Spring Awakening: Those You've Known

Michael John Warren's 2022 documentary records the one-night reunion concert held fifteen years after the Broadway run of the musical Spring Awakening. The original cast and creative team, including Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and John Gallagher Jr., return to the stage to benefit the Actors Fund. The documentary follows both the rehearsals and the show. Its most affecting passages come from performers who were in their twenties then looking back at their own youth while singing the same songs. How shocking the musical's subject of adolescent sexuality, abuse and suicide was in 2006, and how it reads now, is discussed. Old tensions within the company are touched on briefly and not pursued, which is the cost of the film's celebratory tone. Who it's for: viewers who like Broadway musicals and backstage documentaries. Who it's not for: anyone unfamiliar with the musical who will not connect to the songs, or wanting a critical perspective.