Zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit

"Tanz der Vampire", Wiener Fassung 2009, Ronacher Theater 20.09.2009

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:40:29 GMT

I’m very sorry that writing the review took me so much – due to some private issues I had no time to do this earlier. Besides, I needed some time to put all my impressions from musicals and Vienna in correct order. You know, as a fan of musicals and person keen on all things connected with Austria-Hungary I’ve spent three days in the centre of my small, private paradise.
Musical “Tanz der Vampire” Wiener Fassung 2009 wasn’t a big surprise for me. There was a lot of talking about changes in new production, but the truth is that this Viennese production is almost directly imported from Budapest. I say almost, because there are still subtle changes in the show and – sadly – the director didn’t import Hungarian cast together with the whole show. But let’s drop this subject for a while and start from the beginning.

First and foremost, Viennese “Tanz der Vampire” is the most beautiful version I have ever seen. I’ve fallen in love with Kantaur’s stage-design two years ago, when I saw the show in Budapest. My love faded a bit with time, but now it is burning again. First and foremost, Viennese “Tanz der Vampire” is the most beautiful version I have ever seen. I’ve fallen in love with Kantaur’s stage-design two years ago, when I saw the show in Budapest. My love faded a bit with time, but now it is burning again.
Kentaur uses modern technology to create fantastic, gothic set which suits “Tanz der Vampire” perfectly, mainly thanks to creative usage of traditional motives. It’s enough to have a quick look at the castle to know that it belongs to the vampire. The set is so gothic and baroque as it is possible with fussy motives which we associate with vampires, but at the same time a bit grotesque and ironical. It suits the convention of the musical perfectly. Everything is made with care, from Chagal’s hut to the bed from “Carpe Noctem”. I adore the crypt and amazing church-like ballroom with nice rose and pretty turret as well as revolving set imitating interior of the castle, which creates feeling of wandering through the corridors and allows the audience to see for a short while Sarah preparing to the midnight ball.
Viennese stage-design does not differ much from the Budapest one, there are changes of course, but rather in details, the whole concept remains the same. Most people probably won’t notice anything and only the fans can point to some subtle changes. As far as I remember everything is the same in the first act, but there are some differences in the second. Portraits in “Totale Finsternis” have different frames than the ones in Budapest production, the rose seems to be bigger and the walls are of dark-red colour (instead of purple) without any patterns on them . At the end of the song, as Krolock gets closer to Sarah, the big stairs moves back, the side walls toward each other to create one which remains on the stage instead of the grey screen.
As for the Krolock’s crypt, it seems to be smaller because of the amount of cloisters. In Budapest we had only one, in Vienna - about three. The main cloister on which Alfred and Professor walk is lower and closer to the audience. Chagal and Magda’s coffin is in the middle of the stage, between two other coffins, not on the left as usual.
Sarah’s bath in the castle has different pattern than the one from Budapest, is in the red and gold and the sculpture on its wall is different.
In the final dance we have new background; the animation of the city by night. I would say that the animations changed the most. They are in 3-D, so one can have feeling that Krolock’s residence is really somewhere far, far away in high mountains. I really admired that, but on the other hand, some of these animations were blurred. It might be as well technical problem as the result of me being too close to the stage (I had seat in the second row). I didn’t mind this much anyway.
Generally the stage design in Vienna is a bit improved set from Budapest production, it’s visible that Ronacher Theater had bigger budget than Magyar Szinhaz.

There are not many changes in the costumes as well. Awful masks that vampires wear during “Vor dem Schloss” have disappeared, thanks God. Outfits in the final dance are a bit more in punk style with less chains and studs what I like. But Alfred’s clothes there are awful, my mind concentrates on kitschy heart on the belt here. Poor boy, I guess Herbert managed to dress him at last... As for Herbert, his clothes in “Wenn Liebe in dir ist” are a bit different than in Budapest, they do not remind pyjama so much and are in pink. Kentaur made a small gift for all fangirls; Herbert’s shirt is unfastened at the top, so after closer look one can see part of Herbert’s rather attractive body. Well, we all love fanservice, aren’t we? ;)

