Now that they’ve announced that their show will close after fourteen performances, the creators of High Fidelity are sure to be harassed from every side. What a lousy idea, people will say. In fact, the notion of putting Nick Hornby’s novel onstage always had allure. The lives of its characters, especially Rob, the heartsick record-store owner and pop savant, are suffused with music. Onstage, the energy of live performance could give a story this rich in music real punch.
In the end, librettist David Lindsay-Abaire and songwriters Tom Kitt and Amanda Green only began to make good on this promise. The score consisted of the vague Broadway-rock wash that sounds authentic only next to other pop musicals. It was funny when Rob’s customers danced around the store, but it violated everything they hold dear. When Barry and his band performed at the end, there was no band—they sang while the pit orchestra played.
That’s just how Broadway works, you’ll say, and for decades that’s been true. But herein lies the final brilliance of Spring Awakening. It offers a reminder for some, a news flash for others, that the conventional Broadway musical is only one of many ways to tell stories with music onstage. The creators of High Fidelity flattened their story until it fit that form, and it closed in two weeks; Sheik and Sater threw the conventions away, and rock on.
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