Tanz der Vampire - Wien Revival Review

[Fantasma da Opera]

Tanz der Vampire - Wien 2010/03/28
Sunday 18:00h performance

Cast:
Graf Von Krolock - Thomas Borchert
Sarah - Marjan Shaki
Abronsius - Gernot Krammer
Alfred - Lukas Perman
Chagal - Martin Planz
Magda - Anna Thorén
Koukol - Thomas Weissengruber
Rebecca - Katharina Dorian
Herbert - Marc Liebisch

About the Cast:

Thomas Borchert (Graf Von Krolock) - Ok. It's no surprise to most of you that Krolock isn't exactly the role I most like Thomas in. Actually until last Sunday, I didn't liked him in the role at all. That slightly changed. Mainly because Thomas finally dropped the "lets-try-to-incarnate-Steve-Barton" and took Krolock in a new direction. In the show, Thomas was clearly having a LOT of fun. So I assume I got him in a good day. His Krolock was a truly funny Count. But funny in the good sense not Michael-Crawford-Krolock-funny.
Needless to say that his interaction with Gernot's Abronsius was hilarious. After ending to sing "Wohl der Nacht" Thomas sighted really loud...then remembered the visitors, turned to then, made a "confused face" as if it was a child then said the "Buu" and bursts laughing. Him and the rest of the audience.
He, of course nailed all the songs amazingly, but he really toped himself in the end of "Einladung zum Ball". Then through the show he kept an amazing performance going. Just two things I didn't liked much: 1st, the way he sung the line "Gott ist tot". I mean, he didn't sung it. He simply said it as a statement. I didn't liked it very much. 2nd - after Abronsius, Alfred and Sarah escape from the Tanzsaal, he delivered the sentence " Holt sie zurück!" as if nothing had just happened. Of course this one didn't bothered me a lot once I realized WHY he wasn't that concerned. And that's because, in the Revival, the Castle doesn't collapse as it does in the other productions. On thing I didn't liked a lot was the over-use of hand-gestured, specially during "Gott ist tot"...I mean...is it really necessary? I know the song is a bit boringly staged granted Krolock doesn't move from that stop but still...
Thomas isn't my favorite Krolock still. Steve Barton keeps it's place, but he certainly became my 2nd favorite after seeing this performance.

Marjan Shaki (Sarah) - I love Marjan. I've always did. She's really cute (even for a brunette lol) and her Sarah is really hot. There were scenes where she was really provocative. In "Du bist wirklich sehr nett", if Lukas wasn't almost certainly gay, he would have get really horny with all the provocation. 'cause Marjan REALLY teased him. On the other hand she was able to be really fragile when needed and in the end, after being turned into a vampire, she became really a brat. So she nailed all the aspects of the character. I also really love her voice and she has really improved. In "Totale Finsternis" he wasn't overshadowed by Thomas at all. I'm just not very fond of the bloody wig she had to use. She would have looked more natural in her own hair. Unlike Thomas, Marjan IS my favorite Sarah.
Also, funny thing, they used real bubble bath foam in the bathroom at the Castle instead of the fake one. And Marjan was clearly having fun playing with it.

Gernot Krammer (Abronsius) - Gernot was the one I REALLY wanted to catch on stage. Mainly because he is a genius and also 'cause...well he did created the role on stage and has played it ever since. That really reflects on how comfortable he was adding things that weren't on the script. And he did added a lot in this performance. On the other hand he didn't really sung all the songs. In some of them he declaimed parts of the song instead of singing them, but he did it so well that I didn't even minded.
His Abronsius was really self-absorbed and full of himself. Like "yeah-I'm a genius-I-know-now bask in my glory" and amazingly funny just like I expected. I wasn't disappointed at all and I actually doubt I'll ever see a better actor in the role.

Lukas Perman (Alfred) - Hmm...Lukas, Lukas...I never liked Lukas. And I still don't. He did sung all the songs really well and somehow his voice gets better as time goes by. His acting however doesn't. His Alfred has the emotional-range of a 5 years old kid. He wined a lot and somehow his "Für Sarah" wasn't really a statement of his intentions but more of a winning song. On the other hand, his scene with Herbert in the bathroom was hilarious. REALLY hilarious! So...yeah...I think they could have given the role to someone else...

