For Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele, Returning to Spring Awakening Meant Crying and Making Out
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Jonathan Groff calls Spring Awakening: Those You've Known a "nonstop cry fest," and Lea Michele referred to the experience as a "tsunami of emotions." The same could possibly be said of my interview with them.
The past fall, the two reunited—along with the entire original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening—for a one-night-only concert in honor of the show's 15th anniversary. That reunion concert, replete with interviews with Michele, Groff, and others, and footage from the show's original run, will be available to stream on HBO Max on May 3.
"I think I blacked out the entire performance," Michele tells Town & Country. "We are so grateful to have this documentary selfishly to get to see what it was like 15 years ago, but also to have this reunion together was very emotional."
Read on for a conversation with the best friends about what it was like to reunite for Spring Awakening—and make out again.
So, have you watched the documentary back yet?
Lea Michele: He's seen it a couple times and then I got to watch it last night with John and John Groff. They sat next to me.
Jonathan Groff: John Gallagher!
LM: Sorry—oh my God, that would be my dream, two Jonathan Groffs. One is available to talk to me, then the other one would be free, and it would be a dream come true. But until I can multiply Jonathan Groff, I have John Gallagher Jr., and we watched it together. It was so incredible to see it and to watch it with these men I've known forever.
I was particularly moved by how Spring Awakening: Those You've Known seamlessly transitioned the performances from 15 years ago with the reunion concert.
LM: It's really unbelievable, those flash cuts between 2006 and 2021. It's very wild to see you; I didn't feel very young when I was 19, I thought I was so adult, like, here I am in this show, but then you look, and I was a baby, like so young and such smooth skin!
JG [laughing]: Your skin looks amazing.
LM: Not like when I was 19!
Lea, in the documentary, you talk about how you've been part of this show since you were 14 and now you're a mom and you speak about the anxiety of doing the reunion, comparing that to giving birth. Can you talk about specifically what was it like for you to return to this show as a mom?
LM: Oh my gosh, you're gonna make me cry. Whether you're an actor or not, any mother stepping back into the workspace after having a child is an incredibly overwhelming and emotional experience.
For me personally, I've been flooded with a lot of guilt of leaving my son and not spending every waking moment with him. It was the upside of being in quarantine during the majority of my pregnancy and the early time with my son Ever: being able to be together every single day. But, I've been performing since I was 8 years old, and it's what I love to do so much; it's what lights up my brain and my soul, and he does as well, but I was so grateful to have the opportunity to stand on the stage again and perform. Not just to perform, but to perform a show that means so much to all of us, and with a cast that I feel so incredibly supported by. It was a gift as a new mom to be able to do what I love, but also with people that I love so much.
In the documentary, you two also discuss how you had such a sense of optimism and hope as teenagers and you question, could we do Spring Awakening as adults. Could you speak to that hope and that optimism that was necessary to do this show every day, eight times a week and how it felt?
JG: For me, it was therapy. I couldn't wait to get to the theater at night. I talk in the documentary about being closeted and having a compartmentalized life; I couldn't wait to get there to play someone that was confident, that was strong, that was so self-expressed. Giving the microphone to young people—the microphone that was given to us, this microphone is given to any young person that does this show and it is so profound, and so life altering.
As challenging as the material, because of all the things that happened in the show, to me, it was the gift of a lifetime. It allowed me to express myself. It allowed me to just weep every night. It allowed me to be sexual. For me, it was therapy. I couldn't wait to get there. I never dragged my feet into the theater.
LM: For me, it was a little harder. There were aspects of the show that were incredibly therapeutic, like "My Junk," "Touch Me," or "Purple Summer." But, going on the journey with Wendla every night, that ends in such tragedy, sometimes having to do that twice a day and being so young and trying to learn how to be an adult, lead a show, handle this material—It was a lot. We all did the best that we could.
But there were days where I was like, I don't feel like having someone beat me in front of an entire audience. It was a lot emotionally, but it was a responsibility that we all took on and knew that what we were doing was so important, and these themes are just as important now as they were in 2006. We're so grateful to have this documentary now be in people's homes to see, and to learn about Spring Awakening. The show is more than just a show. It can really save children.
On that point—of the show being more than just a show—I know you two are well aware, but there's such a potent fandom around Spring Awakening and it's been so strong for 15 years. What do you think it is about the show that creates such devoted fans?
LM: I remember when I started on Glee, and we were doing these mall tours promoting the show. Every person that would show up would say to me, 'oh my god, I'm the biggest Spring Awakening fan.' 'I saw Spring Awakening 10 times.' I'll never forget, Cory [Monteith] turned to me and he was like, 'What is Spring Awakening? What is this?'
We have such incredible fans. Duncan and Steven wrote the most beautiful score, these songs—it's a rock soundtrack. The music is so evocative and transports you somewhere else, to a place that feels safe. But also, whether it is you relating to Wendla or to Melchior or to Anna or to Martha, everyone can see themselves in one of these characters. There's something so safe and comforting about that. Kids and people wanted to be in the theater to feel safe, and to be a part of the energy that we were creating every night. It was truly something special.
Music can really bring back sense memories; for me, watching the documentary brought me back to freshman year of college, when my roommate was in the show as Martha. So listening the music, I felt completely taken back. Performing the music again, what did it bring back in your bodies? What came back to you that you maybe had forgotten?
LM: Wow that's a great question—
JG [interrupting]: Made out so hard. That was the thing where I was like— cause now we're adults—
LM: We don't make out just for fun.
JG: We don't make out for fun, but now—
LM: Or, we're not getting paid to make out anymore.
JG: But it came back, the muscle memory. Because we were so physical, the way we touched each other and the way that we be like formed an intimacy with each other, came back like, whoa.
LM: [laughing]
JG: Physically, yes. And the music makes me cry. And Lea singing "Mama Who Bore Me," Lea getting on the chair at the beginning and singing that song—just, forget it.
LM: I don't think I've experienced since Spring Awakening the freedom and that bravery of what it meant every night to get on stage and literally have to let go of any ounce of your vulnerability. I start the show standing on a chair in a completely sheer night gown, I have to take my clothes off every night. And there were nights where that was very challenging. As a girl and as a woman, I really didn't want to expose myself.
But there were other nights where it was so invigorating to do that. And I remember I would sometimes find the one person in the audience that I knew was uncomfortable, or maybe offended by the material, and I really made sure that I made eye contact with that person. So, I did get that sort of rush again of playing this character that as an actor, really requires this such a sense of bravery.
I mean, you two are holding hands right now, so much of this documentary is not just the Spring Awakening reunion, but it's like your love story. It's about your friendship and the love you two share. What's it like for the two of you to have that on screen in this way?
LM [tearing up]: We hope in life that we meet like one soulmate, you know? I'm so fortunate every night that I get to go home to the most amazing husband and son, but even outside of that, that I have a soulmate in Jonathan.
There are friends, but then there are friends that stand the test of time and that stand by your side. Jonathan stood by my side during the biggest tragedy that I have ever experienced, but he also stood by my side at my wedding. I didn't have bridesmaids, I had Jonathan Groff. And I'm so grateful to him; there are moments where I truly can say, I would not have survived if it wasn't for Jonathan.
Also, in life, it's so comforting to have someone that sees you and your shoulders drop because you know when you're with that person that they understand you and they see you. No matter what season or phase of life you're in, and I'm so grateful that I have that in him.
JG: It's beyond words. When we first met, she had done three Broadway shows, she was incredibly professional and she was an impeccable artist and always sounds perfect. She is an extraordinary professional. And I was very green. So, I was learning a lot from Lea through the course of the show. Our last weekend [starts tearing up]—oh my god, what?—our last weekend of the show, we spent the night in the theater.
We were sitting there and we were having wine on the stage—so illegal!—and she was like, I would give up everything about this experience for our friendship. And it was such a moment then. Little did we know we had an entire 15 years after that of bonding. It really felt like we were having to say goodbye at that time.
LM: But we didn't. Our friendship and our relationship has only continued to grow—
JG: The letter I wrote you when you were going to Italy!
LM: Oh my god!
JG: There's all these artifacts through the years—
LM: And to think we went on to do a whole television show together, afterwards, it's wild to think we had that, too.
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