Spring Awakening catapulted stars Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff and Skylar Astin to fame when it hit Broadway in 2006 — and created an original musical that inspired a generation.
“I just learned that Dan [Radcliffe‘s Merrily We Roll Along] understudy, Coby [Getzug], came to see Spring Awakening when we were on Broadway when he was 16. Now we’re on Broadway together,” Groff, who made his Broadway debut in the show at age 21, exclusively told Us Weekly in June 2024. “I was just talking to him about the documentary. It’s incredible. Yeah, theater really saved me. Looking back, I didn’t realize it was saving me … I was so compartmentalized and so closeted that I didn’t realize at the time what a lifeline getting to sing and dance and emote and cry and be joyful at all of that was when I was that age.”
Spring Awakening was inspired by Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play of the same name. Nearly a century later, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater came together to pen the music, book and lyrics. The show follows a group of 19th century German teenagers as they discover their sexuality. Michele and Groff, who became BFFs during the Broadway run, played leads Wendla Bergmann and Melchior Gabor, respectively.
Spring Awakening was eventually revived on Broadway in 2015 by Deaf West Theatre Company, integrating American Sign Language (ASL) into the choreography.
Nearly 15 years after Spring Awakening first debuted on the Great White Way, the original cast reunited for a special concert, which raised money for the Actor’s Fund. The one-night-only performance was filmed for HBO, and Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known premiered in May 2022. The cast performed at the Tonys one month later.
Scroll below to see what the original Spring Awakening cast members have been up to since their Broadway tenure:
