The most important musical of its generation, Spring Awakening opens Blackbox at Proscenium 

(Spring Awakening is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI), New York, NY, USA. The show runs until March 22, 2026. Tickets are now available on Ticket2Me (tinyurl.com/SandboxSpring2026.)

IT’S been 20 years since Spring Awakening made its Broadway debut, and it has since captivated audiences, young and old, all over the world.

The coming-of-age story about “repressed German teenagers” has been described as revolutionary, electrifying, and the most important musical of its generation that never fails to stir up conversations. Others say it’s “a timeless masterpiece, despite early controversies.”

Now, for Sandbox Collective’s first offering on its 12th year and its 2026 season, it is staging Spring Awakening. It also serves as the inaugural show of the 300-seat Blackbox at the Proscenium Theater at Rockwell Proscenium, Makati City. It opened to regular audiences on Feb. 13, the night before Valentine’s Day. 

We saw it on the 12th, the special preview. It’s as immersive as theater can get. While waiting for their cues, some actors sat with the audience on the front row. The clueless audience members are in for big surprises that might make them fall off their seats literally. The live band led by musical director Ejay Yatco is at the back middle portion of the stage, like a backdrop. 

We’ve seen its iterations in Manila in 2009, 2013, and 2019, but mid-life concerns have their way of making us forget details. To use one of Spring Awakening’s signature songs, we admit, our memory is “totally fucked.”

So let us backtrack to how this masterpiece of modern theater came to our consciousness. 

When American singer-composer Dunkan Sheik released his debut single, Barely Breathing, in 1996, some say his one and only hit song, it earned him a nomination in the 40th Grammy Awards in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category. As the title suggests, it speaks of repression and struggles to free oneself from a toxic, supposedly romantic relationship. 

Though Sheik lost to Elton John’s Candle In The Wind, the song became a hit, staying in the Billboard Top 100 for 12-and-a-half consecutive months, and making it to VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 1990s. He wrote more songs. released other albums, and had a minor hit, On A High, but Sheik was still widely considered a one-hit wonder. 

Then came musical theater. In 1999, he was invited by a fellow Buddhist, the poet-playwright Steven Sater, to write the music for the stage adaptation of Spring Awakening, a controversial play of the same title written in 1891 by Frank Wedekind. He was told it’s about “repressed German teenagers.”

Sheik, in an interview with Susan Morrison, articles editor of The New Yorker, said Sater wanted an “indie rock” flavor. It can be recalled that in 1996, or three years before he was asked by Sater, Rent debuted on Broadway, which reintroduced rock to the genre at a time when piano-dominated orchestra music was the trend.

Sheik said he was hesitant, but when Sater asked him to read the story, he found out it was about teenage angst. Like Barely Breathing, it tackles the consequences of being trapped in a suffocating relationship. But now, it’s about familial love at a time of toxic societal norms and standards, of teenagers coming to terms with their sexuality and not getting the help and understanding they seek from parents and teachers, the very same people they thought they could depend on. If we think about it, since the 19th century, these have been recurrent concerns across generations. 

But it’s more than just teenage angst or repressed teenagers. The play tackles botched abortion, rape, child abuse, repressed homosexuality, and teenage suicide, all elements enough to make one retreat to the mountains.

Sheik signed up for the job because they were the same themes that grunge and indie music explored at a time when his compositions were, well, “barely surviving” in the charts, or not at all. Infusing power chords and loud guitar riffs to Sater’s lyrics, the musical perfectly captured “teenage angst” in songs like Totally Fucked and The Bitch of Living. 

“There’s one aspect of Buddhist philosophy that life has this enormous richness, from the greatest joy to some kind of intense hellish experiences,” Sheik said in The New Yorker interview. “And I think, like any great art, Spring Awakening has that kind of spectrum of human emotion within it. It doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of human condition. And to me, the problem with some Broadway shows, there’s an aspect of evening light entertainment wherein you go to a dinner, see a show, and the experience would just go right past you. And it will be pleasant somehow but, you know, it didn’t have teeth. And that’s what we wanted for Spring Awakening, to push peoples’ buttons and make them think and feel.” 

‘That’s what we wanted for ‘Spring Awakening,’ to push peoples’ buttons and make them think and feel,’ says composer Duncan Sheik

After seven years of development, including workshops at La Jolla Playhouse and Lincoln Center, Spring Awakening had its off-Broadway run at Atlantic Theatre Company from May 19, 2006 to Aug. 5, 2006. On Broadway, it opened on Dec. 10 of the same year, at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer (American Idiot the musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Rigoletto) and featured Glee stars Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele in the lead roles.  

