What I've always said, Dance of the Vampires. If I can't have the German show (with a straight translation) then Steinman's reading script with a few amendments. I must admit, however, that the Previews were a cut above the actual production.. they had a lot of premise: and all the best bits were cut. I felt that the director was wrong for the piece, couldn't make the right decisions. The choreographer was wrong as well. The musical arrangements seemed out of place (and too loud). The venue was wrong because it was too big and they couldn't get anything to sound or look right. Many of the actors didn't have the right chemistry or intensity: Max didn't seem a convincing Alfred... he seemed too brave and confident. Mandy didn't seem the right Sarah, because she was not quiet.. it seemed that her voice was far too loud. And Crawford's Krolock sounded like a spin-off of Phantom. There's one particular scene where it so sounds like it, you can swear you're back in 1988 watching Phantom on Broadway.. with the ghost of Raoul (and the real Krolock) wandering in the background
However, there's one thing I will say; Dance of the Vampires is possibly the one musical (in all of Broadway's illustrious history) to have played the loudest music ever. Listen to God has Left the Building, the section at the start, and it's full-on pumping heavy metal. In the previews it's two or three minutes longer with massive explosions and outbursts, and just everything thrown into the mix. The fixtures on the wall which also brought about the coffin.. which shot out of the floor of the stage like a phenomenal toilet. Plus, it was (probably) the first show to introduce Wagner on Broadway; the start of Eternity is a quote from Siegfried's Deathmarch in Gotterdammerung
All in all, I found the Previews version really enjoyable. It only needed a bit of work - and could have been an amazing show: but it went really down-hill after Opening Night: and the show just sucked from there. It was missing all the nuances and the important bits that there were in the previews, which proved the director had no idea what he was doing and cut everything that should have been kept (and probably would have saved the show). Well, that's my 2 cents on that
Why do I get the feeling this isn't going to be noticed and will be five pages down the board (tomorrow) with my reply as the last? Why? Because that happens a lot around here...
No explaining why
Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
-South Pacific
Updated On: 11/4/05 at 07:05 AM
It would be done in rep. They would rotate, and when one was playing George, the other would be Louis! 
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