Martin Planz (Chagal) - Didn't know him before. Did a nice job though. He sung the songs really well and was really really funny. However he was way to young to be believable as Sarah's father.

Anna Thorén (Magda) - Not the prettiest girl they could pick and I really didn't liked her voice. Way to nasal for my taste. However she nailed her songs and actually added her own touch to "Tot zu sein ist komisch" which actually improved the song when compared to the other renditions of the song I've heard. They could have also increased the size of her boobs...'cause they weren't that big to that Alfred could convince you when saying "Little? They're huge...". But well...let's leave boob talk for other time

Thomas Weissengruber (Koukol) - This guy is HILARIOUS! He's definitely the best Koukol I've seen. Normally Koukol is just a freak servant but in Thomas hands he becomes an adorable character. I specially laughed hard when he puts Chagal and Magda back in the coffin, sits and starts to mutter the tune of "Was ist dabei?". Then gets interrupted because the vampires start to sing and pissed of trows the coffin down the stairs. I really loved him and so did the audience judging by the huge stand-up ovations he got in the end.

Katharina Dorian (Rebecca) - Like Chagal, she was too young for the role. But otherwise she did her job really well. Don't really have much to add since I never cared much for Rebecca. Not the one in Tanz anyway LOL

Marc Liebisch (Herbert) - I had to really dislike someone. It was bound to happen with such a great Cast. Marc was that one. His performance was overall awful with ONE exception. After Alfred run away from him, when he appears behind Lukas to restart the attempts on bite him. I do like really-gay Herbert's. I mean I like Tim Reichwein a lot in the role. Marc was also really flamboyant but many times he just simply overacted. He moved his hands A LOT. And it simply wasn't natural. Also, Marc's Herbert seemed to be very fond of his capes. He spent every single moment he was wearing one making it float and shine.
The funny moment I mentioned above was when Abronsius comes to rescue Alfred. Abronsius hits Herbert in the ass with the umbrella. And Marc's reaction instead of shock or surprise was like "Wooowww....kinky! More! More!" LOL It was priceless. He also broke a nail which made him really upset and those two small details made the scene great and that reflected in the was the public bursted in applause when the scene ended.
Unfortunately Marc's singing was horrible, almost non-existent. Lucky me, he doesn't sing a lot.


About the show:

Overall I really liked it. I actually loved it more than I did before.

The sets were simply AMAZING. I mean...the amount of details was just fantastic even in pieces of set that were only used very briefly. I really liked the staircase in the Castle with the window through which the moonlight came although I think it's something more close to what I would expect Manderley to look like rather than a XIII century castle.
The rotating bathroom and library was also really cool, although I must say I didn't liked the lack of visibility in the mirrors. I took several minutes to be able to see Alfred's "reflection" in the bathroom mirrors.

The costumes were all really pretty specially Krolocks although I still think that the cape over the red coat he uses in Totale Finsternis looks weird. I would simply either lose the cape or change the colour. Sure, Krolock has to make Sarah disappear behind the cape in the end of the scene so they can leave the stage without the public watching them leave but still...
I loved Herbert's costume. I only have one complain: the blond hair. I mean...if you choose a tanned actor to play the role, having blond hair over dark eyebrows just looks weird.

The projections were brutal! Really really amazing. I wasn't sure I was going to find projections that toped the Polish ones but these ones did. Specially during the "Ouvertüre" and "Vor dem Schloss" where the mix of projections and real sets was amazingly accomplished. The Castle entrance was so well done that you really believed the illusion of depth and perspective.

