved the design (not keen on the whole mask idea for the teacher guy but got what they were going for)

First visit to the Almeida and liked the venue - didn't enjoy sitting behind the AD who noted the whole show on his iPhone whilst sag wearing no mask 👀

4 star production of a 3 star show.

[Dave B]

We caught this on Thursday afternoon and both enjoyed it a lot. Extremely talented cast.

[shambles]

Lots of 4s in reviews for this, which is just right, a good piece staged very well (bar Timeout's 5 , but he is always so easily swayed).

[jgblunners]

2 stars in The Times, 3 in The Guardian. Both largely praise the production and in particular the young cast, but have problems with the show itself.

[crowblack]

I'd like to see this for the cast, but I have to say the theme, "a group of teenagers – silenced and controlled by a censorious society" seems very dated in the era of social media where it's the teenagers themselves who now seem the most censorious and puritanical.

[Being Alive]

Dec 20, 2021 10:19:18 GMT jgblunners said:

2 stars in The Times, 3 in The Guardian. Both largely praise the production and in particular the young cast, but have problems with the show itself.

Think I'd sit with the guardian on 3 stars. Good production of an incredibly meh show

[shambles]

I'm surprised by all the 5s that have cropped up this morning. The material is so banal and it's just been elevated by the directing and creative choices. Why don't critics reserve 5s for truly exceptional shows (I think the Evening Standard guy has said that he does that , and Arifa Akbar at Guardian also rightly withholds hers 5s)? I know they'll create their best of the year lists and whatnot but still.

[Mark]

Cancelled tonight....
Have tickets for tomorrow night so not holding out much hope.

[n1david]

Dec 20, 2021 17:22:13 GMT Mark said:

Cancelled tonight....
Have tickets for tomorrow night so not holding out much hope.

I had tickets for tonight and they're offering to rebook me for tomorrow's matinee or evening show so obviously they're optimistic (madly so in my opinion, but I suppose they have to try...)

[crowblack]

I hope this and all theatres did a recording early in the run Just In Case.

[Mark]

Cancelled until 27th. Gutted - and I’m kicking myself for not going last week when I had the chance.

[digne]

I had a ticket for last week and couldn't go - so I'd switched it to the 23rd. :/

[dillan]

I'm supposed to be seeing this on the 29th and I'm sure lockdown will stop it.

I'm hoping with the 2 week circuit breaker seeming very likely, that this will extend it's run for the people who had tickets during the 'lockdown'.

[n1david]

Dec 21, 2021 18:05:05 GMT dillan said:

I'm hoping with the 2 week circuit breaker seeming very likely, that this will extend it's run for the people who had tickets during the 'lockdown'.

They don't have long, there's only a couple of weeks between the scheduled end of Spring Awakening and the start of The Chairs. I think it's more likely that they bring it in for another run later in the year or it gets a short West End run where ticket holders for the cancelled shows get priority booking

[lichtie]

I saw this on Saturday - I'd echo the good cast wasted on an iffy musical of a mediocre play that is only really remembered because of censorship. This is sub-Ibsen territory (Wedekind's clearly working out his own sexual fantasies/tastes). The music is immediately forgettable (I couldn't hum a single bar if my life depended on it) and rather too anchored into its dull noughties time. The deisgn and cast are good and I'd give bonus points for the creative use of lighting. But I'd struggle to give the whole even an average.

[danb]

Dec 21, 2021 18:05:05 GMT dillan said:

I'm supposed to be seeing this on the 29th and I'm sure lockdown will stop it.

I'm hoping with the 2 week circuit breaker seeming very likely, that this will extend it's run for the people who had tickets during the 'lockdown'.

Us too. I have a train booked and a DEH matinee that are at risk too if we get locked down. But I need to know. It’s all well and good old lardy not wanting to alienate his dwindling support by stopping people spending, but if he only announces it on Monday it’ll mean a lot of admin to sort it all out. I wonder if Spaffer has ever had to do any of his own ringing round?

[jamb0r]

Dec 22, 2021 12:39:21 GMT lichtie said:

 The music is immediately forgettable (I couldn't hum a single bar if my life depended on it) 

This couldn't be any further from my experience.  Instantly had a few songs stuck in my head on the tube home and haven't been able to stop listening to the OBC recording since seeing it a couple of weeks ago!

[couldileaveyou]

I like the score, for me the problem is the book, the dialogues never sound natural