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    A Purple Summer: Notes on the Lyrics of Spring Awakening
    A Purple Summer: Notes on the Lyrics of Spring Awakening
    A Purple Summer: Notes on the Lyrics of Spring Awakening
    Ebook74 pages29 minutes

    A Purple Summer: Notes on the Lyrics of Spring Awakening

    By Steven Sater

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In February 1999, Steven Sater conceived the radical notion of creating a rock musical from Frank Wedekind's notorious Symbolist drama, Frühlings Erwachen, and he enlisted his friend and writing partner Duncan Sheik in the enterprise. That night, Sater came home and began writing the first lyric of Spring Awakening: “Mama Who Bore Me” – a lyric which still stands, verbatim, just as he first wrote it.

    Ten years later, in the wake of the enormous international success of this groundbreaking, multiaward-winning show, its original director, Michael Mayer, urged Sater to write notes explicating its famously evocative, poetic lyrics.

    In rich detail, Sater's notes address the literary sources and allusions of each lyric. He also writes feelingly of what prompted the songs over the course of the show's eight years of development. In so doing, Sater expands on his partnership with Sheik and his experiences with original cast members, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, now also known from Glee.

    These notes will prove invaluable for fans of the show, for all those interested in theater, and most especially for all the young performers who will play the roles and sing these songs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRowmanLittlefield
    Release dateDec 21, 2023
    ISBN9781493081707
    A Purple Summer: Notes on the Lyrics of Spring Awakening

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    • 4/5
      I guess if I'd read the number of pages I wouldn't have been as disappointed. I already have Spring Awakening: In the Flesh, which has all the lyrics (also in this book). Even WITH the lyrics, the book is under 80 pages and they're small pages. Somehow, I pictured the book taking over a half hour to read.The only thing that took a while was listening to Touch Me and checking that though I have two books with the lyrics NEITHER of those has the lyrics that are used in the iTunes live or the 6 or so times I saw the show live. The one book is closer than the other, but still not completely accurate, which is funny given when this book came out. They had plenty of time to make it accurate to what was actually being performed. For those who really really love the show, it's still worth checking it out, but don't plan on gaining a lot of insight. I got very little out of it.

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