As I wrote, despite all talking about changes in the new productions, these changes were in reality really subtle. Probably people who had seen the original Vienna production will be surprised, but the fans - no. There are some small changes – changes which make the fan’s heart beat faster. If you are going to Vienna on “Tanz der Vampire” it will be better for you not to read this paragraph because you will lose all surprise. I will describe changes that have been made regarding to the Budapest production.
Firstly: just after “He, ho, he Professor”, when introduction to “Knoblauch” is being played, the audience see front of the Chagal’s hut and two or three women going inside. The hut revolves as they open the door to show indoor, so I felt as if I went inside with these people. Really nice, but as far as I’m concerned that is the only change made until “Geil zu sein ist komisch” in the second act. When Kukol finally makes Chagal and Magda to get inside their coffin, he sits on it and... starts murmuring the melody of the song to himself what is absolutely cute. He gets angry when both vampires starts to sing again and throws the coffin out then. The third change that I’ve noticed is in the dialogue between Alfred and Abronsius right after “Wenn Liebe in dir ist”. When Alfred says that during dance with Herbert he noticed that the vampire has no reflection in the mirror, Abronsius answered: “I wish I had danced with him!”.
Of course the biggest surprise was in the end of the show because the ending was changed. I knew that there will be a change but did not want to know what was changed, I wanted to have a surprise. And I had it; How the ending looks like? After the introduction to “Tanz der Vampire” sung by Abronsius the music changes and Abronsius discovers that he is alone in the forest; Sarah and Alfred are gone. He searches for them, singing altered version of “He, ho, he Professor!” and disappears in the mountains. In meanwhile, Krolock slowly walks through the path between seats (on the left side), enters the stage, laughs and suddenly goes down, under the stage. Now Magda, Herbert and other vampires enter, singing the rest of “Tanz der Vampire”, some dancers from the ensemble appear on the path between seats. There are Sarah (on the left) and Alfred (on the right) with them, both dressed in gothic clothes. They enter the stage dancing and singing. At the very end, when “Wir trinken Blut...” starts, vampires gather in the centre of the stage and Krolock appears between them; of course dressed in completely new costume. Now everyone make few step towards the audience and the songs ends. This is also the end of the show.
I cannot yet decide if I like the new ending more than the old one. It has both positive and negative sides. Firstly, I like the Professor singing the altered, weird reprise of “He, ho, he Professor” – it is very good idea which works perfectly, making the end more sinister and coherent. But as for the rest... While “Tanz der vampire” is much more funny when everyone sing it I have some complaints. The idea of Alfred appearing as the vampire ruins Polański’s concept from the movie and makes the audience accept Alfred’s new personality – this should not happen. Spectator should feel regret and fright that this adorable, young caricature of a hero turned into the beast. Maybe I exaggerate the whole thing, I’m aware that “Tanz der Vampire” is a comedy, but I still think that there is more to this musical than that.
The other thing is I adore the final dance. Professional dancers can dance it perfectly and it is usually a pleasure to watch them. But neither Marjan nor Lukas are professional dancers. While Marjan has fun, moves nicely and can dance, Lukas seems to feel extremely uncomfortable, has frightened face expression and apparently he can’t dance at all. I dare to say that I, despite my lack of dance abilities, would dance these few simple steps better than Lukas. And Thomas – he seems to be uncomfortable as well, although he has even less to dance than Lukas. He should make just few graceful steps; what he does is by no means graceful. And one look at his face –which expresses disguise and wish to end this as soon as possible – ruins whole pleasure of watching. Really.
These details make me feel dislike for new ending. It makes the show more attractive, yes, but actors’ attitude can be irritating. If I were the director, I would just remove main characters from the stage and it would be much better then.

Now, after description of the set, costumes and changes in libretto I reach the most painful subject: the cast.
While I expected that the cast will be poor, I must have had some unconscious expectations. Or maybe I was spoiled by awesome cast of “Rudolf” in Raimund Theater. But never mind the cause, the sad truth remains: I have never be so disappointed by the cast of any musical.
Let’s start with Sarah, that is – Marjan Shaki. This actress has always irritated me with her uninspired singing and appearance of cute and silly girl. Well, on the show I liked Marjan singing more than on the bootlegs from 10th Concert at least, she must have had a lot of practice since then. She has more control over her voice now and does not shout so much in “Totale Finsternis”, so the song sounds a way more harmonic. I’m still not impressed by Marjan’s voice, but now I can understand that some may actually like it.
Sadly I can’t say the same about her acting abilities. On one hand, it is not as bad as I expected. Marjan acts a little, tries to show emotions with some success but it doesn’t change the fact that she is a bad actress. My impression is that Marjan has learned the whole libretto by heart, all gestures, moves and expression as the director wanted. But she is unable to go further and improve the character. She is concentrated on herself and on doing what she is ought to do. There are two results of this: she is not convincing and does not interact with other actors. I guess that if on one show Krolock had sung about pretty yellow frogs in “Totale Finsternis” she would go with “Manchmal dachte ich bricht Liebe zum Ban” because of her inability to do anything what the libretto does not require.
It is not that Marjan is completely bad as Sarah; she tries to do her best and she may get better after the year. But, to be honest, I doubt it. Besides, I don’t like the way Marjan interprets the role; Sarah, as played by Marjan, is young, spoiled and arrogant princess who flirts with Alfred because she is bored; she goes to the ball because she does not have anything better to do; she does not care about anyone, does not love neither Alfred nor Krolock, is concentrated on herself only. In most egoistic way. This is simply unbearable. I’ve always identify myself with Sarah, but in Vienna it was impossible...

Lukas Perman is even worse. I expected he will act the way he did and I guess I did not get irritated only because I predicted how it all will look like. I can’t complain much about Lukas’s singing because he has a nice, lyrical voice and I admit it, even though it usually makes me bored because it is not “my” kind of voice. I admit that Lukas did his best in “Für Sarah”, still I have found the bed from “Carpe Noctem” more interesting than Lukas... But the audience seemed to be pleased by the song and no wonder. I was pleased as well by Lukas’s singing but not acting.
Acting-wise, Lukas fails completely. He acts as the piece of wood; stands as straight as possible and makes impression of person who does not possess brain at all. Lukas has two face expressions in his repertoire: one includes widely opened eyes, I guess this should express depth of his feelings toward Sarah because he used it every time Sarah appeared on the stage. The second face includes widely opened eyes as well, but this time accompanied by opened mouth. Lukas used it every time Sarah wasn’t on the stage. After two hours of the show it got really boring...
Lukas did the same as Marjan; learned all director’s advises by heart and is unable to go beyond it. His Alfred is silly, boring and uninspiring character who does not fully realises what is happening around him. He doesn’t interact with others but creates his own small universe where he is concentrated on himself only. Just like Marjan. For me Lukas is the worst Alfred ever.

