Tarzan

I saw Tarzan on Broadway and when it first opened in Germany (Hamburg). It got a little overhaul when it crossed the Atlantic though admittedly I already enjoyed it in New York and didn't understand why it flopped there. Definitely worth seeing.

Prices in Oberhausen are eye-watering as per usual. It will definitely still be running in December (shows are usually allowed to drag on for a year even if they aren't selling well), so you could start planning for the christmas markets. Might not be many offers around yet. If you'd wait a while longer, you could take advantage of better offers (but obviously no christmas markets in summer...)

I saw it in Hamburg a few times. I think it's a nice show. Not fabulous but nice. I'm not too keen on the German translation but some of the songs are great and with the right cast it's definitely worth watching. It's quite a visual spectacle.
I only did repeat visits because of a friend in the cast though (otherwise once would have been enough as the "spectacle" kind of wore off for me). Funny enough I saw both Anton Zetterholm and Simon Thomas as Tarzan. Both probably familiar names for London theatre fans.

Oberhausen is close for me and that same friend might be in the cast again so in that case I'll probably go watch it again. :-)

Oberhausen is not the most exciting city so if you are planning a visit you should definitely aim to see some nearby, nicer cities. Düsseldorf has nice Christmas markets. Plus Cologne is worth a visit.

Looking at the website they seem to have a production of Phantom, and Hamburg has Love Never Dies too. When I was in Berlin last year they also had Chicago and Vampire the Musical.

I am sure there must be promotions on and ways of getting cheaper tickets.

Even so the ticket prices are in the higher side, but if I was in town anyway I would pay it and see the show, you think how expensive a seat actually I'd in New York, when you factor in Flight, Hotel and inflated food prices, then Tarzan sounds very reasonable.

So what other shows are playing Germany?

I would bite the bullet and go?

Do that pay 60€ and simply give yourself a guided tour of the theatre a couple minutes before the curtain and see where you end up!!!!

The answers here only factor in the other productions by Stage Entertainment.  The company is currently undergoing re-structuring and is closing at least one theatre so far  (The Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, where "Hinterm Horizont" is presently playing)  - more might follow.

The Ruhrgebiet is not so much an "enclave" but the most densely populated region in Germany (if not Europe), so it makes sense to plonk a few shows down where many people live. The big musicals are indeed Starlight Express (which has been running forever) in Bochum and right now Phantom of the Opera in Oberhausen (to be replaced by Tarzan in autumn). You also have the local repertory theatres (Stadttheater) that sometimes put on decent musicals which then run in repertory. Don't think any of those are a must unless it's a show you are really keen on seeing. I saw a lovely "Show Boat" at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen some years ago and the theatre in Dortmund also has a good reputation for musicals.

If you include the metropolitan region south of the Ruhrgebiet (Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn), you can add The Bodyguard in Cologne to the "big" productions and again smaller local productions. Düsseldorf has the Capitol Theatre as a "musical theatre playhouse"  but they are mostly doing tours at the moment.

So, if I were you, I'd plan a long weekend with Tarzan and Starlight Express as the two shows you can't see in Britain and do some sightseeing in the area. The theatre in Oberhausen is part of the Centro, a huge shopping mall which has plenty other gimmicks attached like a Legoland, Sealife Aquarium, Gasometer Exhibition Hall, etc. etc.  They also do a fairly nice christmas market I am told, though if christmas markets are your bag, include Düsseldorf or Cologne (you'll probably use one of those airports anyway).

As for Germany "being no. 3"  I'd hotly dispute that, except that Hamburg can claim to be no.3 CITY after New York and London in terms of density of shows. But density and quality are different things. Which is also why I would not pay the regular prices for Stage Entertainment shows in Germany. It's very hit and miss whether you see the first casts or some third understudy, many of whom are foreign performers incapable of singing in German, so you don't understand much of what they are singing and they can't really put feeling into lines they repeat parrot fashion.

Also keep in mind, Germany has a very crude system for advance bookings, where the fee is not a fixed sum but a percentage. For Tarzan, top price on Saturday Evening is 155€ plus the 15% fee (23,25€) = 178,25€ plus a bunch of other weird fees, so you're looking at around 180-185€. That's MORE than Broadway even and there is no proper system for half price tickets (such as TKTS) in place, only various offers that are not widely publicized.

Usually you need to wait about six months into a show's run for the first "2 for 1" offers and such like to appear. We did manage to see "Rocky" in Hamburg for 60€ per person on decent seats and "Sister Act" in Oberhausen for 35€ even.

I can see how its different for Londoners who go to Germany "once in three years and are fine to splash out for 1-2 shows".  But for me, when I consider how much a trip to Hamburg for example would cost (driving there, hotel, tickets), it's a no-brainer to go to London instead where I have a much bigger variety of choice (musicals, plays, etc.) and can see about three shows for the price of one German show.