At the 2007 Tony Awards, the musical won eight awards, including Original Score for Sheik. The same year, it also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score. 

Based on a 2009 Playbill article by Adam Hetrick, the Tony-winning score includes All That’s Known, And Then There Were None, Blue Wind/Don’t Do Sadness, Left Behind, Mamma Who Bore Me, My Junk, The Bitch of Living, The Dark I Know Well, The Guilty Ones, The Song of Purple Summer, The Word of Your Body, Those You’ve Known, Totally Fucked, Touch Me, Whispering, and The Mirror-Blue Night.

For Sheik, it was like a second coming, a vindication, at the Grammy Awards. 

For the 2008 Grammys, the original Broadway cast recording that was produced by Sheik won eight awards, including Best Musical Theater Album.

In 2009, director Bobby Garcia, the late co-founder genius behind Atlantis Theatrical who was known for always bringing the latest, acclaimed Broadway plays and musicals to Manila like Avenue Q, Urinetown, Doubt, and Jesus Christ Superstar, among others, gifted the local audience with Spring Awakening. This time, he let Chari Arespacochaga direct it, with Joaquin Valdes as Melchior, Kelly Lati as Wendla, Nicco Manalo as Moritz, Miguel Mendoza as Georg, Bea Garcia as Ilse, Nar Cabico (Ernst), JC Santos (Hanschen), Sitti Navarro (Marta), and Yanah Laurel (Thea).

It was hailed by local critics as a groundbreaking “mind-fuck” musical. More so, it was widely patronized by regular theater viewers. Well, we have to mention that. Sometimes, being critically acclaimed doesn’t equate to sold-out shows. 

The Philippine staging was even a year ahead of the West End production, more proof how up-to-date Garcia had always been. 

In 2010, the West End staging won four Laurence Olivier Awards, namely Best New Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Supporting Performance, and Best Sound Design.

In 2013, Ateneo Blue Repertory restaged the musical in the Loyola Heights campus, with Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan directing it. He was a Communications Technology Management Major, and had been assistant director to Arespacochaga for BlueRep’s High School Musical.  For Spring Awakening, a young music genius and up-and-coming composer EJ Yatco was tapped as musical director. The actors were Gabriel Medina (Melchior), Bernice Reyes (Wendla), Boo Gabunada (Moritz), Maronne Cruz, Nica del Rosario, and Lara Antonio, among others. 

BlueRep restaged it in 2019, featuring Sandino Martin alternating with Ian Pangilinan as Melchior, Krystal Kane alternating with Erika Rafael as Wendla, and Juancho Gabriel alternating with Jason Tan Liwag as Moritz. It was co-directed by Missy Maramara and Darrel Uy, with Yatco returning as musical director. 

We remember taking a video of Martin and Kane during the press preview, performing The Word of Your Body.

In his review for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Vincen Gregory Yu cited Martin and Kane’s performances. He wrote how both gave “performances with astute command of feeling and character. (In Kane’s case, her name is prescient: She acts and sings with a level of crispness and transparency that instantly elevates her to the ranks of the pros.)”

Yu also highlighted Yatco’s musical direction. He wrote how Yatco “allows little room for roof-rattling belting. He substitutes vocal gymnastics with what sounds like unsullied yearning, an unexplainable bodily hunger put to melody. And more than subtly tweaking parts of the score to marvelous, dramatic effect, he has also whipped into shape the finest ensemble singing by any Filipino university theater company in at least the last decade.”

Yu added, “In some way, it also helps that this production is almost entirely composed of student-actors. What they lack in technical precision—though citing this really feels like nitpicking—they more than make up for in emotional clarity.”

As a whole, he wrote how he almost forgot “that this is just a school-based production,” and “set the bar really high to show what mere campus theater can truly achieve.”

Now, as the inaugural show for the 300-seat Blackbox at the Proscenium Theater, Spring Awakening comes to an audience that has survived a global pandemic. Admit it or not, the story is so dark and sad, a lot of scenes could be considered “triggers.”

‘Spring Awakening’ comes to an audience that has survived a global pandemic. Admit it or not, the story is so dark and sad, a lot of scenes could be considered ‘triggers’

However, playwright Steven Sater, in a recent interview about several re-stagings of Spring Awakening in the US and all over the world, said, “I first met Duncan and began work on Spring Awakening on Jan. 2, 1999. Sadly, in the 25 years we have worked on the show, the great themes from its source have never felt more urgent or timely. Parents, teachers, clergy in denial—lying to their children—trying to suppress the words of their bodies. Never has it felt more urgent to me that young people fight through the noise and demand that their voices be heard. It is, after all, only because youthful casts and crews keep giving their hearts to our show that our story continues to be told. I couldn’t be more grateful or more touched. It gives me hope!”

