Spring Awakening/Characters

Melchior Gabor
"Played by Jonathan Groff"

Headstrong, handsome, and charismatic. He knows much more than the others because of what he reads in books. Melchior is the best friend to Moritz, and often finds himself getting into trouble for standing up for his nervous wreck of a friend. He is also a love interest to Wendla. See Unwanted Harem for his other admirers (pretty much the whole teenage female cast, bar Martha.)


 * Anti Hero
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys
 * Big No: On discovering
 * Bishonen
 * Grief Song: Sings "Left Behind" at

Moritz Stiefel
"Played by John Gallagher Jr."

Melchior's insecure best friend whose dreams of women haunt him to the point that he is too afraid to fall asleep. He is disgusted by his new sexual feelings and his inability to control them. As this is the 19th century, he is terrified to even speak of such things aloud, and asks Melchior to write down the knowledge he needs and to slip it into his satchel after Gym class. He passes his exams despite falling asleep in classes often, but  This leads to bad, bad things for Moritz.

" 'Cause you know, I don't do sadness--not even a little bit.
 * Adults Are Useless: Many ways for Moritz. Firstly, he is
 * Age Appropriate Angst
 * Anime Hair
 * The stage directions specifically call for this.
 * Break the Cutie
 * : He and Wendla appear to Melchior
 * I Want Song: "The Bitch of Living"
 * Love Triangle: Type 3 with Martha and Ilse. They both have feelings for him; he may or may not be oblivious, but his main struggle is trying  to cope with his feelings about anyone.
 * Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Played for laughs at first, but it quickly slides into genuine Tear Jerker.
 * Reality Subtext: The first person he asks about his Erotic Dreams? His best friend Melchior. Even teens in current times are too afraid or embarrassed to ask their parents about sex, and considering Moritz's dad and Wendla's mother...
 * Sanity Slippage Song / BSOD Song: "Don't Do Sadness."
 * Sanity Slippage Song / BSOD Song: "Don't Do Sadness."

Just don't need it in my life--don't want any part of it.

I don't do sadness!

Hey, I've done my time, looking back on it all--man, it blows my mind."

"I don't do sadness, so been there.

Don't do sadness--just don't care..."

Wendla Bergman
"Played by Lea Michele"

An innocent, friendly young woman. A childhood friend to the others and eventual love interest to Melchior. She opens the musical with her song "Mama Who Bore Me", searching for answers to the questions she has about life.


 * Babies Make Everything Better
 * Break the Cutie
 * Dr. Feelgood: "Who lives in this house, Mama?"
 * Ghost Song: "Those You've Known", and arguably to some shade "Whispering". The latter seems
 * "See the father bent in grief/The mother dressed in mourning/Sister crumbles, and the neighbours grumble/Preacher issues warning." Also coupled with Tear Jerker.
 * Pajama Clad Heroine: Although, because of her... anemia. It is what she appears in in "Those You've Known" as it is what she  She changes into her normal clothes for "The Song of Purple Summer."

Ilse Neumann
"Played by Lauren Pritchard"

A childhood friend of the group. She is seen as a sign of something that could happen to Martha if she speaks out about what happens to her at home. Ilse is portrayed in "The Dark I Know Well" as an echo of what Martha is going through; Ilse was beaten and sexually abused by her father, and Martha is at the time of the song. Martha yearns to escape, and we never actually learn if she does. Ilse now lives in an artist's colony named Priapia with the Bohemians, but the girls think of this as no way to live for their fallen friend. She is symbolically seen as Moritz's last chance of redemption, and the "blue wind" as opposed to Moritz's rash and reckless summer wind he ponders on before.


 * Abusive Parents: "Ilse! Storytime!"
 * Childhood Friend Romance: And how.
 * Counterpoint Duet: "Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind"
 * Innocence Lost: "Until this morning, when he woke me with a gun, set against my breast. He said: 'One twitch and it's the end.' Really gave me the goose bumps."
 * Lonely Together: "The Dark I Know Well" for her and Martha.
 * Love Triangle: Type 3 with Martha and Moritz. She and Martha have feelings for Moritz, who can't quite handle his feelings for anyone.
 * MacGuffin: The flowers she carries are, you guessed it, purple summer flowers--the name of the song of redemption and new life that Ilse leads the whole cast in at the end of the show. But before this and when Moritz rejects her, she runs back to Priapia. These flowers become, and the actress playing Ilse must drop them in an exact place as she runs off.
 * Mad Artist: The men she models for. One of them isn't that bad (chasing her around and dabbing her with paint), but the other one... see Innocence Lost above.
 * Sexy Shirt Switch: For her  scene with Moritz, she wears nothing but a man's white shirt. And then it gets sad when you remember she's a teenager. ...Who got held at gunpoint just that morning, and most likely ran for the door as soon as she could.

Hanschen Rilow
"Played by Jonathan B. Wright"

A very humorous, almost arrogant classmate of the boys. An effortless perfectionist who easily seduces Ernst.


 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Depending on the actor, Hanschen can vary from smug but good-hearted to a sleazy, horny seducer.
 * Bury Your Gays: Averted. He and Hanschen survive the play completely intact (if by virtue of disappearing from the action for a bit when Melchior's story comes back into focus) and the original play was strongly censored because it did not show the boys as criminals receiving inevitable punishment. (As well as, y'know, Wendla's rape and... the general plot.)
 * A Date With Rosie Palms

Ernst Robel
"Played by Gideon Glick"

A naive classmate of the boys who falls deeply for Hanschen's seduction.

Georg Zirschnitz
"Played by Skylar Astin"

Another classmate who lusts after his older, busty piano teacher Fraulein Grossenbusterhaulter.

Otto Lammermeier
"Played by Brian Charles Johnson"

Another classmate. He dreamt of his mother, as Melchior humorously reveals to Moritz in an effort to help him relax.

Thea
"Played by Remy Zaken"

One of Wendla's friends, a girl who tries to brush her feelings of sexual desire under the carpet to please adults. She tries to understand Martha's problems after she reveals them by saying that her Uncle Klaus says that "if you don't discipline a child, you don't love it." Martha simply replies with "Well, that must be."

Martha Bessel
"Played by Lilli Cooper"

One of Wendla's friends who is abused sexually by her father. She unwittingly reveals feelings for that "sad, soulful sleepyhead Moritz Stiefel" much to the dismay of her friends. She is not a major character, but shows her friends her bruises from her father. As songs in this musical are considered inner monologues, it is shown that she can't tell her friends the whole story.


 * Abusive Parents: "You say 'Time for bed now, child"/Mom just smiles that smile.../Just like she never saw me/Just like she never saw me..."
 * Amped up from the stage play in a very chilling way.
 * Innocence Lost
 * Lonely Together: She and Ilse are a platonic version; "The Dark I Know Well" ends on the two of them alone on stage, clinging to each other until the lights black out.
 * Love Triangle: Type 3 with Moritz and Ilse.

Anna Reiniger
"Played by Phoebe Strole"

One of Wendla's friends, who cannot wrap her head around Martha's trials.