Groff has ‘Spring’ in his step toward a Tony award
By By Jane Holahan
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:40
Yeah, OK, actors always say stuff like that.
But in Groff’s case, it’s brilliantly and stunningly true.
I wasn’t prepared for the amazing change in Groff when I went to see “Spring Awakening” on its final day of performances before it heads to the Eugene O’Neill Theater on Broadway in December.
He’s always been a talented actor. Anyone who saw him at the school shows at Conestoga Valley and the Ephrata Performing Arts Center shows, knew that already.
But Groff’s performance in “Spring Awakening” is truly star-making. It has a kind of chemical charge to it that keeps you riveted.
Few actors ever reach that kind of power. At 21, Groff is there.
I went on a bus trip organized by Groff’s highly supportive and proud parents, Julie and Jim Groff, to see the show at the Atlantic Theatre, an old church that’s been converted into a theater.
After reading the reviews in major newspapers and magazines, and hearing about how terrific the show was from people who went to see a preview performance back in June, I was prepared for a good show.
I saw a great one.
Just about every aspect of “Spring Awakening” is refreshing and vital, from the choreography to the music to the remarkable cast of 13.
But Groff is clearly the star of this show.
He plays Melchior, the intellectual leader of a group of school friends living in repressive 19th century Germany.
His modern ideas about sex and free thought don’t fit well in the world of these kids, who are all bursting out of their hormones. The oppressive adults destroy their souls and, in some cases, their lives.
The show is based on a once scandalous play by Frank Wedekind that is still very edgy. One song uses the F word in its title. There’s nudity. Issues like homosexuality and abortion are explored.
But the audience, including us busload of staid, unhip Lancastrians, loved it. The standing ovation went on for quite some time.
Once he gets to Broadway, I predict Groff is going to be nominated for a Tony.
I know I’m biased. But Groff, who is the nicest person you’d ever want to meet, electrified the stage in one of the hottest, most-talked-about shows in New York.
That gets you Tony nominations.
***
The recent death of Mike Douglas sure took me back.
Every day after school, when I was growing up, his talk show would be on in our house. It ran 21 years, from 1961 through 1982 and chronicled the huge social changes going on in America.
It was kind of strange to grow up in the 1960s and ’70s because there was this huge generation gap.
On one side were my parents and Mike Douglas. Short hair, conservative suits, big band music.
On the other side were all those groovy people in their 20s who had long hair, wore jeans and listened to rock music.
“The Mike Douglas Show” was a place where the two converged.
You’d see guests such as Margaret Mead, Totie Fields and Sid Caesar one day, and then Frank Zappa, Richard Pryor and, most famously, John and Yoko would show up the next.
Mike Douglas was a good host to them all.
I’ll never forget the week in 1972 when John Lennon and Yoko Ono served as co-hosts.
There was Mike patiently listening to Yoko explain her performance art.
Surreal.
But my mom and my grandmother and I were all watching it.
That just doesn’t happen anymore and I think as a society, we’re worse off for it.
I can’t imagine what my grandmother thought of Yoko Ono, but she got to know her courtesy of the nicest talk show host ever, Mike Douglas.
——— Jane Holahan is a New Era staff writer. Her column appears every other Wednesday.
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