Staff Writers Eira Prakash and Emma Chung attended the Columbia Musical Theater Society’s intimate and angsty production of Spring Awakening.

Content warning: Spring Awakening contains depictions of suicide, abuse, sex, and other mature topics.

This past weekend, the Columbia Musical Theater Society (CMTS) put on Spring Awakening. Directed by Kamila Boga (GS ‘26), the play is a coming-of-age drama about teenagers exploring sex and rebellion amidst the stringent purity laws of late 19th-century Germany. Angsty defiance, wilting naivete, and alt-rock spectacle ensue as characters grapple with personal and institutional failure. CC Shaw (BC ‘27) and Kayla Russell (CC ‘27) produced the show, while Helen Goodman (BC ‘27) was stage manager, Chelsea Chiu (CC ‘27) was music director, and Wylie Dodson (CC ‘26) was technical director.

Spring Awakening, which was based on an 1891 German play by Frank Wedekind, opened on Broadway in 2006 and won the Tony for Best Musical. It follows two main characters: Wendla Bergman, who opens the play lamenting how her mother has not taught her anything about her sexuality, and Melchior Gabor, who tries to resist the purity culture at his all-boys Latin school. These two characters come together and demonstrate the beauty and harm that comes with being unaware of, and discovering, teenage love. Additionally, the play highlights the struggle of Moritz Stiefel. Stiefel is a nervous boy in school, and while he studies hard to pass, the teachers work to fail him regardless, making him feel like a failure and fearful of the future.

In its CMTS incarnation, Spring Awakening is a vibrant and raw stunner. Although its characters suffer much tragedy, the play breaks up the heartbreak with energy and humor. Case in point: the aggressive and innuendo-laden rock anthem “The Bitch of Living,” with its students dancing across their classroom chairs. Such bursts of movement and energy showcased the choreography by Sarah Kaplan (BC ‘27), who made use of the limited space to create vibrant and immersive pieces. 

Michael Kitt (CC ‘28) and Kennedy Eagleton (CC ‘27) were vulnerable, angel-voiced leads as Melchior and Wendla. Cooper Orio (GSAS ‘25) brought frazzled tenderness to Moritz, and he shared a truly touching camaraderie with Caitlin Balón (BC ‘27) as Ilse. JiaLi Deck (BC ‘28) as Thea and Luke Garbacz (CC ‘27) as Hänschen also impressed with their fluid and full-bodied dancing. Performed in Minor Latham Playhouse, Spring Awakening’s intimate space and minimum use of props heightened the tangible urgency of each actor. Coupled with rather explicit depictions of masturbation and sex, such proximity asked the audience to grapple with the reasons for their own comfort or lack thereof, as well as the rules that raised them.

The use of mostly desks and chairs as set pieces was creative and dynamic, although the trees at the right-hand side of the stage only lit up at the end and felt slightly unused as the seasons changed throughout the play. The band was lively and engaging, and while they occasionally drowned out the lyrics, they more than made up for it in skill and energy. Costume design by Rebecca Carter (CC ‘27) was also excellent, with creative incorporations of plaid integrating 19th-century German prints into an alt-rock aesthetic of rebellion.

The title of Spring Awakening refers to the rise of curiosity and critical thinking as much as sex. To borrow from Plato’s Symposium, love is like the birth of new ideas, such as the wild dream of running away shared briefly by both Melchior and Wendla. Similarly, the intimacy of Spring Awakening encloses its audience like a womb, then releases them into a world reframed by the defiant aftertaste of rock and teenage desire.

Image by Cole Strausson