A note to our patrons from DCPA President Randy Weeks regarding Spring Awakening
Dear patron,
We hope you’ll be joining us for Spring Awakening. We wanted to let you know a bit more about the show before you attend.
As you may be aware, this new musical is based on a play written in 1891 by Frank Wedekind. It’s a coming-of-age story that takes place in late 19th-century Germany and shows the struggles and triumphs of teenagers living in a repressive society. It features a passionate love story, portrays strong friendships, and uses quite a bit of humor and creativity to address heavy themes. Spring Awakening also contains content that may make some audience members uncomfortable, and we wanted to inform you ahead of time.
The show deals with mature themes including teenage sexuality, depression, suicide, molestation and abortion, and some scenes include partial nudity, brutality and masochism. The language in the show is frank and often raw, and reflects the way many contemporary teenagers speak.
A note for parents: The show has been very popular with teenagers who often identify with the characters. The creative team hopes that the show can open lines of communication between parents and children and enable them to discuss difficult and significant topics. The show doesn’t necessarily take sides on any issue, rather it promotes open dialogue about issues addressed in the show.
As a rule, the producers recommend the show to those 15 and older, but maturity and appropriateness can vary greatly from child to child. Only you can decide whether your child is mature enough to handle the subject matter. To help you, the producers of Spring Awakening have created an entire website dedicated to answering questions about the show’s content.
Spring Awakening won eight 2007 Tony Awards including Best Musical and has become a cross-generational phenomenon that inspires meaningful dialogue. In order to fulfill our promise to bring the best of Broadway to our patrons, we felt it would be unfair of us to censor this show from you simply because it deals with mature themes. The show has already garnered positive reviews, which you can read here. We look forward to bringing this award-winning international hit production to Denver and seeing you at the theater.
Randy Weeks
Executive Director, Denver Center Attractions
Parents’ responses to Spring Awakening:
• “You can’t help but leave the theater discussing what happened....It’s an opportunity to share and explore your values with your teen.”
• “Spring Awakening is proof that challenging issues like sexual, religious and intellectual freedom…can be dealt with sensitively and still rock the house.”
• “I would encourage parents to take advantage of this opportunity. Raising these topics can be difficult, but with the help of the music and story in this play, the attempt to find answers can be, perhaps, a little bit easier.”