Eleven principals, four of them making Off-Broadway debuts and two cast from an open call that saw 2,532 performers, in Danya Taymor’s Off-Broadway staging.
Seaview has announced the full principal cast for Spring Awakening, which plays a twelve-week engagement at Studio Seaview from November 27, opening December 17.
The company is almost entirely new to New York audiences, which appears to be the point. Tyler Jordan Wesley plays Melchior, having originated Dallas on the first national tour of The Outsiders. Ashlyn Maddox is Wendla, with Parade and A Christmas Carol behind her. Ryo Kamibayashi, born and raised in Tokyo, plays Moritz after Broadway runs in Oh, Mary!, The Outsiders and Pirates! The Penzance Musical. Amalia Yoo, who won a Drama Desk Award for her Broadway debut in John Proctor is the Villain, plays Ilse.
They are joined by Jack Bateman as Georg, Jada Simone Clark as Thea, Leif Coomer as Ernst, Nando Morland as Otto, Antonio Porciello as Hanschen, Khadija Sankoh as Martha and Grace Slear as Anna. Bateman and Porciello came through the open casting call the production held in July, which saw 2,532 performers; for both, and for Clark and Coomer, this is an Off-Broadway debut.
Danya Taymor directs. Celia Rowlson-Hall choreographs, making her theatrical debut, with music supervision by Or Matias.
The design team is Christine Jones and Brett Banakis (sets), Kaye Voyce (costumes), Brian MacDevitt (lighting), Cody Spencer (sound) and Jeremy Chernick (special effects), with Cynthia Meng as music director.
“This is an exceptional group of actors who are fearless, deeply talented, and represent the future of our industry,” producer Greg Nobile said. “They are the kind of artists who make you excited about where theater is headed next.”
Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s musical, adapted from Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play, opened on Broadway in 2006 with Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and John Gallagher Jr., and was revived in 2015 in Michael Arden’s Deaf West production. This staging returns it to a small room, which is closer to the scale the banned original was written at.
Front-row rush tickets are $40, sold in person when the Studio Seaview box office opens on the day of each preview through December 12, two per person. A $40 lottery runs on TodayTix, opening for entries at midnight each Sunday and closing at 1 PM the day before a performance.
Three access performances are scheduled: open captioned on January 13, audio described on January 20, and ASL interpreted on January 27, all at 7:30 PM.
