But, me being a theater nerd, songs seeped through and made it onto my showtunes playlist. Those were "Mama Who Bore Me", "Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise)", "The Bitch of Living", and "Totally Fucked". That was the extent of my relationship to the show. Then the documentary, Spring Awakening: Those You've Known, debuted on HBO, I watched it. And it sent me deep into the wormhole.
The documentary was great. It was a nice little time capsule of smash hit on Broadway before social media. I mean, the cast was in an ad for the Gap. One day I hope they either release the pro shot of the original production or the full 2021 concert, both would be preferred. After the documentary the cast album becomes a part of my rotation, after a week or two of searching I found a decent enough bootleg of the original cast, so I finally watched the show in full. And it truly does live up to the hype.
People always talk about the art that hits you at the right time and age, and I wonder what it would've been like if I had been able to see Spring Awakening at that age. I don't want to say what character is my favorite, because it reveals a lot about you, but if I had heard some of that characters songs earlier, I don't know if it would have changed me, but it would have been an emotional experience.
Around the time I started my search for the bootleg, I started watching different performances the cast did during this time. And I found some good ones. One of my favorites is their performance of "Touch Me" on The View because it's one of the few performances with the entire cast.
And honestly I could go on. But then, I started to fall down a bit of a different wormhole. If you couldn't tell by some of the links I dropped earlier, I've fallen slightly in love with John Gallagher, Jr. That also means that I've started listening to the American Idiot cast album as well. Now my sister and I also wanted to this show when it debuted, too, and the reason my sister and I didn't get to see this show was because our dad stopped taking our suggestions for musicals after we made him see Legally Blonde The Musical. But that's okay.
I couldn't find a good bootleg of the show so I can't judge it, but obviously the music is amazing. The new arrangements of the songs are great and complex, and the songs they've added the ensemble as a chorus, like "Whatsername".
Yes to all the 2000s punk vibes, from the music to the mood, the costumes and hair, and the eyeliner. Makes me miss rock music.
And because YouTube offers suggestions, I was often suggested other performances from John Gallagher, Jr. during this time, with this one being my favorite. "The Goodbye Song" by Joe Iconis. And I think that is a great way to end a very long post. Goodbye!
