Awakening and sting

In 2006, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater struck rock-musical gold with Spring Awakening, whose touring production makes its Chicago debut this week at the Oriental Theatre. Audaciously pairing Frank Wedekind’s 1891 German Expressionist play, frequently banned for its explicit portrait of teen sexuality, with tuneful alt-shaded songs on the model of Sheik’s 1996 gumdrop “Barely Breathing,” Spring Awakening seems to blaze a trail for future producers seeking to emulate its armfuls of Tonys and vaultfuls of box-office receipts. Here are a few collaborations in the Spring spirit that we’d like to see:

The Sorrows of Young Werther
Goethe’s 1774 epistolary novel earned its young German author international stardom. More significantly, within months Europe was beset by young readers who dressed like the book’s sensitive artist hero. Some, sharing Werther’s disgust with the cruel world, even aped his suicide. Who better to set this novel of ur-slackerdom to music than mope-rock gods Radiohead? The combination of random clicks and hisses with keening vocals renders songs such as “I Died Under a Linden Tree” instant classics.

Also Sprach Zarathustra
Nietzsche’s self-described “inexhaustible well,” studded with proclamations about the death of God and eternal recurrence, needs only a deafening soundtrack by metal visionaries Sunn O))), assisted by Japanese noisemakers Boris, to make it irresistible to legions of teenagers who take themselves too seriously. Add Twyla Tharp to choreograph the book’s myriad dwarfs and tightrope walkers, and it sounds as if Zarathustra is saying, “We’ve got a hit!”

Fifteen Hovels of Maldoror
Mary Zimmerman’s site-specific piece plunges viewers into the loathsome, decadent milieu of Lautréamont’s 1869 poetic novel. While musical numbers celebrate the apotheosis of the self over the pallid prohibitions of conventional morality, pots of ichor and intricate constructions of creeping things locate the audience undeniably within the “desolate swamps” of the French surrealist’s “somber, poison-soaked pages.”

The Man Without Qualities
It’s not really fair to tag Coldplay as the most studiously soulless band since Supertramp. That song about clocks has its moments. And Chris Martin was really quite funny as a guest on Extras. Nonetheless, when the time comes to give the musical treatment to Robert Musil’s unfinished study of social malaise, nihilism and all-around spiritual deadness, only Coldplay could nail the novel’s depressive mood—like waiting in an airport, but for a very, very long time.

Finnegan’s Wake
It took James Joyce 17 years to compose his follow-up to Ulysses, so 17 days seems like a small price for an audience to pay. By day eight of visionary Robert Wilson’s durational adaptation, a kind of exaltation starts to set in. Some claim it’s Stockholm syndrome, but we suspect it has more to do with the cumulative effect of My Bloody Valentine’s swirling, feedback-fueled soundtrack.

Jungle
Upton Sinclair nailed the riotous energy and life-affirming bustle of Chicago’s meatpacking district in his 1906 novel. Art-rock outfit Animal Collective gives the muckraking tale an absurdist spin, contributing multilayered jams like “It’s a Jungle (Out There)” and “Celery Salt,” a delightful look at what really goes into those Chicago hot dogs. With David Cromer at the helm, this new musical adds up to a rollicking good time—and features a talk with PETA representatives afterward in the lobby!

Spring Awakening angsts up the Oriental Theatre Tuesday 4–August 16.

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