If over the years you’ve managed to bury the anger and angst of adolescence – or if it’s so fresh that it lies just underneath your skin – Slow Burn Theatre Company’s production of the rock musical Spring Awakening will wrench the pain and passion back into the open.
Since you can understand the lyrics here better than in any previous production including Broadway’s, the powerful punch and pungent poetry come through with a clarity that elevates this edition over the others.
The 2006 Tony-winning original reveled in anarchic nose-thumbing raucousness. The attitude was energizing and led to the show being acclaimed as the next Rent. But the unceasingly confrontational sensibility obscured the subtleties that Slow Burn has highlighted so skillfully; this rendition underscores the heart that was always there, but became a bit lost in the original’s clamor.
This production at the Broward Center is being heralded by some partisans on social media as the troupe’s finest work and it certainly ranks among its most polished, accomplished and effective.
By Bill Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com, for SouthFloridaReporter.com, Mar. 2, 2016
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