But the one who made me both furious and desperate was not Lukas; it was a person who was about to be the biggest star of the show: our Magnificence, Herr Thomas Borchert.
While I hadn’t hope that Marjan and Lukas will be good, I expected a lot from Thomas. I’ve always liked him, there was time when I had some complaints about his singing, but they all disappeared after hearing bootleg from “Strictly Musical” concert – I’ve fallen in love with Thomas’s voice. As you can guess, I was really happy to see him live at last. But this happiness did not last long, the reality made me really sad.
On my show Thomas was bored. He made it clear that he is not in mood for singing and acting but wants to end his job as soon as it’s possible. That there is no need to make any effort because the audience loves him anyway. Sadly this was very much true; you know, Thomas is good even in such bad mood. He has good voice and charisma, so he did quite well on my show. But “quite” is very important word here...Because Tomas was unable to put any feeling in his role. He improved a little in “Unstillbare Gier”, but all other songs were so uninspiring that I could not believe my own ears. Thomas’s behaviour reminded Marjan and Lukas’. He was concentrated on himself only, without even slightest try to build relationship with other members of the cast. He acted like lunatic at times.
You know, this is really painful subject for me. I was so sad that I can’t really express it, sad with all possible sadness that only disappointed fangirl can feel. And after this I’m not able to adore Thomas as much as befor. You know, I understand that he is a human being and can have his bad days. But I have heard that this bad days happened definitely too often. A friend of mine, who has seen the show few days earlier has similar impression. I understand that Thomas may be bored with being Krolock for so many years, but why then he takes this role again and again? I understand, that he has very uninspiring company of Marjan and Lukas, but this does not justify such behaviour. I’m really, really disappointed.

As the result relations between these three main characters don’t exist. Thomas has no chemistry with Marjan, Marjan has no chemistry with Lukas and the other way round, so it’s difficult to believe in Alfred’s love to Sarah as well as Krolock’s desire.

There are two more actors I didn’t like at all. Katharina Dorian was very boring as Rebecca and Anna Thoren (Magda) not sings but shouts. Luckily Anna has some chemistry with Chagal, but I didn’t like her voice at all and found her rather uninteresting Magda.

Luckily the rest of the cast wasn’t so bad as these two and our love triangle. I really liked the whole ensemble. Dancers were amazing in “Knoblauch” and “Rote Stiefel”, they danced with so much enthusiasm and energy that it was impossible not to smile at them. My particular favourite is Gernot Romic – the White Vampire in Carpe Noctem. I’ve never paid much attention to this role, but this time Gernot won it. I liked also Csaba Nagy as Black Vampire, but he has to practice a lot to reach the level of Jarek Derybowski or Akos Tihanyi.

There were two more actor I liked a lot and who – along with the ensemble – made this show watchable and enjoyable.
Firstly, Gernot Kranner, Viennese Professor Abronsius. He was amazing in his role, enjoying every single minute of being on the stage. His false modesty in “Wahrheit” and “Vor dem Schloss”, scientific research in Sarah’s bathroom, despair to free Chagal from turning into the vampire, behaviour in the Krolock’s library, all that made me smile and laugh. Gernot was very convincing, but I suppose he would be even better if he had better Alfred with him.

Apart from Gernot, my particular favourite in the whole show was Marc Leibisch, that is – Herbert. I was surprised myself, I’ve never been very keen on Herberts. The only one I actually liked was Kuba Wocial, but all others made me feel indifferent, even Maté Kamaras. But Marc, oh, Marc was absolutely awesome. He is both good actor and singer. At first he seemed to be a little stressed, but he quickly overcome it and had fun on the stage. He was adorable in “Wenn Liebe in dir ist”, especially at the end of it. He was genuinely afraid of Professor’s umbrella, but when Abronsius turned his back, tried to attack him again. Unsuccessfully of course, so he made a face as if saying “Easy, easy, it is all part of my plan!”, shuddered, said “Phi!” and ran out of the stage (I guess to tell his father what has happened). This was really funny. Marc was so much involved in whole action and had so much enthusiasm that I really regret Herbert appears so rarely in TdV. Marc is definitely my new musical love and right now I would go on any show to see him again.Apart from Gernot, my particular favourite in the whole show was Marc Leibisch, that is – Herbert. I was surprised myself, I’ve never been very keen on Herberts. The only one I actually liked was Kuba Wocial, but all others made me feel indifferent, even Maté Kamaras. But Marc, oh, Marc was absolutely awesome. He is both good actor and singer. At first he seemed to be a little stressed, but he quickly overcome it and had fun on the stage. He was adorable in “Wenn Liebe in dir ist”, especially at the end of it. He was genuinely afraid of Professor’s umbrella, but when Abronsius turned his back, tried to attack him again. Unsuccessfully of course, so he made a face as if saying “Easy, easy, it is all part of my plan!”, shuddered, said “Phi!” and ran out of the stage (I guess to tell his father what has happened). This was really funny. Marc was so much involved in whole action and had so much enthusiasm that I really regret Herbert appears so rarely in TdV. Marc is definitely my new musical love and right now I would go on any show to see him again.

And I guess that’s all. “Tanz der Vampire” Wiener Fassung 2009 is worse than Budapest production. It is amazing musical with surprisingly bad cast. While Gernot Kranner and Marc Leibisch help to make the show funny and enjoyable, they are not able to make it perfect because in TdV so much depends on love triangle Sarah-Alfred-Krolock. Triangle which is by no means “love”.
Of course new production is worth seeing, because even if you are disguised by the cast, you can still admire amazing set and beautifully made scenes, “Rote Stiefel” and “Gebet” are masterpieces. But I doubt I will see “Tanz der Vampire” in Vienna again, and if so, I won’t go there only to see the show (as I usually do) but to enjoy beauty of the city and perhaps buy tickets before the show. So my advice is: if you are considering going to Vienna or Budapest I strongly advise you to visit Budapest. For me “Tanz der Vampire” is always worth travel and money because I love every single minute of this show, but I guess that such fans as I, who love the musical but can be critical, won’t be very keen of Wiener Fassung 2009.