Pamintuan and Yatco return as director and musical director, respectively. Maramara, this time, is intimacy director. 

In a recent media conference, Pamintuan said, “The reason we are staging Spring Awakening today is because it resonates with a lot of people…But the themes tackled in the 1890s in Germany are still unfortunately happening today—issues on sexuality, identity, premarital sex, corporal punishment in schools, miseducation or a lack of education, suicide…all the more reason this show is important.”

He shared the experience of a family member who is a medical doctor. “She was sharing how patients in the delivery room don’t know they are pregnant and manganganak na sila. And that’s what happens to one of the characters in Spring Awakening. It opened my eyes to what is still lacking here in the Philippines. For suicide, we’ve seen that in the news. Young people dealing with pressures in school, keeping up with grades and stuff like that. These are topics that are really dire and critical, and the show tackles that.”

Pamintuan added, “I had the privilege of directing it in 2013 for Ateneo Blue Rep, when EJ was a budding music director, and it was the first time we did it together. I’ve seen both the 2019 ‘reincarnation’ and the 2009 first staging directed by my mentor, Chari Arespacochaga. Obviously for this show, we are blessed with a different, amazing set of actors.

“I really wanted to put on a queer lens, centering on oddness to make sure marginalized voices are well represented. This queer love is normally comedic, the laughing stock of the show, so to speak. You can see that in characters like Moritz. So, I want to tackle love that is sensitive and true. I see the characters with a different light and I am able to bring out new nuances. It’s an opportunity to really bring out these themes that are necessary and important.”

New York-based Nacho Tambunting returns to the Manila theater scene to play Melchior Gabor, alternating with Alex Diaz (Bar Boys: The Musical).

Sounding more like the lawyer character he played in Bar Boys, Diaz said, “Some people in our country are conditioned by religion and politics, but we need to see beyond those kinds of conditioning. We need to pursue the truth, whatever that is. We’ve got to do our own digging.”

Nic Chien (Matilda, Into The Woods) and Omar Uddin, meanwhile, alternate as Moritz Stiefel. 

Besides doing musicals, Chien has performed in concerts with his mother, Lea Salonga. In 2023, he participated and landed third place in the English Speaking Unionʼs National Shakespeare Competition.

Aside from being a semi-regular actor for primetime soap operas, Uddin has done a lot of acting for theater, namely Tagu-taguan Nasaan Ang Buwan, A Christmas Carol, The Lion King International Tour, Bar Boys: The Musical, Next To Normal, and Quomodo Desolata Es?

“This show is important because pinapalakas nito ang boses ng kabataan ngayon. This is an eye-opener to some adults and young parents who need to understand what the younger generation is going through. This might trigger something, but this might also help them to prevent terrible things from happening. I guess there are a lot of parallelisms with the show and the Filipinos of today, especially our generation,” Uddin said. 

“Nic and I are doing the role of Moritz, and one of the hardest parts ever since starting rehearsals is how we’re doing our best not to be one with Moritz, because the story is so dark. It’s very difficult for us,” he added. 

Chien agreed, saying, “Yes, how to separate from the character who is so sad. The role is so dark. He is alone and so vulnerable. It’s tearful, nakakaiyak talaga. I think, one of the hardest parts is when he…oh, I won’t tell which one, so as not to give away spoilers.”

Sheena Belarmino (One More Chance: The Musical, Tabing Ilog, Next To Normal) plays Wendla Bergmann.

There’s also Singapore-based Filipino actor Angelo Martinez, who is marking his homecoming debut in the Philippines by playing Hänschen Rilow. Sandbox Collective informed us that Martinez is the first Filipino to portray Evan Hansen in the Southeast Asian production of Dear Evan Hansen. He was also last seen as Aaron Puckett in Kimberly Akimbo alongside Menchu Lauchengco-yulo. 

There’s also Felicity Kyle Napuli playing Thea. Napuli has done lead roles, notably in Tanghalang Pilipino’s most staged original musical, Sandosenang Sapatos. She has also portrayed Becky in A Little Princess, Matilda in Matilda the Musical, and Young Nala in Disneyʼs The Lion King international tour. She is also one of the voices in the Filipino version of K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Making her theatrical debut is Angia Laurel, who is playing Martha Bessell. She is daughter of theater veterans Franco Laurel and Ayen Munji-Laurel. 

RELATED STORY: Franco Laurel the stage dad is now co-actor to his daughters

Nic Chien and Omar Uddin alternate as Moritz Stiefel, and have had to separate themselves from a character who is so sad, alone, and vulnerable

Laurel graduated from De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde with a degree in Production Design for Theater, and has earned critical acclaim for her debut single Back Again under ABS-CBN Musicʼs Tarsier Records. Her upcoming single, Talon, is set for release this November, with her first full-length album following in early 2027.

