Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Shows can be innovative without being good or vice versa. But when ``Spring Awakening,'' a new musical, is both, it is grounds for cheering. It has been compared to ``Rent,'' but in my view, it is more original and, quite simply, better. This ``Spring Awakening'' may well be the first truly 21st-century musical on Broadway.

Based on the 1891 ``children's tragedy'' by Frank Wedekind, it was a sensation in its day and periodically has been revived to good effect. Steven Sater, librettist and lyricist, and Duncan Sheik, a pop star and serious composer, began turning it into a musical in 1999. After many workshops, concert performances and delays, ``Spring Awakening'' opened last summer at the Atlantic Theater Company and was an instant success.

I feared that something might be lost in the move to Broadway, as so often happens. On the contrary: With considerable rewriting, it is now better than before, having lost none of its immediacy while gaining in impact.

It is the story of schoolchildren in a repressive 1890s Germany: What happens when craven, puritanical parents and Procrusteanly intolerant teachers obstruct or punish awakening sexual impulses with disastrous results.

There is Wendla, the young girl approaching womanhood whose mother won't tell her how children are conceived; Melchior, the smart youth who does know, but only from books; and Moritz, the slow learner pounced on by teachers and frightened by his sexual dreams. Also Inge. whose family has cast her out for running with the wrong crowd, and Martha, whose father beats her with sadistic, presumably erotic delight.

Unflinching Story

There are guilt-inducing masturbation and nascent homosexuality, and escalating maltreatment by adults. Wedekind studded his unflinching story with grotesquely satirical humor, a lot of which is diminished here, partly because the grownups are all played by one actor and one actress.

But what is gained is Sheik's propulsive alternative rock score, which knows when to soften for romantic or wistful numbers. Cannily orchestrated by Sheik, with adroit vocal and additional arrangements by AnnMarie Milazzo and Simon Hale, it achieves a seductive sound that most recent Broadway musicals have lacked.

Sater's verses are nothing if not lyrical, sometimes even a bit too sophisticated for the kids from whom they issue. Wendla's ``Oh how we/ Fall in silence from the sky/ And whisper some silver reply,'' and Melchior's response, ``Window by window/ You try and look into/ This brave new you that you are'' are cases in point.

Too Emancipated

Though effective in performance, Sater's book elicits discomfiting second thoughts. There is a basic discrepancy between the plot, names (funny if you know German, albeit mispronounced here) and costumes that are 1890 Germany, and a language that is very American, very now. These talkers sound too emancipated and streetwise for the situations they are in.

There is inventiveness in the alternating use of body, handheld and standing mikes, in the way disparate actions are shown contiguously or in bold crosscutting. Bill T. Jones's youthfully evocative choreography -- it is unlike the dancing anywhere else on Broadway -- is idiosyncratic yet mesmerizing and deserves its own accolades for advancing the form. Kevin Adams's lighting, enhanced by a good deal of neon is, well, electrifying, and Susan Hilferty's period costumes are scrupulously appropriate.

Christine Jones's set largely replicates the look of the Atlantic's theater, an intimate desanctified church, which seems entirely apt given the importance of religiosity, imposed and rejected, in the play. The intimacy is further enhanced by having several rows of audience members onstage bracketing the action.

Commendable Unfussiness

Michael Mayer has directed a generally good young cast resourcefully and with commendable unfussiness, though the boys come off better than the girls and the adults. The winning Jonathan Groff and tortured John Gallagher Jr. are excellent as Melchior and Moritz, but even the secondary parts, such as the manipulative Hanschen (Jonathan B. Wright), are solidly taken.

The girls are somewhat more colorless, and Lauren Pritchard, as the ``bad girl'' Ilse, is rather more appealing than the ``good girl'' lead, Wendla, however conscientiously played by Lea Michele. As the adults, Stephen Spinella and Christine Estabrook are serviceable but without much distinction, though it could hardly be otherwise, given the multiplicity of their assignments.

I could also have wished for a less obviously feelgood ending than one in which the quick and the dead join hands in a hopeful anthem. But enough carping. ``Spring Awakening'' strikingly augurs the genre's future.

Spring awakening is running at Manhattan's Eugene O'Neill Theater, 230 W. 49th St. Information: +1-212-239-6200; http://www.springawakening.com.

(John Simon is the New York theater critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this review: John Simon in New York at jis1925@aol.com.

Last Updated: December 11, 2006 09:37 EST