Spring Awakening: Those You've Known

-(CARS HORN HONKING) -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Thank you, darling. Of course,

there you go.

Thank you. We are reuniting

the cast of Spring Awakening

for the first time in 15 years

for a one-night benefit concert,

benefitting the incredible Actors' Fund.

Getting the chance

to come back together

after 15 years and do this concert,

and touch again

the material that changed our lives,

-is gonna be insane. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I don't know that I ever thought

we would ever do this again.

There was never fuckin' anything like this

that's ever happened on a Broadway stage.

Even now,

trying to explain the show to my husband.

So, there are these kids in the 1800s.

But we pull out microphones,

and then we sing like rock songs?

1891 Germany, rock music, there's children in it.

They're having sex on stage.

He's like, "So, is it like Rent?"

I'm like, it's not like Rent.

This character is jerking this one off,

this one's abused, these two have a gay scene,

abortion, the sex, the suicide. And we were all so young.

I could never imagine

that it would be on Broadway. But it touched a nerve.

-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) It was a hit. We weren't just doing

a show anymore, we were doing the show.

There were kids sleeping on the streets to come

to this show and feel seen. Like, they're not alone.

And this thing that they did 15 years ago still means

so much to people.

We became of those

shows where everyone really blew up.

We got movies and television shows.

I've been in four Broadway shows

and I got nominated for a Tony Award,

and it started with Spring Awakening.

-(AUDIENCE CHEERING) -My next guest you know

from Mindhunter, Frozen and Hamilton.

He's now in The Matrix Resurrections.

Fifteen years later,

we're doing this reunion concert.

"And now we get to experience this show again. I'm excited

-and a little scared. Woo-hoo." -(ALL CHUCKLE)

And everyone keeps saying,

"Oh, it's just gonna come right back, it's just gonna come right back."

And then we got to the theater and I was like,

-"Oh, my God, am I ready?" -Whoo!

Ladies and gentlemen,

this is your places call,

-places for the top of the show. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

We were pinching ourselves.

-We're doing it again. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

The second we all walked out,

it felt like we were The Beatles.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUES)

The plan was we walk in and sit down,

but we were so connected to each other that we knew

to stand there and enjoy this wave of enthusiasm.

And everyone is like, "Holy fucking shit."

Like, "This is happening right now?"

This picture... (CHUCKLES)

...I texted to everyone

'cause this really sums up our experience.

That was happening.

The whole group of us, the cast, the band

haven't been in a room together for 15 years.

Today is our day one, we're gonna do,

like, music rehearsal.

I haven't, like, rehearsed anything yet.

I haven't performed in such a long time,

or sang or acted in forever,

and your vocal cords, they're a muscle.

So you want to stretch out your muscle and warm it up

before you just make it go,

you know, a thousand miles per hour.

Is it there? It's there. Is it there? Ah!

The hardest thing I think in doing it is gonna be...

...not crying while singing.

Fuck. (INHALES, BLOWS RASPBERRIES)

Okay. On to the next thing.

Thank you.

I don't normally do this with my bike helmet, guys.

It's going to be a tearful, probably like six days,

and then we're gonna do the show.

Thank you so much.

Hey. Oh, hi.

They're gonna think we planned it.

Oh, my God.

We've met, you may not remember me.

It was like 15 years ago.

We all have this primal thread going through all of us.

I just want to be in this world

with these people

who have always made me feel so safe.

-Whoo! -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

It's just an immense gift

to get a chance to revisit the piece,

to revisit my friends and family

'cause it was such a community that we created.

Okay. Oh, my God.

The cast of Spring Awakening is on a text chain.

And this year, Lauren wrote me

and said, "Jonathan, I had a dream

that we were all together doing this show.

And I think we should do an anniversary concert."

And I woke up the next morning and I was like,

"We have to do this. I want to do this one more time."

It was COVID, so the schedules were open.

We decided we're gonna do a one-night benefit concert

for The Actor's Fund. We asked everyone in the cast,

-they immediately said yes. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

We did it! We did it! We did it! We did it!

It's kind of insane and miraculous.

Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim!

Whoo!

-We've got work to do! Yeah!

I'm really nervous.

I haven't sung these songs in, you know, over a decade.

How are they going to feel? How is it gonna fit?

Is it-- Can I still hit the high notes?

I don't have to do-- I don't have to do anything.

We have three rehearsal days,

and then we're gonna perform it onstage.

So, I'm scared.

I told Jonathan that I hadn't been

that nervous or anxious since the day my son was born.

It was a tsunami of emotions.

Watching her sing that song,

I was like, "Oh, my God." I saw this 19-year-old girl,

memory. And I just lost my mind.

She has one of those voices

that just, like, slays me.

In 2006, she would sing that song

and always sound perfect. Like, fuck her.

She's one of my dearest friends.

We had this experience in Spring Awakening

that changed our lives.

This book,

this is Frank Wedekind's Fruhlings Erwachen.

This is the original version of Spring Awakening

that I bought in a German bookstore...

...in 1999.

I'm the kind of guy who reads random old plays. (LAUGHS)

It's this 19th century story about the deafness of adults

to what's going on in the hearts of the young children.

That longing and desire and frustration of young people.

It's as if the entire world

were mesmerized by penis and vagina.

The 19th century characters, they're Lutheran.

They're growing up in a Lutheran culture

when history and science are under attack.

We are hardly here today to conjecture.

These kids are all oppressed by their parents,

clergy, and teachers.

To God, to our parents, to our teachers.

We can never render sufficient gratitude.

Our main character Melchior is on a hero's journey.