#1
Probably not....
'Tanz Der Vampire' has been an enormous hit everywhere except in the English speaking world, partly due to a poor translation, and partly due to Michael Crawford. Mr. Crawford, who headlined the show on Broadway, evidently wanted more humor injected into the piece, presumably to distance himself from the more mysterious, romantic role he had played in 'Phantom Of The Opera'. (if he didn't want to invite comparison to his earlier hit, why did he take a role in another horror story at all?). He played his 'Dance Of The Vampires' role with an outrageously awful Italian accent and interjected a lot of very bad one-liner jokes.
Under his influence, and with some very bad direction, the whole production ultimately became pure over the top camp, almost completely played for laughs. It was virtually the complete opposite of the truly frightening piece it had been in its original German incarnation.
The original German libretto was written by Michael Kunze, who is known not only for being the premier translator of most of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim canon into German, but also as the librettist of the brilliant German language musicals 'Elisabeth' and 'Mozart!' (the former a biography of Queen Elisabeth of Austria, and the latter being a rock musical about the life of Mozart, both quite astonishingly brilliant).
Neither 'Elisabeth' or 'Mozart!' have been done in English, but have been big hits in Japan, among other places.
A theatre reporter had the privilege of meeting with Mr. Kunze a couple of days before the Broadway 'Dance Of The Vampires' was to open. He already knew what a fiasco it was going to be, and did everything except cry on everybody's shoulders. 'What have they done to my poor 'Tanz Der Vampire!?!' he screamed at one point. When asked if 'Elisabeth' might ever come to London or Broadway, he replied that after his experience with 'Dance Of The Vampires'?!, he would never allow 'Elisabeth' to be done here or anywhere unless he had artistic control. 'Vampire' is my godchild,' he said, 'but Elisabeth was my firstborn-my baby!'
One can only hope, as Kunze does, that one day a producer will come along with the intelligence and foresight to produce 'Elisabeth' properly without feeling it has to be 'camped up' or 'dumbed down' for American audiences. Meanwhile we just wait with anticipation.
Posted: 2/28/10 at 5:06am
Probably not....
'Tanz Der Vampire' has been an enormous hit everywhere except in the English speaking world, partly due to a poor translation, and partly due to Michael Crawford. Mr. Crawford, who headlined the show on Broadway, evidently wanted more humor injected into the piece, presumably to distance himself from the more mysterious, romantic role he had played in 'Phantom Of The Opera'. (if he didn't want to invite comparison to his earlier hit, why did he take a role in another horror story at all?). He played his 'Dance Of The Vampires' role with an outrageously awful Italian accent and interjected a lot of very bad one-liner jokes.
Under his influence, and with some very bad direction, the whole production ultimately became pure over the top camp, almost completely played for laughs. It was virtually the complete opposite of the truly frightening piece it had been in its original German incarnation.
The original German libretto was written by Michael Kunze, who is known not only for being the premier translator of most of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim canon into German, but also as the librettist of the brilliant German language musicals 'Elisabeth' and 'Mozart!' (the former a biography of Queen Elisabeth of Austria, and the latter being a rock musical about the life of Mozart, both quite astonishingly brilliant).
Neither 'Elisabeth' or 'Mozart!' have been done in English, but have been big hits in Japan, among other places.
A theatre reporter had the privilege of meeting with Mr. Kunze a couple of days before the Broadway 'Dance Of The Vampires' was to open. He already knew what a fiasco it was going to be, and did everything except cry on everybody's shoulders. 'What have they done to my poor 'Tanz Der Vampire!?!' he screamed at one point. When asked if 'Elisabeth' might ever come to London or Broadway, he replied that after his experience with 'Dance Of The Vampires'?!, he would never allow 'Elisabeth' to be done here or anywhere unless he had artistic control. 'Vampire' is my godchild,' he said, 'but Elisabeth was my firstborn-my baby!'
One can only hope, as Kunze does, that one day a producer will come along with the intelligence and foresight to produce 'Elisabeth' properly without feeling it has to be 'camped up' or 'dumbed down' for American audiences. Meanwhile we just wait with anticipation.
Updated On: 2/28/10 at 05:06 AM
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