Not to sound like a grumpy old man, but upon taking my seat at the Greenwich Theatre I quickly realised I was slap bang in the middle of two teenage school parties. What with themes of teenage angst, kissing, nudity, gay kissing, swear words, and lots of groping, it was obvious from the word go it was going to be too much for some of them. What is normally the case in Spring Awakening is that through the first couple of scenes the tittering and gasps of being shocked by the material die down quite quickly as the audience learn that the cast are not shy of what they are performing and there’s more to come so “deal with it”.

I could have let myself get more annoyed until I realised it was the direction that seemed to be encouraging these outbursts. Certain tender scenes of two people who are unaware of what they are doing, descend into pantomime. In particular the first kiss of Melchior and Wendla drew huge laughs as the couple pecked and kissed each other some 30 times. The material covered in Spring Awakening is not easy but I felt that many scenes were over played and took away the innocence of the characters on stage. Wendla for example who is supposed to be unaware of how she became pregnant, shows sexual dominance in the hayloft as she tears off her top revealing her naked self to all and practically jumping Melchoir in a some what rampant struggle on the floor… you find it quite hard to believe the little minx didn’t know what was coming.

Do not get me wrong though this is a very strong production, the cast are all trained and provide a powerhouse of vocal talent. Robert Eyles plays all Adult Male roles, with conviction and honesty, each character differs and gives enough comedy where needed but wrenches the heart strings with sincerity as he weeps at the graveside. Jonathan Eio heads the cast with confidence and is not shy of the material he presents to the audience, as Melchior it is imperative the audience like him, and Eio succeeds in doing so. Oddly musical director Michael Bradley has chosen to adapt the vocal score by including harmonies at every given opportunity, whilst they are strong and well sung, they are simply not required, the score is good enough without the need to have the cast spilling into thirds and fifths every other line, often losing the tune.

The one to watch in this production is Billy Cullum playing the role of life stricken Moritz. My saviour of the second half, he managed to finally silence the adolescent boys in the audience and brought the piece on track to its haunting and devastating end. His performance of Don’t do sadness in particular showed complete conviction with every précised move and vocals that kept the audience gripped with what he was about to do. The confusion and despair in his voice and face quite literally gave me goosebumps and silenced what had been quite a vocal audience.

Visually and vocally this is a great performance of a difficult show, the audience loved it, and the cheers at the curtain call were enough to be heard from the DLR. The cast, made up of several faces I have seen before, perform the piece with a real sense of energy and I am sure we will see them all in various things soon.

Although appreciative of the piece, I felt that the text didn’t need dumbing down, or indeed camping up as the power lies in the ill-fated actions of two who wanted to know, the urges that everyone knew about, but wouldn’t talk of. Director Pete Gallagher opted to ‘play up’ to the audience when scenes became a little controversial, which for the talent of the cast on stage just wasn’t needed.

Spring Awakening continues its tour see www.selladoor.com for more information. Want to read an alternative review which praises the production highly? Read the other review here.