Jim Hogan Q&A

Role: Georg

What is your favorite song/scene/moment in Spring Awakening?

I'm going to double answer this... my favorite moment to watch has got to be the “Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind” combination and my favorite song to perform is a tie between “Bitch of Living” and “Totally F***ed” - there's absolutely no way to describe how incredible and liberating it is to be singing your heart out and jumping around the way we do on that stage.

What inspires you to play the role?

Georg is such a ball of energy waiting to explode. Getting to play with all different kinds of objectives and goals really keeps me engaged with him. It doesn't hurt that there's so much hilarity written into him as a person as well.

What is it like playing in a new venue almost every night?

It's incredible! I wasn't sure how I would like it at first but now I love getting to new venues because everything stays fresh for us as actors - new venue, new show. Each city has a completely different attitude and appreciation toward the show so traveling so often really keeps us on our toes.

Do you have a great Guilty Ones moment/story you can share?

I'll never forget this. After our first show in Minneapolis, a group of us actors were sitting at a nearby restaurant waiting to order food. A man and his wife (or girlfriend, etc.) came right up to our table and said, "You guys were incredible! We've never seen the show before and we loved it - well done. Best of luck with everything, your first round is on us." He then placed forty dollars on the table. Before we could even respond to this gift and tell him that we were simply actors doing our job, he and his wife were gone. For the rest of the night we all couldn't help but talk about this guy, how nice he was, and how truly moved he had to be to approach us with a gift of any kind let alone forty dollars in a recession.

Do you have a great Chair of Rock/Stage Seating experience you can share?

This isn't too exciting but one night during “Totally F***ed” I decided that my traffic pattern upstage right should include a moment to rock out with Michael Linden. Not only did I rock out with Michael, I decided that it was a good idea to stand directly on the open chair in front of him. (I still have no idea how this happened, it was all so quick and in the moment that I barely even remember it happening.) Once finished rocking out with Michael, I jumped off said chair completely knocking it over, missed the appropriate timing of my jump through Adult Male and Female which put Devon (Hanschen) directly in front of me because he was doing his track correctly. This then meant that I had to physically push Devon out of the way in an attempt to make up my loss of time. The push helped a little bit and I thought I would be OK to finish out the number when suddenly I stepped directly on a patron's foot down stage left. This completely took me out of the moment and made me miss the appropriate of my final pose in "Totally F***ed." Instead of giving a strong final pose directly downstage center to paint the picture for everyone behind me, I sunk into the pose after the music had already finished. Worst “Totally F***ed” of my life. Ask anyone and they will make fun of me for it.

What is the weirdest/coolest thing that happened to you or another cast member on stage/at the stage door?

One of our closing nights in Wichita there was a patron sitting on stage in the upstage right front row seat. He seemed like a regular guy who just happened to be rocking out a little bit more than most patrons but we as a cast enjoy enthusiasm because we feel that, for that person, our show is being delivered well. We then realized at the start of Act II that this guy was not any normal patron. During "The Guilty Ones" he attempted (and failed) to do the choreography with us while we were in our chairs. It was actually hilarious to watch him try. Then he broke the cardinal rule of being a patron on stage at Spring Awakening: he stood up! I literally was afraid that he was going to walk on stage and try to disrupt the show somehow. Luckily, he did not and at some point during T.G.O. he sat down again. He seemed fine throughout all of “Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind” and didn't make a sound during “Left Behind.” However, when “Totally F***ed” started, he was off to the races again. “Totally F***ed” is always a whirlwind for me but I had enough consciousness to realize that he was in his chair when I ran downstage right to watch Melchior answer Adult Males question with a big fat YES and by the time the song was over he was gone. I later found out that our head carpenter, Seth, came to the rescue and threw this crazy cat off stage. This was definitely the weirdest thing that's happened to me in my history of being on stage.

Have you been able to watch the show when an understudy was on? What did you think? What was it like?

I've never watched the show from the house but I obviously got to watch through playing Georg when Michael went on for Ernst, Jeff went on for Otto, Billy went on for Hanschen, Erin went on for Thea and Jeff went on for Melchior. It was so much fun! I was not scared at all, I knew that everyone was prepared and extremely talented which meant I just got to watch a different person put their spin on the role(s). Everyone was incredible as we knew they would be and it put a new spin on the show for the rest of us which was great!

What was it like when you performed in front of Steven Sater/Michael Mayer during the rehearsals?

Performing for Michael and Steven (also Ira Pittelman and Tom Hulce, the original producers) was breathtaking. We were all well aware that these men had been with the show since its inception so we were extremely excited to show them our incarnation of the show. However, the best thing about them attending our final rehearsals in NYC was to get to talk to them about the meaning of the show. They each gave us a different piece of information relating to why we need to do this show for ourselves but more importantly for the people out there who need it the most. It was truly a life changing experience that I won't soon forget.

What musical theater role/character outside of the one you are playing now would you most like to play? Why?

I'd absolutely love to play Tony in West Side Story. He's one of the most challenging roles to play in the American Musical Theatre Repertoire and I'd love the chance to sink my teeth into such a character. Although it doesn't seem plausible since the current Broadway revival is closing in January, I guess that's why they call it a dream role.