(Some more rambling on Vienna and musical - stagedoor soon, but this time in locked entry)

Rudolf:Affaire Mayerlin, Vienna 19.09.2009

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:52:49 GMT

I went to Vienna to see new production of „Tanz der vampire”, I did not plan to see „Rudolf” because I’m not really keen on this musical. However, on Saturday evening, 19th of September, I found myself standing in the queue to the Abendkasse to buy so-called “Restplätze” for the show.
Cause? Well, my hotel was located literally ten metres from the Raimund Theater and I decided it would be a shame to be so close and not to see “Rudolf”, especially when it was already too late to go sightseeing. What is more, these “Restplätze” were really cheap; only 11 euro for the ticket.
I got the seat on the left, in the ninth row. Surprisingly enough, the seat was much better than I expected, close to the stage and with good visibility, so I was rather happy.

How should I express how I feel about the show? I have really mixed feelings, some are positive but I have also loads of complaints, most of them regarding the libretto and the general idea of the whole musical.
You see, I’m fascinated by the history of Austria-Hungary as well as the story of imperial family and my favourite characters are – of course – Elisabeth and her son, Rudolf. I adore them both; they had fascinating personalities and very unhappy life. I’ve read many books about Rudolf and, after those thousands of pages, I could not keep distance and now I treat the Crown Prince as someone close to me – in a way of course.
That’s why I despise the libretto of the musical. I do not like it that they simplified Rudolf’s life, his difficult relationships with his family, problems and – finally – the suicide. All was simplified to the old, romantic legend and it irritates me. In my opinion there is no point in creating historical musical when the creating team does not make slightest effort to do research, read some books and actually to show what really had happened, rather than present their own interpretation. Interpretation that is far from the history. The authors of the musical simplified the story a lot and as the result, the libretto is stupid and painfully schematic; Rudolf is handsome and talented prince, who is unhappy in his marriage, who has political ambitions which he cannot realise because of his enemy, minister Taaffe and his father who does not understand him. Our young hero falls in love with beautiful and cute girl who loves him in return; but they can never be together because he is the prince of the big and powerful country, so they decide to commit a suicide to be together at last.
Sounds like foolish romantic story for teenage girls?
I wouldn’t mind if this musical was about imaginative prince, there is even chance that I would like it. But it irritates me that the show is about to be historical musical while the libretto is far from history. Of course I understand that one need to change the history a bit to make good, successful show. “Elisabeth” is ideal for me; Kunze had to change certain things, did not mention other but in general created amazing, moving show which is at the same the best portrayal of Elisabeth and her times so far. “Rudolf” is as far from this ideal as possible.
I’ve seen recordings from the Budapest production and I dare say that it was created the way it should be; director of Hungarian “Rudolf” does not make attempts to create serious, historical show. He makes nice, colourful fairy-tale, funny at times, often sad, very romantic and, at the same time, a bit ironic thanks to the presence of Pffeifer. Unfortunately David Leveaux, who directed the musical in Vienna, decided to go different way. I guess he felt it was necessary because the story is close to Austrian audience. They made many changes in libretto in Vienna and tried to make the whole story more historical. The result isn’t good; dialogues which sometimes relate to the problems of Austria-Hungary contrast with romantic songs a lot. I had the feeling that the director did not know what he want to show, that this productions lacks one, straight concept.
Take our heroine Mary. In songs she express her dreams about love and soul-mate (“Marys Lied”) as well as romantic feeling towards Crown Prince (“So Viel Mehr”), faith in power of love (“Vertrau in uns”, “Wenn das Schicksal dich ereilt”) and strength of love (“Du bist meine Welt”). These songs suggest, that Mary is silly, cute and naive young girl whose only dream is to fall in love and live happily ever after. Like princess from Disney’s movies. But it occurs that Mary isn’t that girl! Thanks to dialogues we know that Mary is in reality strong, modern woman, brave, independent, intelligent, interested in politics, she speaks of freedom for the people(!) and – what I find the most ridiculous – she actually has the political meaning, because Taaffe tries to remove her! So in one scene we have Mary reading the newspaper and speaking of politics and in another – looking for Julius Felix to hand him her love letter. These two concepts do not fit one another.
Apart from this lack of logic in creation of one of main characters, the whole musical is illogical in general, filled with romantic songs that usually make the audience almost asleep. The action develops terribly slowly.
But, of course, these songs are in general very good. Actually the music is rather strong point of the show. Wildhorn is a good componist and some songs from “Rudolf” are truly beautiful – but it doesn’t change the fact that more than half of the songs could be cut off the show without any harm for the action. Songs from “Rudolf” are nice, but too much of them is slow, lyrical and romantic. I guess that’s why audience seems to love “Die Fäden in der Hand”, “Du bleibst bei mir” and “Wenn das Schicksal dich ereilt” so much; they are all good, dynamic breaks in this slow show. I was happy that the director decided to remove “Kann ich einfach gehn” and “Ich schütz den Staat” and replaced them with reprise of “So viel mehr” because two more slow songs would make the end of the show unbearable for me, one “Du bist meine Welt” is definitely enough. But, in my opinion, this particular song should be removed at the first place. While it is generally really lovely song, it isn’t good song to sing before suicide. There is nothing romantic about suicide – it is a big tragedy and should be shown that way, not like the biggest luck the two lovers can have. But well – someone who does not know the history can have doubts if Rudolf and Mary committed suicide because the end of the show seems to show night after wedding rather than the suicide...

