The cast is made up of mostly unknowns; the topics include masturbation, homosexuality and sadomasochism; and its creators are a poet and a pop singer -- not exactly your standard Broadway contemporary formula, especially as producers increasingly look for sure-fire success by offering the public lavish spectacle or family fare.

But critics and the public alike are gushing about "Spring Awakening," a musical that opened last month based on the 19th-century work by German playwright Frank Wedekind. It focuses on the sexual angst and coming-of-age of a group of young people in Germany.

While written more than a century ago, the story of friendship, repression, hypocrisy and internal rebellion still resonates with modern audiences. The musical, with its rock song score written by pop singer and composer Duncan Sheik and script and lyrics penned by screenwriter and poet Steven Sater, succeeds in taking a subject as overdone in the contemporary world as sex and made it strange again, according to The New York Times critic Charles Isherwood.

The teenage experience

But the two creators say they wanted the musical to be less about sex itself than about staying true to teen spirit. All the cast members are between 17 and 22 years old.

"It touches something deep that is resonant in all of us, which is our own adolescent experience," Sater said in an interview with the Reuters news agency. It's not his first time to work with composer Sheik. He wrote the lyrics for the musician's third album.

While the content might sound risqué, to say the least -- two characters engage in some erotic spanking, another masturbates on center stage -- Sater said there was nothing exploitative about it.

"It simply shows what it is like for these young people to go through the trials of puberty," he said.

Sheik said he was attracted to the project in part because of what he sees as an acceptance of and even attraction to violence in the culture, while sexuality is feared by many.

Pornographic?

"Spring Awakening" was the first major play by Frank Wedekind (1864 -1918). He published the play at his own expense, focusing on the budding sexual maturity of youths in what he saw as a sexually repressed society. The play was first performed in 1906 in Germany and had its first English-language performance in 1917.

Because of its content, the play was frequently banned. In England, it wasn't allowed until 1964.

The 1917 English-language debut was almost shut down by New York City authorities, who said it was pornographic, and only a Supreme Court injunction allowed the play to go on. But it closed after just one performance.

The more recent New York opening was somewhat different. The musical took in about $2 million (1.54 million euros) in the first week and set the chat rooms buzzing. Its run was extended and it has become a strong contender for the Tony for best musical.

Rock musical

While the director, Michael Mayer, said he was attracted to the story of how first stirrings of love and desire of warped by repression and the ignorance of adults, he was unsure about the idea working in a contemporary rock idiom.

But the creators said they were adamant about saying with rock, the mode in which the young people express their innermost thoughts and feelings. The songs, with titles like "The Bitch of Living" and "The Dark I Know So Well," are accompanied by choreography created by modern dance giant Bill T. Jones.

The critics have been unreserved in their praise, seeming almost ecstatic that a show about sexuality that didn't pander to stereotypes or present a sanitized, immature version of it had made it to the big stage.

The New York Times' Isherwood called it "brave…haunting and electrifying," going on to say that Broadway … may never be the same."