Washington Post - Recommended
"... In a taut and stirringly acted version of the Steven Sater-Duncan Sheik musical “Spring Awakening,” based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 drama, adolescent characters grapple with sexuality and rage at the repressive adult world. And in Rosemary Jenkinson’s world-premiere play “Cuchullain,” an endearingly impulsive and foul-mouthed modern 19-year-old ingests drugs and alcohol as if he’d worked out a personal immunity deal with mortality."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...While the performances of the leads are fantastic, it’s the hard-working and vocally strong ensemble that deserves equal recognition. Spring Awakening does have some some humorous moments, but it’s the ‘heavy’ and ‘deep’ themes and raw emotion that sweeps the stage in thick torrents."
Washington Examiner - Recommended
"...With taut music direction and smart sound design by Jake Null and his ever-present orchestra, a merely juvenile adaptation of "Spring Awakening" blossoms from a senseless immersion into a sexually oppressive German town to a full-blown musical fantasia underscoring the same problems that remain in the here and now."
MetroWeekly - Recommended
"... In an unfulfilled way, perhaps, that's the point of Spring Awakening. We're meant to recognize the intensity of teenage logic, but only after shattering the lens of adult perspective. This is a play where thoughtful ruminations about life, friendship and death generally fall flat, but the expletives about social restraint inspire furious yelps of joy. Leave adulthood for the old people. These unbelievable passions are for the eternally young."
Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended
"...Balancing out the vocals and the amateur orchestra and keeping singers and musicians together may be problematic throughout the run. Composer Duncan Sheik (the one-hit wonder who sang “Barely Breathing”) employs some tricky minor-key harmonies, and the onstage orchestra struggled at the start of the performance I attended. But by Act 2, things were coming together. Paul Scanlan was appropriately unhinged as Moritz singing “Don’t Do Sadness,” and the ensemble vocals closed strong with “Those You’ve Known.”"
Washingtonian - Recommended
"...From abortion to incest to suicide, Spring Awakening doesn’t shy away from heavy, edgy themes. The show closes with “The Song of Purple Summer,” a beautiful, soaring ballad that presents imagery of springtime and new beginnings (“The fences sway. The porches swing. The clouds begin to thunder, crickets wander, murmuring.”). In the show, the song feels like it comes out of nowhere, tacked on after the story has wrapped up one depressing turn after another. But it does offer an optimistic sense that despite all that’s transpired, maybe, just maybe, the kids are all right."
BrightestYoungThings - Recommended
"..."Spring Awakening," the current Keegan Theatre staging, jolts you back to those vivid years of adolescence. The musical tells the story of teenagers in a small-town in 18th Century Germany for whom the propsect of taking charge of their own lives seems impossibly remote -- even as the growing up happens all at once. A youthful cast and creative staging at the postage stamp-sized Church Street Theatre awakens the emotional tightrope of adolescence with authentic electricity."
ShowBizRadio - Recommended
"...Keegan Theatre’s Spring Awakening is a worthy endeavor bolstered by an incredible male cast, top rate music and an artfully crafted century old story. The art of the language, at once explicit and poetic, combined with the kicking alternative music made for an appealing show. Go see it if you can."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Spring Awakening at the Keegan Theatre is a highly unusual show; it is based upon a play written over a hundred years ago by Frank Wedekind that was considered highly scandalous at the time with its themes of teenage hormones, homosexuality, masochism, sexual abuse, abortion, and suicide. By today’s standards this play is still cutting-edge theatre."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Keegan Theatre, which did such a magnificent production of Rent two years ago, presents a production which renders every ounce of Spring Awakening’s fabulous intention with truth and pizzazz, and, in the best sense of the word, does justice to the show.