As for the costumes, they are so-so. Male ones are good, elegant and interesting and I have nothing against them. However, some of women’ dresses are horrible. I mean here Stefanie and Mary’s dresses; they have ugly colours, uninteresting cut and most of them remind me of sack... But women in ensemble, as well as Marie Larisch, have really nice costumes; I would like to have some of them. I quiet like the stage-design, especially Taaffe’s study and the interior of Szeps’s newspaper. However sometimes the stage was a bit too empty for my taste, like at the end of first act where only the animation of the city was visible in the background. One lonely bench stood on the stage and both Rudolf and Mary seemed really small.

But neither costumes nor stage-design did not attract my attention for long. Actually the strongest and most attractive point of the show was the cast and it is the cast that makes “Rudolf” bearable and even interesting. As I said, the script is horrible and the plot is full of inconsequence, but casting the biggest stars in main roles gave surprisingly good results.
Firstly – Drew Sarich as Rudolf. I’ve never been great fan of Drew, his voice cannot really influence me . At least on cast recordings. Drew on the stage is really amazing. His voice is strong, beautiful, Drew has full control over it. I rarely hear so many emotions in one’s singing as in Drew’s. What is more, the guy is amazing actor and it is visible that he worked on this role a lot and does his best to make the audience feel for him, he shows so many emotions on the stage... Drew’s Crown Prince is young and ambitious man who has no more strength to fight with his enemies and himself; he is intelligent, but very unhappy and full of doubts, sometimes charming, sometimes really arrogant. Man on the edge of abyss. Drew is really talented but even he could make me feel for Rudolf from the musical. But I still appreciate Drew’s abilities and I wish I saw him in better musical. And – by the way – Drew is very credible as drunk man... ;)
Lisa Antoni is of course not as good as Drew, but she is ok as Mary. I would say that surprisingly good for such a young actress. Lisa has also nice voice; she should have more practice though because she shouts out sometimes. But I didn’t mind it much.
Carin Filipcic is absolutely fabulous as Marie Larisch. She appeared only four times on the stage, but she got big applause every time; the audience loves her and no wonder. She has amazing, strong voice and natural comic talent. She has loads of fun in ”Ein Hüberscher Krieg”, makes the audience smile and laugh. Carin steals every scene she is in.
I was very surprised by the Wietske van Tongeren. She was good as Ich in “Rebecca”, I liked her before, but I did not expect she will make so big impression on me as Stefanie. Stefanie is not nice person, but... thanks to Wietske she was the only character from the show I really felt for. I particularly like her confrontation with Mary in the church; Stefanie has right in every word she says and her opinion about Mary is so true! Wietske is both good actor and singer. “Du bleibst bei mir” was simply amazing and it was definitely one of the best scenes in whole musical.
And now – last but not least – Uwe Kröger or Graf Taaffe. I’ve been fan of Uwe for a long time, but I know that he has voice problems. I’ve wanted to see him on stage, but I wasn’t really sure I want to see him in that state. But I was surprised again. Uwe wasn’t bad at all. It’s true that his voice is not as good as it was and I –the person who is not very musical – can hear it. It is clearly audible in reprise of “Weg in die Zukunft” which is painful for ears. But “Die Fäden in der Hand” were much better and Uwe did not shout so much in “Wenn das Schicksal dich ereilt”. He made really good impression on me and I did not notice his voice problems so muc, because he is not only singer, but also good actor. He feels well in the stage, has a lot of fun and it is visible, that he simply loves it. Uwe has a lot of charisma, he moves smoothly and elegantly, his Taaffe is cold and ironic. The audience loves him; the applause after “Die Fäden in der Hand” was really big, it involved clapping and shouting. People did not acted that way only because they felt they should because Uwe is well-known star – they acted that way because he is good and talented singer , true star. Now I’m really, really happy I saw Uwe live; it alone was worth these eleven euro.
There is only the ensemble left. About ensemble of Raimund Theater I can say compliments only. They seems to have fun on the show and they make their best to make it good and interesting for the audience. There are not big voices in ensemble, but every one of them feels involved in the development of action.

Summing up – I do not regret I went on “Rudolf”. The show isn’t really good, but the cast is so amazing that you can forget about the script and it practically makes the show enjoyable . I’ve never seen such situation before, it is a nice experience. I like Raimund Theater too; it has nice atmosphere that makes you want to come back to it. And I’m sure I will come back there – probably not to see “Rudolf” because one show is enough, but still.

"Tanz der Vampire" Fan Video

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:58:44 GMT

So after a long time I finally finished my TdV Fan Video. I've been working on it for months and with Windows Movie Maker it was path through hell. What is more, I wanted this video to be perfect - as a result I've made seven (sic!) versions. Three videos out of these seven were decent, and this one is the best of these three.
You can watch my video here:

Hope you'll like it!

Elisabeth Video

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:05:53 GMT

I couldn't sleep last night. Maybe because my flatmates went for a party and for the first time I was alone in flat in the night. I wasn't able to sleep and at the same time too tired to read books. Suddenly I felt inspiration to make a fan video. It took me about three hours, but it was very nice and satisfying work. If you want to see it, here it is:

Clips are from "Elisabeth" of course. Hope you'll like it.

