Review: New ‘Spring Awakening’ opens its arms to all – Houston Chronicle

"Spring Awakening," which opened Sunday at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, mixes hearing and deaf performers with elegant ease, adding new depth to a show about the dangers of failing to communicate. Deaf actors communicate to the hearing audience by relying on colleagues elsewhere onstage to provide their spoken dialogue and singing voice, like alter egos. "Spring Awakening" focuses most prominently on three youngsters — Melchoir, the defiant but popular and handsome rebel (played by Austin McKenzie); Wendla, the shy young woman determined to learn about sex (acted by Sandra Mae Frank, voiced by Katie Boeck); and Moritz, done in by the repressive society around him (played by Daniel N. Durant, voiced by Alex Boniello). The language is coarse and plot points include premarital sex, abortion, homosexuality, autoerotism, sadomasochism and incest. Many of the songs — including "Mamma Who Bore Me" and "The Bitch of Living" — haven’t lost their vitality and there is simple elegance when cast members hold each other tight to become a tree or leap around with tiny flashlights attached to their fingers to perform "The Mirror-Blue Night" (perhaps inspired by the lyric "flip on a switch")