Spring Awakening Launches First UK Tour in May
Multi award-winning alt-rock musical Spring Awakening will embark on its first UK tour in the new year.
Produced by Sell a Door theatre company, the tour kicks off at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter from 17 to 21 May 2011, and will be directed by Pip Minnithorpe and choreographed by Cressida Carre (who recently worked together on Departure Lounge at Waterloo East Theatre).
The tour will also visit Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh (24-25 May), Macroberts Centre, Stirling (26-28 May), Greenwich Theatre, London (7-12 June), Lowry, Salford (14-15 June) and Norwich Playhouse (17-18 June).
Producer Phillip Rowntree said: “It is an exceptionally exciting venture for us. All of us at Sell a Door love the show and we were so excited when this touring opportunity arose, we are especially thrilled that we are able to return the show to London, albeit for one week only.”
Sell a Door was founded three years ago by students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), and now produces regular work in London and Scotland. It recently completed a 25th anniversary tour of Liz Lochhead’s Dracula.
Spring Awakening, which has music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, is based on the Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play of the same name about sexual discovery. Set in 19th-century Germany, the story centres on brilliant student Melchior, his troubled friend Moritz and Wendla, a beautiful girl on the verge of womanhood.
The musical premiered at New York’s Atlantic Theater Company in May 2006 and transferred that December to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre, going on to win eight trophies, including Best Musical, at the 2007 Tony Awards.
It received its UK premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith in February 2009, transferring later that year to the West End’s Novello Theatre where it ran for just six weeks but went on to win a slew of Olivier, Whatsonstage.com, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards. There have long been rumours that a big-screen adaptation is in the offing.
Casting for the 2011 tour is still to be announced.