Trip to Berlin, part 2 - "Elisabeth" review

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:22:13 GMT

It's high time for my review from "Elisabeth". Sorry it took me so long to post it, writting reviews always takes me a lot of time because it it not easy to express your feelings in words ;) And writing in English does not make thing easier. Forgive me all possible mistakes, I know that my English is far from perfect. I hope this review will be at least understandable for you ;)

Prolog

I went to the theatre with hope, that I will see two diffrent casts but I had bad luck again. The cast was exactly the same on both performances, on
afternoon and evening. Which mean that I saw:

Annemieke van Dam as Elisabeth
Felix Martin as Death
Bruno Grassini as Luigi Lucheni
Markus Pol as Franz Joseph
Christa Wettstein as Sophie
Oliver Arno as Rudolf
Norbert Lamla as Max

I wasn't very happy with that. Annemieke was ok with me I quite liked her voice, at least in "3 Musketiere", but I wasn't keen on Felix Martin. I've heard him as Krolock in "Tanz der Vampire" and didn't like his voice at all. But what could I do? Only tell myself I should be happy that I'll see "Elisabeth" on stage at last.

I had very good seat on afternoon performance: in the first row on the Hochparkett. But people around me irritated me a bit. The man near me was showing something to his companion in "Schwarzer Prinz" waving his hand in front of my face, and the ladies sitting on my left side were talking during the performance, which was really disturbing. I can understand when someone is talking in the cinema, but in the theatre...?
Although the place on Hochparkett was good because I was able to see the whole stage, I prefered the seat I had on evening show, in the second row. Ok, my neck was in pain, but there was an opportunity to see actor's faces - which was rather difficult on Hochparkett especially with my bad eyesight - and even all souvenires which Lucheni shows in "Kitsch" ;) I had a bit better company, too. I was surrounded by fans (which was easy to hear during applause) and the girls sitting in front of me had T-shirts with "Oliver Arno fanclub" on them. Really nice and hey, I could clap and scream at last. Maybe this sounds childish, but I like expressing my enthusiasm by shouting and it was rather difficult on Hochparkett because the people there were really serious. It was also funny to see flying bunches of flowers during curtain calls ;)

Berlin version - costumes, changes, stage-design and why revolving stage does not always work

I find the whole Berlin version a bit funny, for me it is the mix of previous productions in German language. The whole staging reminds Vienna one, which isn't a surprise, we all know that Harry Kupfer directed "Elisabeth" in Vienna. Costumes are very similar to ones from Essen and Stuttgart. I liked them in general, maybe except a bit ridiculous Death's suits. I can accept the black one, but the white... no, I don't like this idea. The only good point in it was that Felix looked much better in these suits than Uwe.

There were few changes between Vienna and Berlin version, and I have to say that I didn't like most of them. Certeinly the change which struck me the most was in "Elisabeth, mach auf mein Engel". In this scene we see only one person on the stage - Elisabeth or Franz Joseph - the other one is hidden behind the screen. I don't really like this concept, maybe because observing Elisabeth is always more interesting than Franz Joseph, and this was impossible in Berlin. Next, I have mixed feelings about Death's part "Elisabeth, sei nicht verzweifelt". Death enters the stage thanks to revolving stage, sitting in his boat. This looks really good, at least on the beggining, when Elisabeth comes closer to the boat, almost touching Death's hand. But. But Death sits during whole scene and stoods up only when he hears "Nein, ich moechte leben!". Well, maybe I am the only person who don't like that, but...oh, just think, can you imagine the man sitting comfortably while confessing his feeling to the beloved woman? In my opinion this is not convincing and no wonder that Elisabeth got angry. But this is not the end: when Elisabeth sings, the stage starts to move, so by the end of the song Death disappears behind the screen. Effect? Elisabeth shouts "Ich will dich nicht! Ich brauch dich nicht! Geh!" on completely empty stage. Oh, the only thing I want to say
about this is: "Hey, Harry Kupfer this really does not work!".
The similar situation is with "Rudolf, wo bist du". Elisabeth sings sitting on the stage, while Death stoods up on his platform, so one can't watch them both, only him or her. It results in lack of connection between these two characters. Of course I chose observing Death and... I felt that something was lost in this scene.
Of course there is also the matter of ending - the worst ending I've ever seen. In Berlin Death after the kiss just lays Elisabeth on the stage which starts to move. Elisabeth disappears through small hole in the screen. mira_natural called it a production line once, and it really looks like it.
Probably the only change I liked was in "Ich gehoere nur mir" with Elisabeth walking on Death's platform. It would be better if Harry Kupfer made everything like it was in Vienna...

As for the stage design: to be honest there is no much of it. Of course there is Death's platform, giant austrian eagle in "Nichts ist schwer" or "Wenn ich tanzen will" and Death's boat in the shape of the wing. I am an orthodox fan of carriage from Vienna production so it took me a while to get used to boat, but now I think it was really nice. But maybe they should change it for something else in "Die Schatten werden laenger". In this scene Death sits on something that looks like camp-bed put into his wing-boat. This is ridiculous idea and, with all respect, ruins the whole dramatic effect.
But the thing which irritated me the most was big screen with animations played during whole show. Sure, these animations were good, but there was definitely too much of them. They made the whole show a bit too modern in my opinion.

And finally - the matter of stage. I usually like revolving stage, but in Berlin it is used too much, often without need. I've already written about the final scene and "Elisabeth, mach auf mein Engel". Also "Die erste Ehejahre" could be much better without revolving stage. In the scene when Elisabeth tells Franz Joseph that she won't go to Hungary without her children, the actors sit on the chairs and they just move from one end of the stage to another. It looks as if they were talking to themselves. "Boote in der Nacht" looks similar. Not very good idea.

