Lea Michele helped turn the clock back ― musically, at least ― nearly 16 years when she took the stage at the 2022 Tony Awards Sunday night.
The actor and her longtime pal Jonathan Groff reunited with the cast of Broadway’s “Spring Awakening” for a haunting performance of the song “Touch Me.”
When it debuted on Broadway in 2006, “Spring Awakening” broke ground as an exploration of teen sexuality, mental health and sexual assault. The show received eight Tony Awards.
Though Groff and Michele were the musical’s breakout stars, the show also launched the careers of actors John Gallagher Jr. (who won a Tony for his role), Skylar Astin and Gideon Glick. All were present at Sunday’s ceremony.
Catch the “Spring Awakening” Tonys performance below:
The cast’s performance at the Tony Awards was the culmination of a nearly yearlong 15th anniversary celebration. Last year, the cast came together for a one-night-only reunion concert, staged at New York’s Imperial Theater under strict COVID-19 protocols. The production was chronicled in the HBO documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known,” released last month.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight ahead of her Tonys appearance, Michele said the experience of reuniting with the “Spring Awakening” cast was “just wild,” particularly given the lingering challenges of the pandemic.
“We managed to get the entire original cast together,” she said. “We managed to get through the hurdles of COVID and everything and reunite and come together. And we’re just so honored to be back.”
Asked about what he’d tell the younger version of himself and his co-stars about the success of “Spring Awakening,” Groff said, “I would tell them to take it in.”
“You know what, we did take it in back then, we really did,” he added. “So many of the adults in the theater community and Michael Mayer, our director, they were keeping us very grounded and in the moment. If I were to experience it all again, I would just take it in all over again.”