Germany Loves Musicals!

I haven't gotten around to finishing our posts on Esslingen, mostly because I've been too fascinated by two German musicals.  You see, we're staying at a hotel at the "SI Center", which is a big complex full of restaurants, shops, and a movie theater.  But the anchors of the property are the two large theaters, which show international and German musical spectaculars.  "Wicked" was playing here until recently and will be again this summer, but the two current musicals are "Tanz Der Vampire" ("Dance of the Vampires) and "Ich War Noch Niemals in New York" ("I've Never Been To New York").  Judging by the huge evening and Sunday crowds, both are still very popular.

The advertising for "Tanz Der Vampire" seen here is literally all over Stuttgart.  We found this image improbably cheesy and obviously trying to capitalize on the "Twilight"-induced craze of brooding, protective Vampire dude his fragile human love interest.  So I was pretty surprised when I finally looked up the show and realized it wasn't primarily a star-crossed romance between the living and dead, but rather a musical based on a 1969 Roman Polanski horror-comedy (known as "The Fearless Vampire Killers" in the U.S.).  Now I realize we have a whole untapped field of rich source material: Polanski films!  Just imagine the song titles! To make things more bizarre, Polanski even directed the original German version of the musical.  Who knew he had directed a musical?  Crazy Euro secrets.

The show premiered in Vienna in 1997, and what is currently playing here is the 2009 revival.  It's been a huge hit all over German-speaking Europe, so (American) composer Jim Steinman naturally wanted to bring the show to the English-speaking audiences, and that's where the story gets really weird.

Jim Steinman is the guy responsible for some of pop music's most overwrought songs, including (but not limited to) "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart", which incidentally is used, irony-free, in "Tanz Der Vampire". 

 

Anyway, the American production had a lot of problems.  The German version seems to be mostly "sensuous, gothic horror" (that's how fans of the musical describe it, anyway) but that sort of thing would obviously just seem ridiculously campy to Americans, so the creators decided to try to play up some of the more comedic and lewd aspects.  Famous, venerated Broadway veterans were brought in to redo everything from costumes to choreography to sets.  Broadway heavyweight Michael Crawford (i.e. the original Phantom of the Opera) and awesome character actor René Auberjonois (Odo from "Star Trek: Deep Space 9") were cast in lead roles.  Unfortunately Crawford had aged and widened considerably since "Phantom" debuted in 1988, and this was apparently "hidden" behind lots of makeup and costume modifications - think ruffles, lots of ruffles. 

Production continued.  Millions were spent. Many efforts were made to bring Polanski to the States to reprise his role as director, but he ran into some legal issues due the fact that he is a justice-fleeing child rapist.  (Whoops, what a shame that got in the way of your big Broadway debut, Mr. Polanski!) 

To make a long and increasingly hilarious story short, the show suffered from the "too many cooks" syndrome and never found a consistent tone.  Some people didn't care for the stereotypes used for a Jewish innkeeper (who sexually harasses his shiksa maid) and a swishy vampire who tries to seduce the male lead.  

But really, it seems to me the failure of "Dance of the Vampire" had less to do with its numerous production problems and more to do with the fact that a schlocky, serious, scary, romantic, gothic vampire rock opera musical spoof that depends on a puffy, washed-up Broadway legend for sexual magnetism was probably the worst idea of all time.  

It had the stink of a bomb well before it premiered, and critics seemed delighted that it lived up to the hype:

"No one, even after a quart of straight gin, would be able to erase the memory of Mr. Crawford as a blood-sucking aristocrat and Mandy Gonzalez as his toothsome prey, shrieking a revised version of Mr. Steinman's pop hit ''Total Eclipse of the Heart.'' The scene is perfectly accessorized by a phalanx of pasty, hooded creatures, holding (I swear) what appear to be flashlights beneath their faces, like monsters in a homemade spook house."

The show closed quickly after it premiered, but "Tanz" lives on in Germany.  What I want to know is, was the American version so terrible, or is it just that American audiences might have significantly different tastes?  Watch the clip of the exalted German show below and let me know what you think.

(And yes, I am trying to convince Chris to take me for Valentine's Day.  What could be more romantic?)