The script was my biggest problem with the show. Not because it's bad written (God no!) but because of the many cuts. I already knew Totale Finsternis was shortened. I still don't like that. But ok. Now...WHY on earth was "Wohl der Mann" cut? I mean...it didn't made much sense to me unless the idea was to shorten the time, but still the show was already fastened up. I'm still not sure I like "Für Sarah" before "In der Gruft". For two simple reasons: it does breaks the pace of the show and I felt a gap in the place where the song was before. They also shortened "Bücher" if I'm not mistaken, but then again I never managed to memorize all the books and authors Abronsius speaks about.
I still hate "Carpe Noctem". The song is way to long and no matter how well choreographed it is and doesn't matter they added a Vampire Alfred in it, it still drags itself. I would gladly see the song replaced buy the dance sequence that was in the 1st Act where now is "Stärker als wir sind". And speaking of which, I'm now really fond of the song. The Cast sung it so well that Marjan actually cried singing it. It was really really moving, and I specially liked the way Alfred was sited in a corner completely lost and tormented while praying.
On the other hand they finally fixed the ending. Now Alfred and Sarah leave, Abronsius sings and leaved...and then Krolock appears. He crosses the room like he does in "Gott is tot", climbs to the stage, then turns to the audience, launches an evil laugh and then disappears through the floor of the stage. Then comes the "Tanz der Vampire" song that is now more of a "bonus" or "Applausemusik" without applause's rather than part of the show itself, which is what I always wanted it to be.

The show gets a 9/10!

[Cia]

Sorry Fantasma, I borrow your thread for my own review. I didn't read yours yet so this isn't an answer to it, it's simply my own review.

Tanz der Vampire - Vienna October 2009 & April 1st 2010

I saw the Vienna production four times in October 2009 but didn't have time to write a review back then. Now I did a short trip to Vienna and bought a 5 € Stehplatz. I've mostly seen the 1st cast every time.

Generally the production is the best German-language production I've seen. Kentaur's sets are gorgeous, the colours are beautiful and I adore the religious symbolism he uses in the sets. There's so much to watch and to think about. The sets and costumes are mostly similar to the Budapest production, but in Vienna they have of course had more money to make them. One detail that always makes me squee is the Jim Steinman look-alike ensemble vampire in the finale, I think it's a wonderful idea and I hope they'd adopt it in Budapest, too.

Still I think that the production lacks some spirit. It's good and I like to watch and especially listen to it, but it doesn't catch me as well as the Hungarian. Much of this also depends on the conductor. In October we saw three different conductors (no idea of the names, sorry) and two of them failed to keep the orchestra and the ensemble together, with the result that for example Ewigkeit lacked all power. The third was much better, and last Thursday we had Caspar Richter who worked like a magician and had the whole performance 100 % under his control. The difference to the first two was very clear. In fact, I spent much of the performance just admiring Richter's working.

The cast:

Krolock - Thomas Borchert
I saw him twice last autumn and then he seemed really stressed, so stressed that you could see it and it didn't do good for his acting. Now he was much, much better, more relaxed and having fun and moving softly and beautifully. He sounds more divine than ever, there's something in his voice that I simply adore. It's deep, velvety, strong and beautiful, in many ways hard to describe. I first saw him as Krolock in Hamburg in 2005 and then he was a very cold and cynical vampire. In the concerts there started to be more of the fun-having rock star, and now he has again found new dimensions, though the cynical approach to life is still somewhere down there. Now there's a more human touch in it, though, and the character works very well.

Krolock - Alexander di Capri
I saw him twice in October and ended up liking him very much, he's a good actor with a good voice. He's an extremely interesting Krolock, not the typical style but something very... special. He is very good, but I wouldn't like to see him as my first Krolock. In short, he seemed like a wicked little shaman who has spent too much time alone and forgotten how to interact with people, constantly forgot that people are hearing him when he thinks aloud and generally just forgot the presence of other people. I definitely wouldn't follow his Krolock anywhere, but as a character on stage he was very fascinating to watch.

Sarah - Marjan Shaki, Barbara Obermeier
I'm terribly sorry but I can't stand Marjan as Sarah. She usually either doesn't act or overacts, and her Sarah seems fake and unnatural and boring, much like a Barbie doll in many ways. She had some moments that I found interesting, but other than that my attention tended to float from her to the sets or to the conductor. For example, the bathroom scene could be so much fun, but she doesn't get anything out of it, not even out of the "I have two" line that should be the easiest funny moment in the whole scene. She says it and that's it, nothing more. She's not seductive at all and I fail to see anything truly sexy in her, just the plastic-like Barbieness that isn't very appealing. Her voice is okay nowadays, still a bit too much breathing and sighing but not pain to my ears anymore. Her understudy Barbara Obermeier was much better in every way and made also Lukas get more out of his role.

