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was nineteen (full-on simulated sex), to the point that I eventually got a Post-it in my dressing room that simply stated, “We should see your breasts,” from the director, Michael Mayer. I was excited to do this, quite honestly, because I loved challenging the people in the audience who found it uncomfortable. I did have a clause in my contract, though, that I never had to do it when my dad was in the audience.
    Besides the subject matter, the music was incredible . Duncan Sheik wrote it (I still have the CD of him singing all the songs, which was delivered along with the original script), and it sounded like a cross between Radiohead and the Beatles. While Rent had broken some ground, this really was a completely new sound for Broadway. Funnily, at my audition, they asked me to sing a pop song, but I was a musical-theater kid—the only song I knew was Jessica Simpson’s “I Think I’m in Love with You,” which I had heard on the radio. Thanks to my years on Glee , I know a lot more pop songs now!
    We opened in 2005 to great reviews, which wasn’t surprising since we had a cast of really talented kids: Jonathan Groff, Jon Gallagher, Lauren Pritchard … the list goes on and on. And like with Glee , which we’ll talk about in a later chapter, the show rode entirely on the backs of those kids. One day, when we were in tech rehearsal, which is when you run through the play again and again and again to set the lighting, I was sitting up in the balcony of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre with Lauren Pritchard watching the goings on. She turned to me and said, “Lea, what are we going to do if this show doesn’t make it?” and then was promptly called to the stage to do one of her songs, which was a really beautiful number called “Blue Wind.” I sat up there and I watched her, and I got chills. When she came back up to the balcony after, I looked at her and I said, “Lauren, if you do that every night, we’re going to be just fine.”
    And we were more than fine. While we opened the show in a tiny church in Chelsea, we were soon on Broadway and eventually found ourselves the stars of one of the season’s biggest success stories. In many ways, it was the perfect training ground for Glee , though on a much smaller scale, and like with Glee , those kids in the cast became my best friends and, essentially, my family. It wasn’t just a showmance—our bonds were very real.
    EMOTIONAL HARDINESS
    If you haven’t seen it, Spring Awakening is a very intense play to both watch and perform. What we went through on that stage was very, very hard and emotional, and it called on all of us to dig deep eight shows a week. Spoiler alert, but the character I played, Wendla, is young, precocious, and strong, and over the course of the show she goes through a lot. There’s a very intense beating scene, there’s a very intense sex scene, and ultimately Wendla dies from a botched abortion at the end of the play. It wasn’t easy stuff. There were days when I really didn’t want to go there emotionally; drawing upon those feelings every night so I could make Wendla come alive was truly exhausting. But doing that show again and again gave me stamina, and it taught me how to really access my emotions. I was going through a lot of personal stuff at the time—I was in a relationship that had its ups and downs—and so to do the show, I had to put that aside. That was an important lesson: No matter what, the show must go on. There are 1,100 people who have paid to see you perform, and you have to do your best. If the turmoil in my daily life wasn’t something that I could harness and use on the stage, then I left everything that was going on in the dressing room. I could never afford to let it affect the show in a negative way.
IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT, SPRING AWAKENING IS A VERY INTENSE PLAY TO BOTH WATCH AND PERFORM. WHAT WE WENT THROUGH ON THAT STAGE WAS VERY, VERY HARD AND EMOTIONAL, AND IT CALLED ON ALL OF US TO DIG DEEP EIGHT SHOWS