‘Spring Awakening’ Cast Reunites at Tony Awards — Fans React (VIDEO)
The original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening reunited at the 75th annual Tony Awards on June 12. Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, Skylar Astin, and more took the stage to sing “Touch Me,” which anyone who knows the show knows is the ultimate Astin solo moment.
Wearing all black in front of a projection of their old Broadway set, the cast (and its original band!) delivered its third reunion in the last year. Fans most recently saw them all back together in the Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known HBO documentary in May, which showed the musical’s 2021 reunion concert as well as shared cast interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the original productions.
Michele introduced the performance along with Zach Braff, who gave the show’s introduction at the 2007 Tony Awards. Check out the Spring Awakening 2022 Tony Awards performance, below.
John Gallagher Jr. (The Newsroom, Westworld), Gideon Glick (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Krysta Rodriguez (Just One Kiss, Halston), Lilli Cooper, Lauren Pritchard, Gerard Canonico, Jennifer Damiano, Robert Hager, Brian Johnson, Phoebe Strole, Jonny B. Wright, and Remy Zaken also took part in the reunion performance. Gallagher won a Tony in 2007 for his performance in the rock musical. And Cooper is currently in POTUS on Broadway, which co-stars Tonys pre-show host Julianne Hough and nominees Rachel Dratch and Julie White.
Fifteen years after the show opened, Spring Awakening is still as beloved as ever. Fans on Twitter couldn’t get enough of the reunion. Check out their reactions, below.
Obsessed with the way the Spring Awakening cast reunited one last time, and then has just kept reuniting. (I love them all.) #TonyAwards
— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) June 13, 2022
omg I forgot how much I love Spring Awakening. Let this be our Music Man. Revive it again and again and again
— Adam Gwon (@AdamGwon) June 13, 2022
the spring awakening original cast is living every elder drama kid’s dream of getting together to reprise their senior year musical and actually having a captive audience
— justice for cloudbusting (@udreytaylorward) June 13, 2022
SPRING AWAKENING pic.twitter.com/4130Aj7lDg
— Emily Kranking (@emilykranking) June 13, 2022
You can tell this performance of SPRING AWAKENING is for the true nerds because they did “Touch Me” and not “Totally Fucked” or any of the more well-known songs from the show #TonyAwards
— Diep Tran (@diepthought) June 13, 2022
Can confirm I’m still gay for the whole cast of Spring Awakening the musical. #tonyawards
— Dandy Playwright Jeremy O Harris (@jeremyoharris) June 13, 2022
Spring Awakening shot to popularity after it won eight awards, including Best Musical, at the 2007 Tonys. Before then, it had a highly successful off-Broadway run but had a difficult time filling seats when it transferred to Broadway. After its Tonys performance and wins, the musical had no issues getting butts in seats.
Deaf West’s revival of Spring Awakening opened in 2015 and featured deaf actors, plus some of the original Broadway cast, like Rodriguez. A Spring Awakening movie is now in the works starring Auli’i Cravalho.
The Tony Awards were hosted by Ariana DeBose and featured performances from the casts of Company, A Strange Loop, Paradise Square, Mr. Saturday Night, MJ, Six: The Musical, Girl From the North Country, and The Music Man. Bernadette Peters sang “Children Will Listen” to honor the life of Stephen Sondheim, and Billy Porter performed the Tonys In Memoriam segment.
A Strange Loop took home the award for Best Musical, The Lehman Trilogy won Best Play, Company and Take Me Out took home the best revival honors, and Angela Lansbury was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