Alfred - Lukas Perman
My biggest problem with this production. Much like Marjan, he has about two facial expressions (smiling or scared) and his acting is a pain to watch. His Alfred is whiny and has about one brain cell and, quoting Hermione from the Harry Potters, the emotional range of a tea sthingy. [What's with this censoring? Can't I even write sp-oon anymore?] Okay, Alfred isn't supposed to be as smart as the professor, but I don't see him as a complete idiot, either. Nothing seems to be going on in the head of Lukas!Alfred, he just stands there and plays the stereotypical pretty boy role and sings nicely and doesn't think or develop the role at all. He's not Alfred, he's Lukas looking pretty and singing prettily.

The problem with Alfred as a character is that there isn't much interesting written straight in the role, no memorable lines or anything. But the potential is there and the actor has to find and bring out the interesting aspects. In this Lukas totally fails. I've now seen him five times in the role in Vienna, eight if you count the TAC concerts, and I'm definitely starting to have enough of him. Marjan is okay to watch, but seeing&hearing someone act as badly as Lukas makes me aggressive. I know I sound harsh in the case of these two, but I can't help it, I've tried hard to see something good in them but failed. I still want to go and kick Alfred whenever I think of Lukas. Marjan didn't cause that much aggressions and every now and then I liked something she did, but my gods, who has let Lukas Perman have a role that requires acting?

Professor Abronsius - Gernot Kranner, Martin Planz, Fernand Delosch
I've seen all three and all are good, even if Gernot of course has some legendary excellence brought by the years while the others are new in the role. Gernot!Abronsius genuinely likes Alfred and cares for him even if occasionally forgets it while concentrating on books, and he's a silly but very warm character. Martin!Abronsius is smart and full of sharp logic, and he more just rolls his eyes at Alfred. I think we saw his premiere as Abronsius last autumn, and now we saw him again. Fernand Delosch was somewhere in between; if I remember right he was most like the nutty professor out of those three.

The ending has been slightly modified. Abronsius sings the "Wir sind entkommen" part, but after that the music changes in tone and becomes dark and threatening. Abronsius notices that Alfred is gone and goes to look for him, and on the same time Krolock walks from the audience to the stage after Abronsius and starts to laugh. In October he followed Abronsius to the sets which pretty much looked like the Professor was going to be a vampire too, but now Krolock stayed in the middle of the stage and was then lowered under it. The change makes the scene work a bit better, I like it when they leave the ending a bit more open and don't tell everything. Still I think that the whole scene tells too much and doesn't add anything to the story, on the contrary. However, Sarah and Alfred (and Krolock) joining the finale is a nice touch, even if I've always understood that S&A are a part of the "revolution", we just don't see them.

It also depends on the Abronsius how this scene works. With Gernot Kranner it was almost upsetting, he was so worried of Alfred and it felt horrible to see a sweet old man almost scared for Alfred while Krolock approached him threateningly. With Martin Planz and Fernand Delosch I liked the scene more, they didn't sound scared but only frustrated with the boy, and that matched the previous and the following scene much better. With Gernot the mood changed too much, from cheerful to distressed and then back to cheerful.

Herbert - Marc Liebisch
He's so sweet! This Herbert is totally a Drama Queen who wants to have all the attention, and yet under there is a little princess who dreams of the prince with a white horse. He has the usual gay stereotypes in the character, but he goes beyond them and has a real personality, too. I've never before seen a German Herbert who would be more than the boring stereotype, so Liebisch was a lovely surprise.

The rest of the cast is okay, your basic good Vienna quality with nothing specially mentionable. The Budapest cast as a whole is much better and more intensive, and as a whole I very much prefer the Hungarian production, but Vienna is my 2nd-favourite.

[Valancy]

Thanks for the reviews! I'd like to see this production some time - though I think I would have to make sure I can see it with some other Alfred than Lukas. He makes me aggressive already on the trailer and in the photos as well as the soundclips I've heard, so after seeing a whole performance I'd probably want to burn down the theatre (which would be a shame especially with such a beautiful theatre). Like Cia says, while the interesting things about Alfred aren't written out directly like e.g. with Krolock and that can make him a challenging role to do (not that Krolock isn't, but differently), it's entirely possible to create a personality out of him and not play him as though he's completely without brain or purpose. I've never been forgiving of bad Alfreds, and after how thoroughly I've been spoiled by the Alfreds in Budapest I don't know how I'd put up with Lukas at all...

