Review: Oceanside Theatre’s ‘Spring Awakening’ honors show’s rockin’ roots

by Pam Kragen

Since its premiere on Broadway in 2006, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s Tony-winning musical “Spring Awakening” has only turned up on San Diego County stages in a couple of professional productions.

The reason is the musical’s content, which is just as eye-opening today as it was in 1891 when German playwright Frank Wedekind penned the then-scandalous play that inspired it. It’s a coming-of-age story about teenagers in a late 19th-century town where strict and often abusive parents and schoolteachers withhold information and suppress the youths’ natural curiosity about sex, with often-disastrous results. The musical’s propulsive rock score and frenzied choreography reflects the teens’ inner turmoil.

Some musicals with rock scores don’t wear well with age, but in a new production mounted by Oceanside Theatre Company, “Spring Awakening” sounds as fresh as it did nearly 20 years ago. Directed by Gerilyn Brault with musical direction and choreography by EY Washington, the show still has the same tightly coiled energy and enough emotional firepower to break your heart.

Sarah K. Pierce as Wendla in Oceanside Theatre Company's "Spring Awakening." (Ken Jacques) — Sarah K. Pierce as Wendla in Oceanside Theatre Company’s “Spring Awakening.” (Ken Jacques)

The 15-member cast — which includes some theater students from Cal State San Marcos, MiraCosta College and Palomar College — is led by the sweet-voiced and understated Joshua Powers as the smart, idealistic student Melchior. He grounds the production with his naturalistic performance, alongside the equally talented Sarah K. Pierce, who plays Wendla, the innocent teen girl longing to experience physical touch.

Other standouts are Jensyn Berreitter as the free-willed runaway Ilse, Marlon James as the sexually obsessed oddball Moritz, Ryan Hage as Georg, who fantasizes over his piano teacher, and Erica Marie Weisz and Durwood Murray Jr., who together play all of the show’s adult roles.

The OTC production honors the show’s rock ‘n’ roll roots, Michael Mayer’s Tony-winning direction and Bill T. Jones’ stylized choreography, but this show has its own creative ideas. There are no rock concert-style hand mikes or microphone stands as in the original, and the energetic, ritualistic dancing in this production is unique.

Director Brault designed the musical’s sound, Zoë Trautmann designed costumes, Kevin “Blax” Burroughs designed lighting and Tyler Dean designed the scenery.

For audiences unfamiliar with “Spring Awakening,” it does come with a content warning. There are depictions and references to sex, masturbation, suicide, abortion and physical and sexual abuse. Fortunately, Brault handles it all with both honesty and sensitivity. It could be years before “Spring Awakening” is back onstage in San Diego, so if you’re looking for a musical that viscerally physicalizes the torment of adolescence, check out this production before it’s gone.