Spring Awakening

2006 Original Broadway Cast

By Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Skylar Astin, Lilli Cooper, John Gallagher Jr., Gideon Glick, Jonathan Groff

Decca Broadway, 2006, Audio CD

Product Description

Decca Broadway presents the cast recording for the acclaimed new Broadway production, SPRING AWAKENING. Written by pop music composer Duncan Sheik and playwright/lyricist Steven Sater, the musical explores emotional earthquakes in the lives of teenagers.
SPRING AWAKENING is based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 drama, which was scandalous in its day for addressing sex violence and suicide. The story, dialogue and costumes suggest the 19th Century, and are perfectly wedded to a beautiful alternative pop music score by Grammy® nominated singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik. The creative team also includes Tony® Award Winning director Michael Mayer (Thoroughly Modern Millie) and legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones.

Who would have thought that Duncan Sheik would succeed where Paul Simon and Randy Newman failed, successfully transitioning from the pop-rock world to the Broadway stage? With Spring Awakening, Sheik and book writer/lyricist Steven Slater (who had already worked on Sheik's 2001 album Phantom Moon) have created a thoroughly exciting show that incorporates a contemporary art-indie idiom (including a small rock band instead of an orchestra) into a dramatic musical-theater context. The unlikely setting is that of a Frank Wedekind adaptation, but as it turns out, teenage angst is perennial, whether it's in contemporary America or in a 1891 German boarding school. Songs such as "The Bitch of Living" ("with nothing going on, asking just what went wrong"), "The Word of Your Body," "I Don't Do Sadness," and "Totally Fucked" ("You're fucked if you speak your mind and you know you will") resonate with the rage, frustration, confusion, excitement, joy, anger, and of course budding lust of those hormone-driven years. The show is greatly enhanced by its youthful cast members (they're all pretty close in age to their characters), who sing their hearts out. — Elisabeth Vincentelli

Tracks Information

Mamma Who Bore Me
Mamma Who Bore Me (Reprise)
All That's Known
The B*tch of Living
My Junk
Touch Me
The Word of Your Body
The Dark I Know Well
And Then There Were None
The Mirror-Blue Night
I Believe
Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind
The Guilty Ones
Left Behind
Totally F*ucked
The Word of Your Body (Reprise)
Whispering
Those You've Known
The Song of Purple Summer

Product Details

Title: Spring Awakening (2006 Original Broadway Cast)
Sales Rank: 422 in Music
Artist: Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Skylar Astin, Lilli Cooper, John Gallagher Jr., Gideon Glick, Jonathan Groff, Brian Johnson, Lea Michele, Lauren Pritchard
Label: Decca Broadway, 2006-12-12, Audio CD, 1 Disc
Format: Explicit Lyrics, Cast Recording
Package Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches, 0.2 pounds

Customer Reviews

High Degree of Difficulty: This score makes great listening for people who
1. Are musicians (vocal and instrumental)
2. Didn't even see the show
The complexity of the score, the fantastic instrumentation/orchestration and the amazing voices make this a must-have addition to a collection. Not just a collection of musical theatre.… More reviews

Love it!: Well I never saw this Musical but from word of mouth and researching it I really love it! This was and still is a good CD I love listining to it and hope I can soon see them on the tour cause I cant really go to New York to see them unless someone wants to buy me a ticket and everything else haha! LOVE IT I am actually listing to it right now!… More reviews

So this is why it won the Tony...: I originally borrowed this CD from a friend and played it in the car on the way to work... then again and again... Reading the liner notes, I got the plot of the play down and could put the songs in context. But most of them stand on their own, as passionate pop-play songs, with interesting melodies, empassioned vocals, and that all-important factor:… More reviews

The awakening of songwriter Duncan Sheik: The awakening of songwriter Duncan Sheik
by Jason W. Lloren
(Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 9, 2007)
Duncan Sheik walks into a Starbucks in Menlo Park and instead of a coffee he grabs two bottles, a sparkling mineral water and a mixed juice. He settles down at a table and mixes the two into a plastic cup.
"I think… More reviews

Don't judge till you have seen the show!!: I have read many of the reviews of SA here and I must say...to all those who have ripped apart an absolutely amazing show...get off your couch and go see it before you say it is garbage or trash or asking what has Broadway become...you are the same people who ripped apart another amazing and Tony winning show..In the Heights....If you actually… More reviews