A Musical You Can Believe In

By Suzy Evans in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 4, 2009 9:40PM

Spring Awakening opens tonight at the Oriental Theatre and you should cast away your Broadway in Chicago qualms and go. We admit we haven’t seen the touring cast, which really can make all the difference with these BIC shows, but the material is dynamite and will rock you intellectual brains out. Based on a banned nineteenth century play about children dealing with their “budding sexuality,” the show breaks the musical theater mold and gives us hope for the future.

Music star of the ‘90s Duncan Sheik wrote the score, his pal Stephen Sater interpreted the antiquated play, and choreographing legend Bill T. Jones provided some great modern moves that are unlike what you find in other musicals. (All those stomping the performers do is carefully executed, not haphazardly done!) And before we have to subject ourselves to Cats and The 101 Dalmations Musical for next season's BIC line up, we figured you should take advantage of quality musical theater while it’s here.

Spring Awakening runs through August 16 at the Oriental Theatre. Ticket prices range from $25-$95. Buy them here.