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Watch Matt Doyle and Andy Mientus Take On Playbill’s Spring Awakening Sing-Off Challenge
The two Broadway stars team up to see how well they still remember the lyrics to the Duncan Sheik-Steven Sater musical.
Playbill was feeling the need for some Spring Awakening magic. After all, when the original production began on Broadway 11 years ago this month it crashed through boundaries of what musicals about teen angst and identity could be and won eight 2007 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Then in 2015, the musical again broke new ground when the Michael Arden-helmed Deaf West production opened on Broadway featuring a cast of hearing and Deaf actors singing in English and American Sign Language.
Read More: HOW CHOREOGRAPHER SPENCER LIFF FORMED A NEW LANGUAGE FOR DEAF WEST’S SPRING AWAKENING
We united Matt Doyle from the original Broadway run and Andy Mientus from the revival run to the Playbill offices and challenged them to a “Spring Awakening-off.”
Spring Awakening marked Doyle’s Broadway debut. He first arrived as the replacement cover in April of 2007, but eventually took over the role of Hanschen and then Melchior in 2008. He went on to star as Hugo Peabody in Bye Bye Birdie before replacing as Broadway’s Elder Price in The Book of Mormon. He most recently appeared on Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater’s War Horse, but wowed audiences in Off-Broadway’s immersive Sweeney Todd and New World Stages’ latest adaptation of A Clockwork Orange.
Mientus originated the role of Hanschen in the Deaf West staging. Prior to that, Mientus played the role of Marius in the 2014 revival of
Les Misérables. He was also seen in the one-night-only concert version of
Parade at Lincoln Center and the one-night-only site specific concert of
Ragtime on Ellis Island.
Read More: WHAT WAS IT LIKE AT RAGTIME ON ELLIS ISLAND?
Neither knew which song was about to play, but when their red light illuminated, they had to sing. Who does it better? You be the judge.