The cast

As I have written above, I wasn't enthusiastic about the cast at the beggining, but - luckily - I changed my mind during the performances.
I liked Annemieke van Dam the moment I saw her in "Wie du". She was so full of energy, happy and charming!. Ah, I was amazed by her voice. I knew that she sings well, but I didn't expect it to be so good. I've never heard so beautifully sang "Schwarzer Prinz" and "Ich gehoer nur mir" was gorgeous, it left me speechless. I was close to tears in this song, on both shows. Annemieke was very believable as young Elisabeth, she really looks like teenager, her voice is a bit child-like, too. It works perfectly in the first act, but in the second something starts to go wrong. "Wenn ich tanzen will" is good, although a bit to weak for me. It was Death who won this confrontation, not Elisabeth. But later... Annemieke simply wasn't very convincing. I suppose this is difficult for her to play an old, tired and disappointed woman. Her costumes and coiffures does not really hide her real age.
But despite that all, I still think that Annemieke is one of the best Elisabeths. Probably she will be much better in the future after some practise, and I will be certeinly watching her development.

Now, Death: Felix Martin. All my prejudices disapeared the moment he entered platform in "Prolog". This guy has some kind of charisma which made me like him even before he started singing. And when I heard his voice things were even better.
Oh, I really loved Felix's Death. First of all, Felix - although a bit too old for me - is really good-looking, is also slim and looks well even in weird suits. He has also something... demonic, eerie in his face features and make-up makes it even more visible. Felix's Death is serious, dignified and really sinister at times. No wonder that Elisabeth both loved and was afraid of him. He has a lot of self-control, but one can see that there is a lot of feelings behind that mask. Felix succeeded in being someone from other world, having power over people but a bit lost, not entirely sure what he should do with such feeling as love. And you know, when Death came to Elisabeth I had feeling as if he wanted to say: "I know that she does not love me. I know that she will fight with me. But I'll try anyway", and when things went wrong: "Ok, ok, all is under control, this is the part of my plan, believe me!" ;) I liked it a lot.

Another person who made good impression on me was Oliver Arno. And I liked his acting more than singing, maybe because his Rudolf was almost exactly as the one I have always imagined while thinking about last months in Crown Prince's life. A person still having inner strenght, but broken and destroyed by his own ambitions, court, problems in family, lack of
love and drugs. I saw Oliver's Rudolf on the stage, his face expression, shaking hands and knew that he is about to commit a suicide.
Mayerling scene was terryfing. I've always liked the music and choreography, but never before it moved me so much. The dance, Rudolf in Death's arms, the shot... I almost jumped on my seat, and when I saw Death going away and Angels taking Rudolf's body my eyes filled with tears. This was so realistic.
(and I really felt relief when I saw Oliver Arno on curtain call ;) ).

Bruno Grassini was a big suprise for me. I haven't heard a single good word about him before, so I was prepared that he will ruin the role. But when I stopped comparing him with Serkan Kaya I found that he is really good. Bruno sings well, is ironic but also funny, maybe not perfect, but he makes decent Lucheni.
I don't know what to think about Markus Pol as Franz Joseph. He was very strict, and said Elisabeth "Es waer besser fuer uns beide wenn du dem Rat von meine Mutter folgt" which such coldness that I couldn't like his character at all. Well, Markus sings properly, bit in my opinion he should work more on acting. But I don't usually care much about the Emperor, at least not in the musical.
I definitely didn't like Christa Wettstein. She is ok as an actress, but I can't stand her voice,especially high notes. No. Just no.
But I absolutely loved Norbert Lamla as Max. This guy is amazing, even in such small role! The way he told "Diese Hochzeit is Ihr werk, FrauSchwaegerin!" and sang... oh, definitely I have to look for musicals with him.

I think I should write few things about an ensemble. I was disguisted by them. They seem to hate the show and be angry that they have to do anything. Ok, they sang correctly, but without any energy, it was so visible that they do it because they have to, because have no other choice. "Milch" and "Frohliche Apokalypse" were the only scenes where they seemed to have fun. The rest was... not good, let's say.
I am spoiled by Warsaw Roma Theater, where whole cast do their best and sometimes ensemble is better than main actors. And in Theater des Westens? They seemed to say: "We are doing our work, not more. To be honest we want to be somewhere else...". This was really, really irritating.

Epilog

All things considered, I do not regret time, effort and money I spent on going to Berlin and seeing "Elisabeth", I am happy that I saw this musical live and in German, but in my opinion it isn't very good production. No real feeling, no passion, no magic. Rather craft than art. The main actors: Felix, Annemieke, Oliver and Bruno did what they could to please the audience, but the ensemble destroyed their effort.
And after what I saw I have no need to come back to Theater des Westens in the future. And
probably I won't go there again, no matter for which musical.

Jekyll & Hyde in Poland: review

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:07:53 GMT

I’ve been looking forward to the 20th of June with great impatience; „Jekyll&Hyde” in Teatr Rozrywki (Theater Of Entertainment) in Chorzów was to be my first musical after over seven months of fast. You can’t even imagine how happy I was standing in front of the theater, having thirty minutes to the beggining of the show and assisted by my good friend, Radek, who lives in Katowice (the city which is situated very close to Chorzów). I suppose I was the happiest person in the world ;)

Now, if you have enough courage, try to read my review and impressions.

The theatre

The theatre is situated near centre of Chorzów in quite big building, which seemed to be just renovated, so it looked really nice from the outside. Inside it was nice too, with its spacious corridor: so spacious, that I had feeling that there is no many people. The feeling which disappeared when I saw that there was almost no free seats. I was also surprised to discover that the orchestral had it’s place on the right balcony; quite unusual thing.

