Spring Awakening / Theatre / New York

THIS new show grapples with the angst and sexual urgency of being a teenager. New territory this is not, yet “Spring Awakening” feels fresh. Based on Frank Wedekind’s scandalous 19th-century play, its characters come of age in Germany, buzzing with nascent sexual needs and riddled with questions about whether to obey authority or defy it. The story is fine, but the music carries the show. The lively score by Duncan Sheik and Stephen Sater, performed by musicians sitting on stage in jeans and sneakers, is the music of youth: it alternates between anthems and ballads, at one moment aggressive, the next tender, but always wonderful, glorious pop-rock.

Characters pull microphones from their breast pockets and sing passionately, as if song could transport them into a better, freer world. In the most striking use of this device, Melchior, the strapping young lead played by Jonathan Groff, belts out a song about his future while his classmates recite Latin as if reading their own death sentences. A smart, charismatic, instinctive lad, Melchior lets his whims get the better of him. Alas, his love for the bright yet guileless Wendla is doomed. But more tragic is Moritz, played with delicious anguish by John Gallagher—for him the stress of adolescence proves overwhelming. Mr Gallagher is the picture of tortured youth, managing to convey misery in every twitch of his body and voice. The show’s finale feels hasty and predictable. But the songs, belted by dewy adolescents with the force of a tidal wave, make for goose-bumps all night long.

Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 W 49th St (between Broadway and 8th Ave). Tel: +1 (212) 239-6200. See the show’s official website. Buy tickets through Telecharge.