Spring Awakening to have 15th anniversary concert in the West End

Exclusive: June will bring a 15th anniversary concert staging of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s multi-award-winning musical Spring Awakening.

The show, based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play of the same name, follows group of teenagers, silenced and controlled by a censorious society, discovering a new world of feeling and freedom. Numbers in the musical include “Totally F**ked”, “Mama Who Bore Me” and “The Song of Purple Summer”.

The musical opened on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on December 10, 2006, starring Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, and John Gallagher Jr. It won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Direction, Book, Score, and Featured Actor. Afterward, it embarked on a North American tour in 2008.  The production then opened in London at the Lyric Hammersmith on 23 January 2009, before transferring to the West End’s Novello Theatre in March of the same year. The musical was revived on Broadway in 2015 and in London in 2021.

The 2024 concert, celebrating the anniversary of the original London production, is set to take place on Sunday 2 June 2024 at the Victoria Palace Theatre (customarily the home of Hamilton). Tickets will go on sale on 2 February  2024.

Sheik stated: “Spring Awakening is the first musical I worked on that managed to get to Broadway and then the West End. Being in London in 2009 for opening night at the Novello with that young and amazing cast was one of the highlights of my life. It is more than exciting that 15 years on, London gets to experience this anniversary concert, and I’m honored that I can be some small part of that.”

Sater added: “My youthful dream was to be a part of the theatre in London. So for me, our brilliant original production of Spring Awakening at the Lyric, and then at the Novello, was an answered prayer. Fifteen years later, to bring back that production for a one-night-only anniversary concert is like having that prayer answered all over again.”

This anniversary concert will also serve as a fundraiser for Imogen Kinchin. Imogen Kinchin was one of the original producers of Spring Awakening in 2009, guiding the show and its young cast. She was diagnosed with Stage IV Bowel Cancer in 2022. Proceeds from the concert will be donated to Imogen’s Fund, which supports bespoke treatment and her family’s needs during her battle with cancer.

The concert will have direction by Jamie Armitage (Six) and musical direction by Nigel Lilley (Newsies, Next to Normal, The Witches). It is produced by Jack Maple and Evelyn Hoskins, one of the show’s original stars. Casting for the production is to be revealed in due course – expect some special tidbits soon.

For those interested in supporting Kinchin’s Fund, the donation link is here.