Pittsburgh Musical Theater casts teen actors in controversial Tony winner 'Spring Awakening'
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Jameson Corrie, left, who plays Moritz, and Adrianne Knapp, who portrays Ilsa, rehearse a scene for "Spring Awakening." Pittsburgh Musical Theater opens the production at the Byham Theater tonight.
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Art can be risky or risque, classical or contemporary, or all of those at once, as in the case of "Spring Awakening." The risque part caused the initial buzz when it clocked into Broadway, and the timeless message and award-winning songs keep it ticking.
The 1850s German play of the same name, about coming-of-age teens coping with clueless abusive adults, was banned in its own time.
Skip ahead to 2006, when Frank Wedekind's play was transformed by Steven Sater and set loose with Duncan Sheik's contemporary score and Mr. Sater's provocative lyrics, plus a youthful cast including future "Glee" stars Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff. You couldn't keep the college kids away, and theater pros agreed with them; the show won eight Tonys and ran for two years.
Where: Pittsburgh Musical Theater at the Byham Theater, Downtown.
When: Through Feb. 4. 7:30 tonight through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3-4.
Tickets: $12.25-$44.75; pittsburghmusicals.com or 412-456-6666.
Skip ahead to today, and Pittsburgh Musical Theater is opening its own version of "Spring Awakening" at the Byham Theater after a test drive at Robert Morris University's Colonial Theatre, where PMT's Ken Gargaro is theater coordinator.
The youngest member of the production, Adrianne Knapp, is a 17-year-old senior at Our Lady of Sacred Heart and a PMT kid from the age of 6. She plays Ilsa, a free spirit who escapes an abusive home and tries to make sense of a society that would ostracize her.
"I think I was ready for it because I love controversial material; I love theater that makes you think," Adrianne said during a break from rehearsals in PMT's West End studios. "I knew I had to be because I'm one of the youngest in the cast, so I couldn't slack off at all."
Both Adrianne and castmate Jameson Corrie, 19, recall a production that set the stage for "Spring Awakening."
"A couple of summers ago we did 'Hair,' which was a little bit eye-opening with provocative material, and we treated it sensitively and we did it justice, at least I think so. So I was ready for 'Spring Awakening' at first," Jameson said. "There were times when it was definitely shocking and it took me to a lot of places I had never gone to as an actor. ... It was a lot, but it felt like a release of everything. It was awesome and continues to be awesome."
Adrianne's mother, Patty Knapp, works as the development and marketing administrator of Pittsburgh Musical Theater. Asked about the provocative nature of "Spring Awakening," which includes partial nudity, explicit language and intense situations that would easily earn an R rating if it were a film, Ms. Knapp said she had no qualms about the production.
PG VIDEO"It's a great show, and if you're going to go for it, you have to go for it all the way," Ms. Knapp said.
Adrianne and Jameson have been PMT castmates on and off since a production of "Fiddler on the Roof" when she was 9 and he was 11. He played Perchik "with a big fake mustache."
"I was the Fiddler. I wore facial hair, too," Adrianne recalled, laughing.
Both said that the production of "Hair" in 2009, even with edits to keep it a "kid's show," was good preparation for "Spring Awakening."
Jameson, like Adrianne, is reprising his role from the RMU production. He plays troubled Moritz, who is failing at school and in the eyes of his parents, while heavily burdened with teenage angst. It's a role that won a Tony for John Gallagher Jr. and one that has Jameson saying, "It's awesome," a lot.
"Duncan Sheik has made a masterpiece," he said. "The music is contemporary enough that it's for teenagers, but it's still nostalgic in a way. It's kind of like '90s garage rock at some points. Some people who were in their 20s and 30s in the '90s might say, oh, I remember this sound. Like the story, it's timeless. It sounds good to everybody."
That includes Mr. Gargaro, who knew he might be walking onto a land mine by choosing a show that's about 14- and 15-year-olds and their sexual awakenings, and casting it within an age range that made sense for the characters. He decided not to go younger than 16, "depending on the dialogue with their parents," and the rest was about putting on an important musical with rights that were available.
"The show is transformational for the kids who are in it and the kids who saw it," he said. "The college kids who saw it, most of them had never seen a show before. ... One of the most fulfilling things for me was seeing that audience of novice theatergoers on the edge of their seats, wanting to know what was going to happen next. They were that interested. And that's why I did the show. It's a work of art for that age group, probably not unlike 'West Side Story' was in the '50s."
Jameson started high school in the Moon Area district and finished up at the PA Cyber School while also completing PMT's pre-college program. He's taking a gap year, working at the Father Ryan Arts Center in McKees Rocks and trying to earn money toward continuing his theater education in New York.
Post-"Spring Awakening," he jumps into rehearsals for PMT's "Jesus Christ Superstar," while Adrianne, who has applied to seven colleges, heads to Chicago for the unified auditions for college and prepares for her spring musical at Our Lady of Sacred Heart in Moon.
Thinking of the provocative nature of the show at hand, she told an anecdote about a poster she had made to promote "Spring Awakening" and that had been hanging on her locker.
"I go to a Catholic school and I had a poster and it got taken down because it said it has mature content. I can't be advertising that at my school, I guess. ... It had the big red and black letters 'Spring Awakening' and the Broadway company and a picture of me and Jameson. And I said, 'That's me, come and see it.' So anyone that walked by could see it. I went back to school one day and it wasn't there anymore."
It had not occurred to her that someone might have taken it for another reason.
"Maybe someone took it and hung it in their room," Jameson conjectured.
"I'm hoping, or they hung it on a board somewhere where it can be seen. That would be great," she said.
Having family members watch them in scenes involving sexual references, violence and obscene language isn't the easiest thing in the world. Both have found support in their immediate families, but there are holdouts.
"I'm very apprehensive with some of my family seeing it," Adrianne said. "Although my family is very open with theater, I still feel they ... might only see the action of what we are doing and not see the deeper meaning behind it. I've had some of my family members who saw me in the RMU production not want to see me in this one because they thought that my character was even too much for them to handle, and I don't do anything that bad."
Watching and listening to Lauren Pritchard's Broadway performance as Ilsa (thank you, YouTube) was inspirational for Adrianne. Jameson, who had seen the show live before auditioning for Moritz, could find something of himself and people he knows in every character in the show. He believes that's true of anyone who comes with an open mind, including the adults in the audience.
"I think as much as the show appeals to mine and Adrianne's age, I think the real truth lies with the adults, because out of every teary eye I've seen or everyone who is inspired walking out of the show, it's always someone who sees something of themselves, whether it's an adult or a teenager, and I think it's always more powerful when it's an adult because they sit back in their seats and they rethink, does this reflect their own life? ... It's really powerful that it is able to speak to so many ages."
First Published January 26, 2012 12:00 am
