Post by viserys on Mar 8, 2018 11:45:18 GMT
To pass the time until I finally get to see Bat out of Hell again in London, I decided to give Jim Steinman's "other" musical another chance since it's currently right at my doorstep. And since there's some interest in German musicals on this forum, I figured I'd write a little review of "Tanz der Vampire", which has been doing the rounds over here for 20 years now and whose success is beyond my comprehension. Speak of the Undead indeed.
Tanz der Vampire originated in Vienna in 1997, based on Roman Polanski's vampire spoof movie "The Fearless Vampire Killers" from 1967. The movie was a light-weight comedy in which the vampire hunters Professor Abronsius and his young assistant Alfred (played by Polanski himself) venture to deepest Transsylvania, where they stay at an inn covered heavily in garlic. Alfred falls in love with the innkeeper's pretty daughter Sarah, but Sarah falls for the dashing local vampire Count Krolock and follows him to his sinister castle. Alfred and Abronsius rush to the rescue, but things don't go according to plan...
So far so good.
To get this thing onto a musical stage, Jim Steinman was hauled in and he recycled lots of bit and pieces from his career into "new"(-ish) songs. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is in it fully, now sung by Sarah and Krolock in happy anticipation of the vampire ball, "Original Sin" and "Braver than we are" are there and the grandiose "Tonight is what it means to be young" from the (very much underrated) 80s movie "Streets of Fire", while"Objects in the rear view mirror" has been armtwisted into a new big song for Krolock.
Still sounds decent overall, right?
Well... for me the biggest problem of the musical has always been that it's "neither fish nor flesh", it just can't decide whether it wants to be a comedy like the movie it's based on, or a serious drama about sexual awakening, desire and a vampire haunted by his own existence. It veers wildly between silly comedy and over the top melodrama which sit awkwardly side by side. The fact that "Dance of the Vampires" was a giant flop on Broadway has often been attributed to changes in the book and Michael Crawford's hammy performance as Krolock, but personally I still believe that the attempt to change it was somewhat justified... and that it just isn't as good a show as the hype here and the intense fan following might lead people to believe.
In my opinion the first Vienna production was mostly saved by Steve Barton (London's very first Raoul) who dominated the show as the vampire Krolock with incredible charisma and a fantastic voice, making you forget about everything else. But from Vienna the show moved to Stuttgart/Germany in 2000 where I saw it again and liked it a lot less with a weaker leading man, as it made the many flaws in the show all too obvious. I also had some very negative experiences with obsessive fans that soured the show for me (what is it about vampires that turns teenage girls into nutters? In my youth it was Anne Rice's "Interview with the vampire" series, later the "Twilight" nonsense...) and all in all just didn't get why on earth this show was so successful and attracted such a fan following, while far better shows crashed and burned.
The vampires refused to go away, moving from Stuttgart to Hamburg, to Berlin, to Oberhausen, back to Stuttgart and Berlin. Without even asking for it, I got an invitation for press tickets when it turned up in Oberhausen in 2008, laughed at the irony of having to see it again... and of course took advantage of the freebies. While its many flaws were still obvious to me, I was somehow able to make my peace with the show, thinking, okay, it's not terrible, it's at least mildly entertaining, it has Steinman's music and in the end, different strokes, etc. as I've never been able to grasp the interest in "horror" stuff, whether it's vampires or zombies or whatever but I know it's a popular genre.
Now... fast forward to 2017 and "Bat out of Hell" hitting the stage in Manchester and me off to northern England to see this... and realizing that for all the nonsense of the "Neverland" plot and the mutant 18 year olds, THIS was how you do Steinman on stage: With all-out rock'n'roll, screeching guitars, motorbikes, a sexy cast in leathers, a bombastic stage set to match his bombastic rock, and tongue always firmly in cheek. I hadn't even expected much, but was simply blown away. I didn't get around to revisit it during the Coliseum run in summer and I'm not admitting in public how often I've booked for the Dominion run.
In the meantime... the bloody vampires (no pun intended) moved in right on my doorstep at the Musical Dome in Cologne. Since it's been another ten years since I last saw it I decided that I might just give it another go and this time just try to focus completely on Steinman's music while ignoring the weak book. So I booked a cheap ticket in the front corner to go quietly on my own and see what I thought of it now.
Dear Gods, bad idea.
The one positive thing I'll say is that the sound was not as bad as I had feared after my last terribly negative experiences in Germany with cheap tinny sounds due to the reduction of the orchestra to the utter minimum. Sure, it could have been better, but it was decent enough. And considering what a gamble it is to see the first casts in Germany, I considered myself lucky in that only three leads were played by understudies: The two female leads Sarah and Magda and Krolock's son Herbert.
The new leading man is David Arnsperger whose previous roles included the Phantom and Jekyll/Hyde and who sadly didn't work for me at all. He has a fine voice, but zero charisma and sex appeal which is the one thing Krolock needs to make us understand Sarah's attraction to him (or for us to take an interest in him). The one thing I can say for him is that he has an uncanny resemblance to Meat Loaf, so when he get into "Objects in the rear view mirror/Die unstillbare Gier" in the second act, I could will myself to believe for half a minute that we were in the presence of the original, but otherwise he left me completely cold.