Other members of the cast include Vino Mabalot as Otto Lämmermeier; Jam Binay (Pingkian: Isang Musikal, Next to Normal, In the Eyes of the People, Bar Boys: The Musical) as Ilse Neumann; Mijon Cortez as Anna; Elian Dominguez (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Jepoy and the Magic Circle, Bar Boys: The Musical) as Ernst Röbel; and Davy Narciso as Georg Zirschnitz.

The female swings are Pappel and Nikki Bengzon, while the male swings are Lance Soliman and Gabo Tiongson.

And then there are the adults. Acclaimed “First Lady of Philippine Theater” Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and much-awarded multi-platform actress Ana Abad Santos alternate as the Adult Woman. Audie Gemora, often called the “King of Philippine Musical Theater,ˮ plays the Adult Man.

Abad Santos’ last theatrical performance was 10 years ago in Time Stands Still. It was staged by Red Turnip, a now-inactive theater group she co-founded with Cris Villonco, Jenny Jamora, and Rem Zamora. With other theater groups, among the memorable productions she did were A Streetcar Named Desire (as Blanche DuBois), Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (as Candida), and An Evening at the Opera (as Miranda). 

Gemora has clocked around 70 plays. Among them are local productions of Pippin, Evita, Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd, The Producers and La Cage Aux Folles.

As adults, they shared some words of wisdom, and as parents, how they handle sensitive conversations at home with their children. 

One topic was about body parts. Lauchengco-Yulo said, “The tendency with parents is to either shut down or deal with it, and give more warnings rather than explain. But if you don’t explain, children tend to seek answers elsewhere. Which can be very damaging, because they might get the wrong information.

“So, there must open communication. Be honest with your children for them to get the right information and know the precautions,” she added.

Abad Santos chimed in: “I’m also a mother and also a woman. Primarily, I am pro-choice. Our body, our choice. Everything starts from there. I’ll take from what Menchu said that the truth, the right information, must be accessible to our children. Because how can we decide what’s best for our body if we are not equipped with knowledge on how to handle situations? It’s our body, so we should know everything about it.” 

In good humor, Gemora said it’s beginning to sound like a parents’ conference. “When my son Richard was 13, I said it’s time to talk about sex. I have a book written for boys discussing sex in a scientific way, and it went well. Over the years, we talked about these things. Whenever I was asked and cool lang tayo pero sa totoo—waaaahhhhh!

“And that’s what we portray here. Older people like us, adults, who don’t know how to handle such talks,” he added.

“So, there’s really part of us that really doesn’t know how to tell because we are ashamed ourselves to explain. We are clueless. And I think that generation in the ’80s up to the ’90s, mga adults, pero hindi nila alam paano gawin yun, so naging istrikto na lang sila. Natuto na lang sila over the years,” Gemora said. 

Sab Jose-Gregorio, artistic director of Sandbox Collective, is also a parent, but she said her kids are still too young to ask about sexuality or their body parts. 

Instead, she said that Sandbox is also like her grown-up child, now 20 years old, after she took over last year from co-founder and artistic director Toff de Venecia, who is on study leave in the United Kingdom. She said the musical’s original title is Spring Awakening, The Tragedy of Childhood, and it was written like a warning.

Besides Pamintuan, Yatco, and Maramara, the artistic team behind Spring Awakening includes Nunoy Van Den Burgh as choreographer, Wika Nadera as set designer, Raven Ong as costume designer, D Cortezano as lighting designer, Gabbi Campomanes as assistant director, Salve Villarosa as dramaturg, Aron Roca as sound designer, Sheik Completado as technical director, and Jaydee Jasa as hair and makeup designer.

For those about to watch Spring Awakening, it is assured they will hear the live band’s music and the actors’ voices, even the faint whispers, perfectly clear in any seat they choose. Like the 780-seat main performance hall of the Proscenium Theater, the Blackbox is equipped with advanced, world-class acoustics designed by German firm Müller-BBM, specifically featuring an acoustical shell that ensures rich sound. 

Spring Awakening is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI), New York, NY, USA. The show runs until March 22, 2026. Tickets are now available on Ticket2Me (tinyurl.com/SandboxSpring2026).

For immediate help on dealing with depression and other mental health-related problems, contact the National Center for Mental Health Crisis Hotline at 1553 (landline), (0917) 889-8727, or (0966-351-4518). For more hotline numbers: https://findahelpline.com/countries/ph/topics/suicidal-thoughts.