Cia, I'm glad to hear that Borchert wasn't so tense and stressed this time and had again found new dimensions to the character!

Fantasma, you might like to know that Marjan and Lukas are dating and have been for a few years already. So the reason why he wouldn't be affected by her "teasing" would be that he is quite used to her in that respect and probably can bear with being on the same stage with her and still keep his self-control. Not to mention that actors (even bad actors like him) have to learn to be professional about flirting and touching on stage instead of getting lusty every time there's such a scene to do - which in this case, too, happens several times a week...

[Fantasma da Opera]

Apr 4, 2010 9:14:26 GMT -5 Valancy said:

Fantasma, you might like to know that Marjan and Lukas are dating and have been for a few years already. So the reason why he wouldn't be affected by her "teasing" would be that he is quite used to her in that respect and probably can bear with being on the same stage with her and still keep his self-control. Not to mention that actors (even bad actors like him) have to learn to be professional about flirting and touching on stage instead of getting lusty every time there's such a scene to do - which in this case, too, happens several times a week...

Well even worse...if he's dating her and even so has absolutly no response to her lines or actions it just brings my opinion on his acting even more down...shame. 'cause I really don't see ANY reaction of Alfred towards Sarah...the only scene where he did looked like he actually felt something was during the prayer in "Stärker als wir sind"...

True, I don't care for Alfred, actuallty I don't notice him most of the time in the show (I'm more focused of Krolock, Sarah and Abronsius) but when I do notice the presence of Alfred I would like to see one who actually did something interesting with the role. So far I haven't seen any...Ari Sas was the closer one to something interesting. The Budapest ones do nothing since I have absolutly no idea what they're saying and I get a bit bored hearing hungarian after a while.

[Valancy]

Well yeah, I didn't say Lukas isn't a lousy actor, he is, I just said his sexual orientation can have nothing to do with it. (Though I would argue that steady couples are anyway less likely to work well on stage because they have already passed that 'first love' stage with the special spark and are more used to each other as everyday life partners, and this may actually harm the romantic chemistry.) I've also seen lots of gay actors act fantastically in romantic/sexual scenes with women. That's what acting is, among other things: ability to also convincingly act out emotions, desires and deeds that aren't yours.

German productions generally have dreadfully dull Alfreds and I can't bear to watch or hear most of them. Hungarian Alfreds are saying largely the same things as their German-language counterparts; if you can't get anything out of acting in a language you don't understand, it's your problem, not theirs. There's very little material of them available online, though, and seeing what they're really doing with the character would require seeing them live. Aris Sas is almost the only one besides them whom I really like, though based on some audio material I'm extremely curious about Gernot Romic, one of the understudy Alfreds of the Vienna production. A pity he seems to play the role very rarely, because he's usually the first cast White Vampire.

[Fantasma da Opera]

Oh I knew he was not gay, it was just a joke to smooth the fact that his acting sucked lol
Gay actors can act really well with women, and Uwe is a great example. Both in Elisabeth and in Rudolf he did seem to be really passionate towards Sisi and even Mary ('cause for some reason I got a feeling Taaffe was more into Mary than he was suposed to...)

Well that aplies to any actor in any language. I don't like to hear hungarian in large amounts so that kinda interfeers with my ability to enjoy a production. I would like to see a couple of Hungarian productions though (well...Rebecca. Tanz, having seen the Vienna, I have no reason now to see the Hungarian one since what I most liked in it was the sets and those are in Vienna too...).

I wished I could have seen the productions a couple more times to try to catch other people but being with my mother and sister didn't helped.

[safira]

Thanks to you all for your reports!

[Jo]

so...I have to avoid Lukas Perman if I ever ever have a chance to see the show in Wien?? Thank you for the reviews!!

[Valancy]

Apr 7, 2010 3:11:40 GMT -5 Jo said:

so...I have to avoid Lukas Perman if I ever ever have a chance to see the show in Wien??

So it would seem, when two such different reviews say the same negative things about him... Though I know people who've liked him, but I haven't yet figured out why.