Closing Weekend for Spring Awakening

"No, it's not the fired up Broadway musical currently touring the big rooms. But Stephen F. Murray rejuvenates Frank Wedekind's 1891 sociodrama with a number of stylish flourishes to render it every bit as immediate."
-Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times

"The actors read the dialogue with a convincing naturalism...Nick Lake gives us a complex, thoughtful Melchior...Melchior's friend Mortiz...is played sensitively by Tyler Rich...supporting cast members are all effective."
-John Olson, Talkin' Broadway

"The compassionate story of a group of teenagers coping with academic pressure and burgeoning sexuality, "Spring Awakening" comes to life under Stephen Murray's insightful direction. Like the musical version now on Broadway, this adaptation uses masks to blur the identities of the inaccessible adults, thereby turning the focus on the children, each of whom, like a canary in a coal mine, manifests society's flaws."
-Sarah Terez Rosenblum, Centerstage Chicago

"Director and adapter Stephan F. Murray has mounted an emotionally rich production of the 1891 coming of age tale of German youth... This show is fine theatre."
-Tom Williams, Chicago Critic.com

"As advertised, this "Spring Awakening" takes "an unflinching look at the struggles of youth against the immense pressure put on them by adult society in all its hypocrisy and thundering ignorance." It's not always easy to experience this show, even if you think you know what is coming. But it is oh, so relevant, 119 years after this script first emerged."
-Paul W. Thompson, Broadway World

"In Wedekind's play, by contrast, the human cost of ignorance, brutality, and despair come through with heartbreaking clarity."
-Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader