Spring Awakening: The Musical
With overtly sexual themes and a deeply disturbing outlook on growing up, the sublime title of Spring Awakening belies the dark thematic nature of the show. However, this century old story is so filled with honesty and emotion that, when performed well, it packs a mighty punch.

The Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center has staged a strong and compelling version of this Tony Award winning play. Spring Awakening tells the tale of teenage love through the eyes of three main characters. They are archetypical figures now common in literature, but at the time, the good-looking and bold Melchior (Chrys Ryan), the sullen, confused and sexually inhibited Moritz (Nick Bernardi), and the ingénue with a thirst for sexual learning, Wendla (Chelsea Pitillo), were far less well-known to audiences. At the onset, we see Wendla as she stands at the edge of a sexual awakening, curious and dismayed at her own lack of worldly knowledge. Likewise, her male counterparts deal with their own young desires and fears as well as the social stigmas and pressures that surround them. As the show progress and culminates with an impassioned second act climax, it is clear that the story offers very little new in terms of revelations about young love or sexual growth. Rather, it is the characters and music that drive the production.

This production of Spring Awakening falls in the middle ground in terms of daring and pushing the musical envelope. However, under the expert direction of David Ralphe, the production delivers a strong show with a surprising amount of content given the theatre’s setting off the beaten path. The vocals are strong across the board under the musical direction of Matt Park. The movement and choreography are strong and avoid the common mistake of becoming derivative, as often happens with this successful work. The costume design (Gordon Seltzer and Areilla Seltzer) is effective and provides well for the cast that has to look both uniformed and be able to delineate the multiple roles they play. The auditory system in the theatre seems better suited for a much larger space, but the technical expertise of the sound design proves adept at walking the line of rock verses musical theatre levels. The set and colors of the show work well together, and the overall feel of the production’s technical elements holds up well. Minor gaffes with lines and props were likely a onetime happening, but the lengthy running time of the production could have been eased some with overall cohesion of the ruining crew.

Pitillo, Ryan, and Bernardi are all remarkable talents and give well-rounded performances as well as connect well with the material. Other standouts include Lori Lee Gordon and Sean Harrington, who take on the mammoth task of portraying a vast array of characters, and the vocal cast as a whole that are so well in tune that they seem a single entity in and of themselves. The cast is buoyed by the strong leadership here, and even more so by their own ability to embrace the full intentions of this work.
The people of Simi Valley should applaud the continual efforts of the theatre to keep a high bar in production value while all the time bringing in a vast number of projects that outlying areas rarely get to see in their full awakened form.

SPRING AWAKENING: THE MUSICAL runs at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center through December 2nd 805 583-7900