Spring Awakening: more like "Schwing Awakening"

After long last, I finally had the chance to catch the peasant-blouse-ripping musical Spring Awakening last night, and I'm thrilled to say that it was the dirtiest night I've ever spent on Broadway (meaning at a play, not on the actual street -- that's a whole other bag of dirty). The show -- which tells the story of the sexual and intellectual awakening of a group of teens in a German village circa 1891 -- boasts more naughty-talk, simulated sex, and skin than I've seen on stage in a heck of a long time.

The good news (as if that weren't good news, right?) is that the pornier aspects of the show are far from being the most memorable. The music (co-written by gay-friendly pop star Duncan Sheik) is hands-down the best to hit stages in ages, especially for those of us who aren't huge fans of traditional musical theater. The actors also do their best to break out of standard musical theater affectations, with varied success -- but for the most part the melancholy pop numbers won't raise the heckles of people who consider sitting through a performance of Annie to be tantamount to being devoured alive by lions.

Here's a great little preview of the show, which gives you an idea what the fuss is all about:

Openly gay actor Gideon Glick doesn't have much to do until the second act, when he has a sweet (and very funny) love scene with another young man -- it's great to see that the roundelay between the men is treated as an echo of an earlier scene between a man and a woman, and not as anything strange or fundamentally different. The audience (which was made up of mostly tourists, naturally -- although I did brush past Doctor Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, on the way to the bathroom!) didn't squirm too much, which was also nice to see. Although by that point there had already been a graphic masturbation scene, a simulated sex scene, and more -- so they might have been thoroughly shell-shocked by that point.

I was thrilled to see openly gay actor Stephen Spinella -- whom I saw in his Tony-winning performance as the original Prior Walters in Angels in America over ten years ago) -- as the lone adult male in the cast, as I didn't even know he was involved. He gets to play a variety of men, from stern taskmasters to rather camp country doctors.

And I would be remiss not to mention lead actor Jonathan Groff, who -- as rebellious intellectual Melchior -- carries the show beautifully and looks great while doing so. Let's just say that if you're an Abercrombie and Fitch fan, you're going to want to get the on-stage tickets (stage left) to get the best view of Groff's ... ahem ... "assets".

The show has been getting raves across the board for its fresh approach, its energetic young cast, and its cheeky attitude -- keep an eye out for a at least a few nods when the Tony nominations are announced in May. For more about the show, check out the website.