It's beyond me, why old doddery Professor Abronsius, a role I actively hate for being such a silly caricature, has to be played by a very young and judging by the programme, very good-looking young performer (Victor Petersen) who's then made up to look like old Einstein in a fright wig instead of giving the role to someone older, for who good musical roles are harder to come by. Tom van der Ven as his assistant Alfred looked about 15 years old and was the only one who really worked for me both looks- und voice-wise.
It was the female side where the difference to BOOH struck me as so blindingly obvious now. Where Christina Bennington and Danielle Steers got to belt out Steinman's rock songs with proper rock voices (and the latter especially blew me away), the role of Sarah here is reduced to a typical squeaky musical theatre Disney princess voice that doesn't work for me at all. I don't even blame understudy Pamina Lenn, certainly a fine performer, but "Total Eclipse", which opens the second act fell completely flat. Understudy Janis van Dorsselaer fared a bit better as Magda the Maid, whose "It's strange to be dead" (a song not plundered from Steinman's back catalogue) has the makings of a good rock song but never really takes off and is hampered by inane German lyrics.
Which brings me to the next problem... the fact that German is not a pretty-sounding language in general and that this kind of rock music just doesn't mesh well with the stilted, unnatural and often pompous German of our musical theatre productions.
When Krolock finally got to belt out his big song "Die unstillbare Gier" half-way through act two, I just couldn't help wishing to be in a certain other theatre, hearing "Objects in the rear view mirror" done properly in English, a bittersweet reminiscence of childhood and youth and not a fictional creature lecturing the audience how our greed will ruin the planet. Not to mention how hyped this song is here (recently another mini-CD was released with no fewer than three Krolocks sharing it) while it's basically just a decent musical theatre rock song, but absolutely nothing in comparison to the brilliant tour de force that's the nearly ten minute long "Bat out of Hell" closing the first act of BOOH, which left me exhausted just watching.
Lastly, at three hours, the whole thing is just way too long... and ironically it's only after the actual show is over when the vampires launch into "Tonight is what it means to be young" clad in sexy black leathers as the final song, that the show finally rocks and gives me a bit of that Steinman feeling.
So... if you're a Steinman fan, who is tickled by the idea of seeing his "other" musical on stage, you might still enjoy seeing this and discovering all the songs that have been recycled for it, but for me, I throw up my hands in defeat. I've tried it four times across 20 years now but the vampires and I will never become friends.
Tanz der Vampire originated in Vienna in 1997, based on Roman Polanski's vampire spoof movie "The Fearless Vampire Killers" from 1967. The movie was a light-weight comedy in which the vampire hunters Professor Abronsius and his young assistant Alfred (played by Polanski himself) venture to deepest Transsylvania, where they stay at an inn covered heavily in garlic. Alfred falls in love with the innkeeper's pretty daughter Sarah, but Sarah falls for the dashing local vampire Count Krolock and follows him to his sinister castle. Alfred and Abronsius rush to the rescue, but things don't go according to plan...
So far so good.
To get this thing onto a musical stage, Jim Steinman was hauled in and he recycled lots of bit and pieces from his career into "new"(-ish) songs. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is in it fully, now sung by Sarah and Krolock in happy anticipation of the vampire ball, "Original Sin" and "Braver than we are" are there and the grandiose "Tonight is what it means to be young" from the (very much underrated) 80s movie "Streets of Fire", while"Objects in the rear view mirror" has been armtwisted into a new big song for Krolock.
Still sounds decent overall, right?
Well... for me the biggest problem of the musical has always been that it's "neither fish nor flesh", it just can't decide whether it wants to be a comedy like the movie it's based on, or a serious drama about sexual awakening, desire and a vampire haunted by his own existence. It veers wildly between silly comedy and over the top melodrama which sit awkwardly side by side. The fact that "Dance of the Vampires" was a giant flop on Broadway has often been attributed to changes in the book and Michael Crawford's hammy performance as Krolock, but personally I still believe that the attempt to change it was somewhat justified... and that it just isn't as good a show as the hype here and the intense fan following might lead people to believe.
In my opinion the first Vienna production was mostly saved by Steve Barton (London's very first Raoul) who dominated the show as the vampire Krolock with incredible charisma and a fantastic voice, making you forget about everything else. But from Vienna the show moved to Stuttgart/Germany in 2000 where I saw it again and liked it a lot less with a weaker leading man, as it made the many flaws in the show all too obvious. I also had some very negative experiences with obsessive fans that soured the show for me (what is it about vampires that turns teenage girls into nutters? In my youth it was Anne Rice's "Interview with the vampire" series, later the "Twilight" nonsense...) and all in all just didn't get why on earth this show was so successful and attracted such a fan following, while far better shows crashed and burned.