Well good that there are different opinions, or else we would all watch the same musical every evening

I looove the music of Tarzan, the artistic highlights, everytime i go into the theatre and hear the jungle music in the auditorium, i have a
feeling of "coming home" somehow - sounds chliche or whatever, but i loooove it! For me it is far from average!

Firstly, thank you for the comprehensive answers so far, especially Viserys.

I get why you are not keen to drive up to Hamburg and why you would rather come over to London for choice and cost and I guess the journey is just as easy to London as Hamburg? With Michael he is going to the city where Tarzan is playing anyway for a conference, so travel, hotel and food is being paid for by the employee, so it would be rude not to bunk off to the theatre, even if you buy a cheap ticket in the back and move forward, that is what I would do.

Thought about German theatre on the way home last night and because of how long shows have run in Germany, I would say it has now usurped Australia.

Germany certainly loves Disney with Mary Poppins, The Lion Kings, Tarzan and Aladdin and I am sure Aida has played Germany? Where it has never played London.

Has Germany ever staged Les Miserable or Avenue Q? Or what other shows have historically been shown in Germany? Think I asked this once on What's On Stage but how would Book of Mormon fair in Germany?

When I travel alone, travel costs to London are about the same (99.00€ on the Eurostar or once in a while 120.00€ for a plane ticket, or driving to Hamburg and back same costs on gas - German trains are ludicrously overpriced). Hotels can be cheaper (especially on the value for money front) but then theatre is much cheaper and better quality in London, plus I just love the atmosphere in London, there are some shops I enjoy visiting every time, once in a while I meet a nice person from this board, I get a chance to see performers I've already enjoyed on TV/in movies or vice versa and so on.
None of that in Hamburg, same shops etc. as I have here at home, unknown performers, high risk of not seeing those you actually want to see and so on. I might have gone to see Love never dies for Gardar Thor Cortes, but since it's such a risk to not see him, I'm not  borthering.

Les Miserables has been around rather frequently - both the original Cam Mack production and "free" adaptations in various local theatres and even open air theatres. Avenue Q has been done locally as well in Mannheim (coming from St. Gallen, Switzerland) and Hagen and a local theatre in Hamburg did a very similar show with puppets called Villa Sonnenschein.

Yes, Germany quite likes Disney, as the Disney shows perfectly sum up what Germans like in a musical - bright colourful stage sets, dazzling effects, easy pop music and a light-weight story. Though Lion King is pretty unrivalled in its success. More serious shows like Aida and Hunchback of Notre Dame didn't do that well. Tarzan is doing okay and as for Aladdin and Mary Poppins, remains to be seen how long they run, though it looks like Aladdin is selling well.

Beyond those, well, Phantom has been on and off for ages now and some of the homegrown shows like Tanz der Vampire (whose success will forever be a mystery to me) and Elisabeth, the big weepical about the Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Oh and Mamma mia.

The local theatres (Stadttheater) seem to have a repertory of about 20 classics between them that get rehashed and rehashed every season - stuff like Evita, Cabaret, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and so on, so all in all these would be far better known and have been seen by more people.

As for Book of Mormon - most comedies don't fare well because the English humour gets lost in translation (Spamalot was another victim of this) and since Germans defend dubbing on television and in cinemas tooth and nail, you can't do shows in English here (with or without surtitles). I could see Book of Mormon do o.k. in a Stadttheater locally, but not as a big commercial production.

First of all I have to say that hearing Puccinis "Tosca" and Mozarts "Magic Flute" in an english translation at ENO was equally painful as some of the german lyrics for "Phantom" or "Mamma Mia". I also think it's best to stick to the original, but that just doesn't work for a family orientated business like Stage Entertainment. The only exception in germany I can think of is the English Theatre in Frankfurt, that recently staged an excellent production of "The Life" with a bunch of West End performers.

Also, if you have to spend up to 150€ or even more, I guess a lot of people simply expect some sort of spectale on stage. As far as I know "Aladdin" is meant to stay in Hamburg for at least 5 years and ticket sales seem to indicate that it will. When I went to Hamburg two weeks ago it was almost impossible to get a decent seat, whereas with "LND" it was no problem at all. So it's very unlikely to travel around like "Phantom" or "Tarzan". I never quite understood why "Tarzan" was such a huge success. Fun show to watch and the bungee choreography and flying is sometimes breathtaking (depending on your seat), but the music is just so cheesy and forgettable.

Speaking about german Regietheater nonsense, there has just been a production of "Tell me on a sunday" in Munich, where they transformed the protagonist into a syrian refugee, let her become a street prostitute, showed pictures of childrens corpses from Aleppo during the title song and changed about 40% of the lyrics to make them match this "brilliant" concept. Can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to my next trip to London.