AWCH Dance of the Vampires

Titanic sank and the vampires came out of the woodwork at the Neue Flora Theater. The new musical Dance of the Vampires (Tanz der Vampire) opened four months ago and seems destined to be popular in Hamburg.

Professor Abronsius and his helper Alfred have set off to research vampires. They narrowly escape a mysterious attack during a field trip. They manage to get a room in an inn run by a fat innkeeper and his wife. Their buxom daughter Sarah bathes in a tub which tantalizes Alfred, but he is too bland for her. She craves excitement. During the night, vampires pay a quick visit, which causes some uproar. The next day Sarah runs away to the castle of the head vampire, Count von Krolock, and his wimpy son. The Professor and Alfred set off to rescue her. The vampire population grows and everyone is invited to a rousing midnight vampire ball.

The musical Dance of the Vampires is based on Roman Polanski’s 1967 film The Fearless Vampire Killers (or Pardon me, but your Teeth are in my Neck). It premiered 1997 in German in Vienna, which makes it one of the few super musicals to have originated neither in an Anglo-America land nor in English. Roman Polanski (who last year won a best-film Oscar for The Pianist) came to Hamburg to oversee the rehearsals and is billed as director.

This is musician Jim Steinman’s first musical score, although he wrote the text for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Whistle Down the Wind. He was born 1948 in New York City and graduated from Amherst College. The Internet is full of information about his successful career composing music for rock stars (Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light, I’d do anything for Love) and films (Footloose). He wrote many hits for Bonnie Tyler, and one, Total Eclipse of the Heart, is now a theme song for Dance of the Vampire with a new text in German.

The local press has made a great fuss over one of the leads: homeboy Thomas Borchert, who grew up in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel and attended the Stage School of Music, Dance and Drama. He started his career as Rum Tug Tiger in Hamburg’s Cats. He was Frankenfurter in the Rocky Horror Show and Buddy Holly in that musical. Then he moved on to greater fame in Vienna playing in Mozart, Jekyll & Hyde, and Elizabeth. In Hamburg he recently brought out a new CD Borchert deluxe with pop, jazz, and soul, sung in English and German.

But Borchert isn’t the only star in Dance of the Vampires. You may not be familiar with anyone on stage since half of the performers come from Germany with the rest from Sweden, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, England and one from the U.S. However, each one is a top performer with great stage presence and singing talent, which is quite necessary for this strenuous musical.

The huge set, which changes from landscape to inn to castle to ballroom with a long stairway, is magnificent. The costumes and make up are wonderful and next time I plan to sit in the first row to see every detail. There are special effects and fine dancing. Figure out how the mirrors reflect real people but not the vampires. If there is any complaint, it might be that there is too much, so that sooner or later you are reminded of every other musical you’ve ever seen. For example, the ball scene and the stairway look like Phantom of the Opera. Vampires crawling around a bed or running into the audience is like Cats. The inn looks like Les Miserables and the Jewish innkeeper like Anatevka. The castle and, again, the ball look like the Rocky Horror Show. This isn’t necessarily detrimental, especially if you haven’t seen that many musicals, or if you have seen many and want more of the same.

This musical might be scary or small children (take them to The Lion King instead). Be prepared for loud music. You’ll leave the theater humming Bat, uh vampire, out of Hell and run home to search for your old Meatloaf record.

This plays at the Neue Flora Theater, Stresemannstr, corner Alsenstr, across from the S-Bahn Holsteinstr. Tickets are available at 0180 5 44 44 for EUR 15.20-71.20, depending on seat and day (Tue-Sun, matinees on Sat and Sun). Children under 12 pay EUR 29 at weekend matinees. See also www.hamburg-vampire.de.