Total Eclipse of the Heart

Today I want to tell you about my absolute favourite musical: Tanz der Vampire. I have seen it four times now. Twice in Oberhausen, NRW, and twice in Berlin. Somehow I really hope to see it one last time, because in Summer 2013, the musical will pause in Germany for a while.

Dance of the Vampires (or Tanz der Vampire as the original German language version is named) is a musical adaption of a 1967 Roman Polanski film. Polanski also directed the original German production of this musical. Music was composed by Jim Steinman and orchestrated by Steve Margoshes, and original German book and lyrics were written by Michael Kunze.

Von Krolock is about to bite Sarah during the song 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'/'Totale Finsternis'
source: unitednetworker.com

The musical is about professor Abronsius and his student Alfred who went to research vampires in Transylvania. After a snow storm, they strand at an inn where they met Sarah, the beautiful daughter of the inn keeper. Sarah is stubborn and yearns to be treated as a woman. After von Krolock invites her to a ball - of course her father refuses to let her go, since the count is a man and vampire - she runs away from home. Professor Abronsius and Alfred follow her. In brief this is the plot of the musical. Tanz der Vampire is a gloomy and funny musical dealing with growing up, giving into needs and bloodthirst. Tanz der Vampire has everything good musical needs:
- great music (the songs are so catchy!)
- outstanding costumes (especially those of the vampires. They look more noble compared to those of the citizens. They also look worn out, some of them are defect on purpose - just like to clothes of zombies you know from movies)
- slapstick (Herbert - the gay vampire is just hilarious for instance!)
- effects (as you know, vampires don't have a reflection - but what happens when they dance in front of a mirror with a human? Right, the human has a reflection, the vampire not. They also used a transparent curtain in some scenes and project images on it to create a 3D scenery.)
- awesome stage setting (hello? They have a house on stage that can rotate! And lots of massive coffins, a giant spiral staircase, a cemetry and lots of scary yet impressing pillars and gates. It's just: wow!)

So, this musical is definitely worth seeing!

Here are some more impressions:

Alfred's dream in 'Carpe Noctem'
source: pflichtlektuere.com

The vampires wake up and are on their way to the ball.
source: musicalfreunde.de

In front of Chagal's inn.
source: buehnenfotos.de

Well, since Tanz der Vampire is a rather old musical, it includes a lot of singing. More than in newer musicals like Lion King or Tarzan. But for me this is one of the reasons why that's my favourite musical. Plus I always liked vampires and other horror creatures. The obscure setting is the exactly right thing for me. When I was in Berlin I bought the photo booklet. You can see some of the photos I liked above in there, printed on very high quality paper. I love to look at those pictures again and again, because they keep my memory alive :)

Love,
J.