UnsprungAs my 6th graders prepared to rise to the highly anticipated 7th grade, I passed out an assignment due on the first day of school in the fall. I asked every student to write a journal entry every single day for the entire summer. Many teachers told me that this was too much work, so in solidarity with my students I have decided to blog about my summer vacation.

I leave New York tomorrow for Oberlin, and in the past few weeks I have been trying to suck all the culture of this city dry before I head off to the heartland. I have recently seen “Spring Awakening,” “Rent,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Top Girls,” “Jesus Hopped the A Train,” “Avenue Q,” and “November.” Living here has been a great way to reconnect with theater, and I’ve been spoiled rotten going to all these great shows.

I was most looking forward to seeing “Spring Awakening,” which I was told would be an incredible pleasure to watch. The NY Times said something about it changing the face of musical theater, so needless to say I was amped when I found a ticket. The place was, of course, packed with tourists and a concession stand that sold $4 water. It turned out the water wasn’t the only thing in the theater not worth the price.

“Spring Awakening,” for all its hype about being a new kind of musical, revisits well worn territory, and not very well. Like an angstier than average John Hughes film, it tells the story of a group of high school age students in 19th century Germany who are fighting established norms and value systems in their community. Duncan Sheik’s pop score lends a touch of anachronism to the tale, clearly rendering it a parable for our time. I thought “Footloose” had pretty much covered this ground back in the 1980’s, but nonetheless the players in “SA” go from naive to pregnant and hopeful to suicidal all within the span of a couple of hours thanks to the oppressive and insensitive elder figures in the community who refuse to talk to them about sex or listen to their concerns. “Spring Awakening” manages to confront issues of homosexuality, BDSM, domestic violence, abortion, and suicide, and it ends up sacrificing depth for breadth. Each vignette felt more like an after school special than a scene from a play, and the number of themes and directions weakened my attachment to the characters.

Perhaps it’s just my newfound position as a teacher, but I was left wholly uninspired by the saga of angry teenagers and their battles with parents and community expectations. For a play about awakening, I left rather drowsy.