Spring Awakening Announces Broadway Transfer

The Atlantic Theater Company production of Spring Awakening will have a home on Broadway this season, according to a production spokesperson. A theater and dates are still to be announced.

"We're really pleased that this exciting and unique production will now reach a much wider audience," Ira Pittelman who will produce the Broadway mounting with Tom Hulce and the Atlantic said in a statement. "Duncan, Steven and Michael have created a musical experience that's very special and we are proud that this new work is on its way to Broadway. While we continue to have discussions with additional partners and theater owners to firm up our plans, one thing is very clear: We will move this show to Broadway."

Spring Awakening depicts how young people navigate the thrilling, confusing and mysterious time of their sexual awakening. The story centers around a brilliant young student named Melchior, his troubled friend Moritz and Wendla, a beautiful young girl on the verge of womanhood. Spring Awakening features music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater. The off-Broadway cast features Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr., Frank Wood, Mary McCann, Sklyar Astin, Lilli Cooper, Gideon Glick, Brian Johnson, Lauren Pritchard, Phoebe Strole, Jonathan B. Wright and Remy Zaken.

The tuner, which is directed by Michael Mayer and choreography by Bill T. Jones, opened at the Atlantic on June 15. In his Broadway.com review, Rob Kendt wrote: "It's a double-vision musical, in other words, in which the songs take place in a separate reality from the book. Though both worlds are conjured vividly by director Michael Mayer and his knockout cast, the contrast between the emo power ballads and Wedekind's stark anti-conformist fable has a strange, probably unintended effect: The songs, for all their volume and frankness, let off adolescent steam in ways that feel familiar, even innocuous. It's the 115-year-old play sandwiched between the musical numbers that retains its shock value."

Spring Awakening is currently running off-Broadway through August 5. The Atlantic recently announced a series of post-show discussions featuring Judith Levine, James Lecesne and Eve Ensler, three authors and commentators on adolescent psychology, sex education and sexual abuse who will discuss the content of their work and experience as it relates to the musical. The discussions will be conducted immediately following the Saturday matinee performances, with Levine doing hers on July 22, Lescesne doing his on July 29 and Ensler featured after the final performance on August 5.