SPRING FEVERISH

Just seen Spring Awakening, the eight-times Tony Award-winning musical based on Frank Wedekin's 1891 play Frühlingserwachen which was originally banned from being produced (and remained so until 1906) because it contained scenes of implied homoeroticism, masturbation and suicide as well as references to abortion.

Now it's had a rock-musical make-over and, laden with plaudits (and more five-star ratings than the grandest of grand hotels), has opened in London's Lyric Hammersmith.

Spring Awakening has a great set; fantastic lighting; and a talented, tirelessly energetic cast, but...

Well, here's a sample of how the show injects a decidedly unsubtle dose of 21st Century shock-of-the-new into Wedekin's once radical 19th Century drama...

There's a moment you know you're f***ed,
Not an inch more room to self-destruct...

Hmmm... My Fair Lady it ain't!