Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- ``Spring Awakening'' opened on Dec. 10 to the most ecstatic notices any new Broadway musical has received in years. Money reviews, in the argot of the business.

Yet two weeks later, the show's producers are still waiting for the big money to roll in. Broadway is heading into the post- holiday box-office doldrums. January and February are shakedown months, when even hit shows go begging for customers and weak sisters fall by the wayside.

``I just want it to run,'' said Steven Sater, who adapted the original 1891 German play ``Spring Awakening'' by Frank Wedekind and wrote lyrics to the songs. ``I love this show so much. I want people to see it.''

With little time to build up advance ticket sales and must- see word of mouth, ``Spring Awakening'' has been hard-pressed to capitalize on the critics' enthusiasm.

The box office improved after the opening, but the mesmerizing $6 million musical has yet to earn a weekly operating profit. It took in just $303,000 last week, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers. That is one-third of its box office potential and nearly $100,000 short of its weekly expenses of roughly $400,000.

Slow Advance Sales

When previews began, group sales, typically 10 percent to 15 percent of a musical's sales, were virtually nonexistent, said Scott Mallalieu, president of Group Sales Box Office. ``It's building a significant group advance,'' he added, though he declined to cite specific figures.

The show is adventurous stuff for Broadway. It follows a group of teenagers through their sexual awakening in a provincial, repressive German town in the 1890s. Denied the basic facts about how their bodies work, they struggle with puberty and follow their instincts, with unhappy consequences.

Singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik wrote the contemporary and often poignant pop-rock score. The show features teen sex, masturbation and abortion, as well as plenty of hormonal humor.

``A straight shot of eroticism steamed open last night at the Eugene O'Neill Theater,'' Charles Isherwood wrote in the New York Times, ``and Broadway, with its often puerile sophistication and its sterile romanticism, may never be the same.''

``It has been compared to `Rent,''' Bloomberg's John Simon wrote, ``but in my view it is more original and, quite simply, better.'' Nearly all the critics called ``Spring Awakening'' the voice of Broadway's future.

Embracing `Spring'

Young theatergoers making their way to the Eugene O'Neill Theater are also embracing it. ``Oh my God, this is the best show I've seen in so long,'' Tracy Cowit, a senior at Syosset High School, said at a Friday night performance.

``It's incredible,'' said her friend Tracey Abims, a sophomore. ``A totally new Broadway experience.''

But innovation can be box office poison. Unlike such hits as ``The Producers'' and ``Hairspray,'' ``Spring Awakening'' lacks stars, a well-known score (so far) or a movie as source material.

A key demographic -- teenagers and twentysomethings -- aren't traditional theater stalwarts. The average age of the Broadway theatergoer is 42, according to a study by the producers' league released in October.

``Rent,'' which celebrated 10 years on Broadway in April, might seem an obvious template for success. But composer Jonathan Larson tragically died 2 ½ weeks before the show opened off- Broadway, creating a publicity bonanza. And Larson was a musical theater devotee who built a contemporary tale of struggling downtown artists on the bones of ``La Boheme.''

Flouting Convention

Sheik, by contrast, was determined not to follow musical theater conventions when Sater -- a playwright, fellow Buddhist and chanting partner -- first proposed the show in 1999. Sheik says he had never understood why characters in musicals break into song when they could just as easily speak to each other.

The partners agreed that the ``Spring Awakening'' score would represent internal monologues -- what the teenagers were thinking but couldn't say. While the dialogue would be relatively formal a la 19th century, Sater decided the songs would employ contemporary idioms. Songs in the show have titles such as ``Bitch of Living'' and ``My Junk (Is You).''

They wrote fast, but had to cool their heels. Despite staged readings around the country, a production never materialized. Finally, after a single performance at Lincoln Center in 2005, the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater staged it the following year. Michael Mayer directed.

``The reaction from the audience downtown was over the top,'' said Ira Pittelman, who backed the Atlantic run and is a lead producer on Broadway. ``Everyone from David Bowie to Stephen Sondheim came.''

26 Producers

Raising the money set a new milestone. Above the title are 26 producers, the most ever on a Broadway show, according to the producers' league. The previous record was 22 producers, for 2005's ``Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.''

Other producers include Tom Hulce -- one of four lead producers and a former actor who starred in the 1984 film ``Amadeus'' -- advertising man and comedy writer Max Cooper and actress Tamara Tunie of ``Law & Order: SVU.''

Producers have tried to play to their strengths. Instead of releasing a cast recording a few months into the run, Sheik produced one in time for release on opening night. And he assembled it as painstakingly as any of his half-dozen solo albums. The aim was to create a concept album that expands the show's audience beyond theater nerds.

Popular Music

``In the 1930s, Broadway music was the popular music of the day,'' said Sheik, a 37-year-old graduate of Phillips Academy Andover and Brown University. ``In the `50s and `60s they separated. It's always been our idea to bring those worlds back together again.''

(The CD, distributed by Universal Music's Decca Broadway, has sold 5,700 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The figure doesn't account for digital sales, such as iTunes. ``Rent'' sold 1.2 million in 10 years.)

An Internet marketing firm was enlisted to sell the show over the web. Damian Bazadona, president of ``Situation Marketing,'' said his firm gave away tickets to bloggers to build word of mouth, among other strategies, supplementing paid advertising on the Web.

``It's a test to see if there's a market for a musical that has nothing going for it,'' said Richard Seff, a playwright, actor and long-time Broadway observer, ``except that it's wonderful.''

(Philip Boroff is a theater reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on this story: Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 22, 2006 00:11 EST