The contemporary creators have retained the original setting, 19th-Century Germany, and the play's intent. It's about the sexual awakening of a group of adolescents and how no adult will give these horny, overenergized kids the information and understanding they need -- not their parents, not their teachers, not the clergy.

Today's climate of omnipresent sexuality may be objectionable but the opposite, in "Spring Awakening" is much worse, with tragic consequences. The show isn't just about sex but about intellectual and creative repression. Like "Rent," to which it has been compared, "Spring Awakening" is about impoverishment -- not financial, but of the psyche.

"The Color Purple," based on Alice Walker's novel and its film version, has a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

The story takes place in Georgia over 40 years, from 1909 to 1949, beginning with its main character, Celie, as a girl living a difficult life. Her father is a brute and marries her off, way too young, to another one, called simply Mister.

The cruelest thing that Mister does is cut off all contact between Celie and her beloved sister, Nettie. They grow up far apart, and neither knows whether the other is alive.

The almost unbearable cruelty of the movie is eased in the musical. The songs help, providing comfort and, occasionally, humor. Ultimately, "The Color Purple" is a story of resilience, redemption and reconciliation.

As the Free Press reported previously, Plymouth native Tom Hulce is a principal producer of "Spring Awakening" and Livonia native Jonathan B. Wright, 20, is one of its featured actors.

Willis and Bray, two of the three songwriters of "The Color Purple," are originally from Detroit. Willis says three people can write songs collaboratively "if they are well-adjusted.

"I don't want to say it's easy; it's a complex show" but there is a way. "We made a rule -- it's going to be a democracy." If two people approved of something, the third "couldn't hold it up," no matter how strenuously she or he objected.

Collective memory failure is also helpful, Willis says. She wrote something for the title song. Her collaborators didn't like it. They worked on the song for another four days, getting nowhere. Willis resubmitted her original concept as if she'd just come up with it.

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