Rewards found in daring selection

“Spring Awakening,” with its nonstop angst and direct confrontation of teenage sexuality, is a challenging show to produce.

It’s even more potentially awkward when the cast members who take on the subjects of sexual abuse, masturbation, abortion and teen suicide are themselves high-school students.

The Columbus Children’s Theatre’s production of the rock musical, directed by Greg Hellems, meets the challenge head on by amping up the intensity of the show with earnest sincerity.

Based on a then-scandalous 19th-century German play — and often still shocking in its own right — the musical follows three students: rebellious Melchior (Oliver Runyon), troubled Moritz (Benjamin Smallwood) and radiant, naive Wendla (Jessica Greenwald).

What troubles they don’t personally face are visited on other students, including the touching runaway Ilse (Donya Rahimi) and the sly Hanschen (Kyle Channell).

The many adult roles in the play are handled ably by Emma Lou Andrews and Nathaniel Thomas. This production allows the adults to be human rather than simply caricatures.

Cramming these hormone-addled and unhappily trapped characters together onto a small stage, on which a seven-piece band is also placed, increases the pressure-cooker feeling of the show.

It might prove even more effective, however, if the emotions of the characters were allowed to develop gradually during the course of the show. Even the major characters stick to one key, exaggerated expression from the beginning.

Music director Jonathan Collura emphasizes the subtle longing in the songs by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, which makes the lyrics clearly audible. But it also means the production misses some of the exhilarating high energy that more rock-heavy productions achieve in the defiant numbers, the titles of which are unprintable here.

Michael Brewer’s intricately distressed, dual-level set amplifies the effect of Matthew Benjamin’s elaborately flexible lighting.

The production softens the impact of some of the harsher scenes, but it remains a daring choice of material for Columbus Children’s Theatre, and those mature enough to handle its themes should find it provocative in the best sense of the word.