The vampires refused to go away, moving from Stuttgart to Hamburg, to Berlin, to Oberhausen, back to Stuttgart and Berlin. Without even asking for it, I got an invitation for press tickets when it turned up in Oberhausen in 2008, laughed at the irony of having to see it again... and of course took advantage of the freebies. While its many flaws were still obvious to me, I was somehow able to make my peace with the show, thinking, okay, it's not terrible, it's at least mildly entertaining, it has Steinman's music and in the end, different strokes, etc. as I've never been able to grasp the interest in "horror" stuff, whether it's vampires or zombies or whatever but I know it's a popular genre.
Now... fast forward to 2017 and "Bat out of Hell" hitting the stage in Manchester and me off to northern England to see this... and realizing that for all the nonsense of the "Neverland" plot and the mutant 18 year olds, THIS was how you do Steinman on stage: With all-out rock'n'roll, screeching guitars, motorbikes, a sexy cast in leathers, a bombastic stage set to match his bombastic rock, and tongue always firmly in cheek. I hadn't even expected much, but was simply blown away. I didn't get around to revisit it during the Coliseum run in summer and I'm not admitting in public how often I've booked for the Dominion run.
In the meantime... the bloody vampires (no pun intended) moved in right on my doorstep at the Musical Dome in Cologne. Since it's been another ten years since I last saw it I decided that I might just give it another go and this time just try to focus completely on Steinman's music while ignoring the weak book. So I booked a cheap ticket in the front corner to go quietly on my own and see what I thought of it now.
Dear Gods, bad idea.
The one positive thing I'll say is that the sound was not as bad as I had feared after my last terribly negative experiences in Germany with cheap tinny sounds due to the reduction of the orchestra to the utter minimum. Sure, it could have been better, but it was decent enough. And considering what a gamble it is to see the first casts in Germany, I considered myself lucky in that only three leads were played by understudies: The two female leads Sarah and Magda and Krolock's son Herbert.
The new leading man is David Arnsperger whose previous roles included the Phantom and Jekyll/Hyde and who sadly didn't work for me at all. He has a fine voice, but zero charisma and sex appeal which is the one thing Krolock needs to make us understand Sarah's attraction to him (or for us to take an interest in him). The one thing I can say for him is that he has an uncanny resemblance to Meat Loaf, so when he get into "Objects in the rear view mirror/Die unstillbare Gier" in the second act, I could will myself to believe for half a minute that we were in the presence of the original, but otherwise he left me completely cold.
It's beyond me, why old doddery Professor Abronsius, a role I actively hate for being such a silly caricature, has to be played by a very young and judging by the programme, very good-looking young performer (Victor Petersen) who's then made up to look like old Einstein in a fright wig instead of giving the role to someone older, for who good musical roles are harder to come by. Tom van der Ven as his assistant Alfred looked about 15 years old and was the only one who really worked for me both looks- und voice-wise.
It was the female side where the difference to BOOH struck me as so blindingly obvious now. Where Christina Bennington and Danielle Steers got to belt out Steinman's rock songs with proper rock voices (and the latter especially blew me away), the role of Sarah here is reduced to a typical squeaky musical theatre Disney princess voice that doesn't work for me at all. I don't even blame understudy Pamina Lenn, certainly a fine performer, but "Total Eclipse", which opens the second act fell completely flat. Understudy Janis van Dorsselaer fared a bit better as Magda the Maid, whose "It's strange to be dead" (a song not plundered from Steinman's back catalogue) has the makings of a good rock song but never really takes off and is hampered by inane German lyrics.
Which brings me to the next problem... the fact that German is not a pretty-sounding language in general and that this kind of rock music just doesn't mesh well with the stilted, unnatural and often pompous German of our musical theatre productions.
When Krolock finally got to belt out his big song "Die unstillbare Gier" half-way through act two, I just couldn't help wishing to be in a certain other theatre, hearing "Objects in the rear view mirror" done properly in English, a bittersweet reminiscence of childhood and youth and not a fictional creature lecturing the audience how our greed will ruin the planet. Not to mention how hyped this song is here (recently another mini-CD was released with no fewer than three Krolocks sharing it) while it's basically just a decent musical theatre rock song, but absolutely nothing in comparison to the brilliant tour de force that's the nearly ten minute long "Bat out of Hell" closing the first act of BOOH, which left me exhausted just watching.
Lastly, at three hours, the whole thing is just way too long... and ironically it's only after the actual show is over when the vampires launch into "Tonight is what it means to be young" clad in sexy black leathers as the final song, that the show finally rocks and gives me a bit of that Steinman feeling.
So... if you're a Steinman fan, who is tickled by the idea of seeing his "other" musical on stage, you might still enjoy seeing this and discovering all the songs that have been recycled for it, but for me, I throw up my hands in defeat. I've tried it four times across 20 years now but the vampires and I will never become friends.
) when it was in Berlin in 2006/2007 when I lived only a short underground ride away from the theatre. When it concluded it's run in Berlin I went on and saw other shows (I started going to London to see shows in 2007) and kind of lost interest in Tanz because there were much better things around. 
