Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele on Spring Awakening's Chosen Family, Queer Themes
Spring Awakening continue to be hot-button topics in 2022.But the HBO documentary Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known (available now), which follows the hit musical’s original cast through a 15-year reunion and concert, proves the enduring relevance of the piece — it includes stories of queer desire, sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, and abortion.
The musical moved to Broadway in 2006, predating national marriage equality, the #MeToo movement, and the recent furor over Roe v.
Wade. In Those You’ve Known, cast members including Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr., Skylar Astin, Lilli Cooper, and Lauren Pritchard — who became instant idols to legions of musical theater fans — return to the musical that rocked Broadway to reflect on how its timeless themes forever impacted them.The documentary chronicles Spring Awakening’s beginnings, when there was no guarantee that audiences would embrace the frank material.
After all, there’s teen sex depicted onstage between Groff’s Melchior and Michele’s Wendla (and a botched abortion that eventually follows).