I booked tickets on-line for the fourth row, a little sad that it’s not first, but the big surprise waited for me. My fourth row was fourth only in theory, practicaly it was second. To be honest – almost first, because seats in first row were covered with black material, so I guessed they aren’t used (now I know why, but I’ll write about this later ;) ). I had another reason to be happy.

I sat smiling and impatiently waited for the start of the show. And lights faded, and there were first sounds of music, and the voice:

“In each of us there are two natures...”

The cast, some new ideas and and personal impressions

Jekyll/Hyde: Janusz Kruciński

Emma Carew: Ewa Grysko

Lucy Harris: Marta Florek

The cast I saw was mixed; first with second. I was very happy to know, that I will see Janusz Kruciński as Jekyll/Hyde. I saw him once in Polish music show “Sztukmistrz z miasta Lublina” and I fell in love with his voice immidiately. I didn’t care much about Emma, but regreted that I won’t see Wioletta Białk as Lucy, because Wioletta is one of my favourite artists. But there was still Kruciński anyway...

Yes – Janusz Kruciński. Kruciński, who was really amazing in his role. Nice, calm and polite as Jekyll and demonic, sinister, terrific as Hyde. At first Kruciński didn’t impress me (maybe because I adore Borchert’s interpretation of “I need to know”), but when I heard how Kruciński sings “This Is The Moment”... I completely forgot about the whole world. Transformations into Hyde were very convincing, and the way Kruciński played really impressed me. I had feeling that I see two diffrent actors at times. Brilliant. The greatest star of the show, without doubt.

But despite the fact I loved Kruciński as Jekyll/Hyde, my sympathy won Lucy Harris. Marta Florek is very pretty, and – what is more important – is a good actress who has a nice, strong voice which suites perfectly to the role. “New life” in her interpretation was simply beautiful. I was really close to tears when all her hope disappeared...

My only complaint in the cast was Ewa Grysko. Although she sings well, she isn’t good actress. With her dignity and eyes looking somewhere up and far away she reminded rather diva from opera than musical actress. There was also no chemistry between her Emma and Jekyll, which was little confusing.

I liked also Anna Ratajczak, who was really funny as Lady Beaconfield, and Sebastian Ziomek as Sir Archibald Proops. Very nice creations.

But I got used to actors having fun on the stage; in J&H I hadn’t feeling that they play with their roles. But probably it happens because “Jekyll&hyde” is rather sad, depressing musical, where is no much room for improvisation...

Polish “Jekyll&Hyde” is non-replica production, so director added some of his ideas to the show. I think the best was was the concept with shadows of London inhabitants – I mean dancers dressed in purple, teared clothes, being the only ones who know what happens, who notice all terror of living in hypocrisy – and who are imprisoned behind the fasade.

The dancers and the cast appear sometimes beetwen the audience; I was almost trampled after “Fasade” by one of the dancers, who jumped off the stage to the first row and from it on the empty seat just near me.

Also, when we talk about contact with the audience: “Bring On The Men” was very...uhm, interesting. Lucy was assisted by group of the male dancers wearing...ugh, very tight leather corsets and very short leather shorts. When I saw them I thought “... it looks awful”. I was a bit confused – I’m not fan of such things, but Radek seemed to be much more sick than me ;) Well, I started to have fun when I saw this group dancing, it looked funny for me. And when one of the dancers was dancing at the edge of the stage, half-lying and half-sitting, looking straight into my eyes with playful smile on his face... well, I couldn’t help laughing ;) He seemed to be satisfied by this reaction.

Stage design and costumes

The stage design is as simple as possible. But there is another interesting idea; the action takes place on two levels. There are two balcons on the both sides of the stage with metal bridge between them. This is where is Lucy’s world is, and down – world of “common” people and “normal” London. Thanks to such stage design the musical was more symbolic ( I’m the person who loves symbolism) and inspires some interpretations. Very nice. But from my seat in fourth row – which was practicaly second – I lost almost all action in “Dangerous Game”, I saw only heads. My neck was in pain during some parts, but I still think this row is wiorth this pain, because I had brilliant view on the “normal” stage.

Costumes are mostly nice and characteristic for nineteen-century (I really consider stealing Jekyll’s coat). But it seems that Emma is cursed, her dresses are among the most awful I have ever seen. With special award for the wedding-gown in white and red with terrible hat. Ugh. It’s really pain for eyes.

Translation

As I love literature and poetry, I always pay much attention to the lyrics and translation. What can I say about this one... it is decent. Maybe a bit inelegant at times with some lines that don’t suit another ones. There were things which I would change. For example Emma and Jekyll’s love duet “Take Me As I Am” was translated as “Take Me If You Want” and despite the fact the singers did their best, I couldn’t help feeling that they say to each other: “Well, you can take me if you really want, but I don’t care much”.

But on the other hand Polish lyrics were quite close to the original. I found I like such translation – harsh at times – much more than pseudo-poetic texts written by Daniel Wyszogrodzki, who does translations for Warsaw Roma Theater.

What can I say to sum up? Probably only one: I want to see this show again. I promised myself, that I’ll come back to Teatr Rozrywki, I really liked atmosphere of this theater and “Jekyll&Hyde” is really good show.

The only problem is that I haven’t seen any other version of J&H. I own two recordings, from Broadway and Austria, but I didn’t want to watch them before seeing the show, to have some surprise. But I think I have enough good taste to judge Polish production.

Almost three days have passed since I saw the show and I'm still under impression, listening to "Jekyll&Hyde" again and again (yay for my new dictaphone, it was really wise decision to buy it), with "Bring On The Men" and "New Life" and some sad thoughts about live in head..