Lea Michele Remembers Duncan Sheik: Death Of ‘Spring Awakening’ Composer “Does Not Seem Real”

Lea Michele, who gained her first major fame as a cast member of Broadway’s Spring Awakening, paid tribute to the musical’s late composer Duncan Sheik today, remembering their first meeting and her thoughts upon his passing yesterday. “I met Duncan when I was 14 years old,” Michele wrote in an Instagram Story post this afternoon. “I listened to a demo on tape of him singing songs from Spring Awakening outside of my middle school before my first audition. “I’m at a loss for words,” she continued. “This one hurts and does not seem real. Thank you for everything you gave us. And for the time we had together. Sending all my love and prayers now to Nora, Ines, and Duncan’s family.” In addition to the message, Michele posted two brief videos on Instagram Story of what appear to be from a Spring Awakening rehearsal in which she’s singing the number “Mama Who Bore Me” with Sheik accompanying her on acoustic guitar and Groff looking on. Watch on Deadline Michele was cast in early workshops of the musical – written by Sheik and Steven Sater – and appeared as the lead female character Wendla Bergmann. She, along with Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher Jr., all three largely unknown at the time, followed Spring Awakening to its Off Broadway premiere in 2006 at the Atlantic Theater Company and, later that year, to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The musical is set in late 19th-century Germany and tells an often dark story of teenagers dealing with their awakening sexuality and feelings of love. Groff played Melchior, a radical thinker who has a tragic and doomed affair with Michele’s Wendla. All three of the musical’s young stars would go on to major Broadway careers. Michele, after her TV success on Glee, returned to Broadway in Funny Girl and Chess. Groff starred in the hits Company and Just In Time, while Gallagher would star in American Idiot, Jerusalem, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and, most recently, Swept Away. The Broadway production of Spring Awakening earned 11 Tony Award nominations, winning Best Musical, Best Book (for Sater), Best Original Score (Sheik and Sater), Best Director (Michael Mayer) and, for Gallagher, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The original Broadway cast album, featuring Michele, Groff and Gallagher, won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Singer-songwriter Sheik died Thursday, September 17, at a hospital in Manhattan of cardiac arrest. He was 56. A major new revival of Spring Awakening directed by Danya Taymor (The Outsiders) was announced recently by producers Seaview for an engagement at the Off Broadway venue Studio Seaview set to begin previews on November 27 ahead of an official December 17 opening. Deadline recently revealed the cast consisting largely of young newcomers, with Amalia Yoo — who gained considerable attention and critical acclaim when she made her Broadway debut last year in the Tony-nominated play John Proctor Is the Villain — set to play the role of Ilse.