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tanz-der-vampire-musical · 6 years

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Personal concert review - Musical T’s - 29.9.2018 in Berlin

(gotta call them this because there is a thing called copy****t)

Please don’t share the audio outside Tumblr, not even the link. Thank you!

As I promised I wrote a review about Musical T's concert on 29th September 2018 in Berlin, Admiralspalast

The videos of the encore, you can find in this post!

Last time I decided to write the rest in German, but I try it in English to make everyone understand what a wonderful experience it has been.

The musical t's is a quartet, that includes 4 of the most well-known and popular musical actors in Germany who all happen to be tenors. Two of them are very well known by “Tanz der Vampire” fans. Mark Seibert and Jan Ammann, both portrayed the role Krolock in the past. The other two are Christian Alexander Müller, who played in the Phantom of the Opera musical 10 years ago and gained popularity by it, since then he was mostly in low-budget productions and off-musicals and Patrick Stanke , famous for potraying big lead roles in “3 musketeers” , “AIDA”, created the role Graf Axel von Fersen in the musical “Marie Antoinette” by Kunze/Levay and is known for his self-made shows “Stanke ohne Strom”. This is a quartet that fits to each other so well. You would never guess that in the first place, because they are all solo artists, but together they are in harmony.

I know now why I wanted this concert to happen so badly for 7 years. Yes 7 years ago I went to the same concert format and they never did it again in the past years. There was this CD back from 2011. (So if you don’t know it, listen to it, it is worth it.)The funny thing about this concert was, that even if it was 7 years later, I was immediately thrown back in time to 2011. Because many songs were just the same like back then, also added by some new songs from the musicals and concerts they did in between, but mostly same setlist as before. Also one little detail was different they all aged well and got even better in the years in between, but some of them just got a little, how should I say that, out of their old shape (you know what I mean, do you?)

The audio is the song: “Die unstillbare Gier” sung by two past Krolocks Jan Ammann and Mark Seibert

It is not an exaggeration to say, that this was probably the fan highlight both for me personally and also for the audience.

The whole audience was already very hyped by every song and I think I never saw so many standing ovations in a concert, where people sit. Usually standing ovations is to be seen after the last performance, but here we just had a contest for “who would jump first out of their seats”. And of course in a concert like this, there are mostly ladies, so screaming was foreseen. The audience was electrified and you could see that Jan and Mark were just overwhelmed after the standing ovation they received. I’ve never been to a concert like this with such a “wow” factor in so many areas.

Setlist and more detailed review under the cut!

Photos from here

To write about each and every song would be a bit too much, but I tell you a bit about my personal highlights and the TdV part.

Act 1

When the first notes were there I already knew it would be a great concert. In the Admiralspalast Studio there is a good quality about the sound. The band is never too loud and also each actor knows how to regulate his tone to make the right person stand out.

The “3 musketeers” medley is a greatly crafted piece, starting with original D’Artagnan of the original German production Patrick Stanke with “Heut ist der Tag” (Today is the day), joined by the whole quartet. It features one of my alltime favorit songs “Engel aus Kristall” (Angel of crystal) then went slowly to have “Wo ist der Sommer?” (Where is the summer?) and “Wer kann schon ohne Liebe sein?” (Who can live without love?) and then to gain momentum with „Heut ist der Tag“ to finish. You could see how much fun they had with this piece. Also amazing how songs originally sung by women in the musical also fits this quartet.

My personal highlight was Mark Seibert’s “Ein Traum ohne Anfang und Ende” (A dream without beginning and end) from the musical “Die Päpstin”. I heard him sing this piece in Hamburg in May and he is such a fit for the role with his warm voice.

Of course one song that gets the crowd going immediately with the first notes is “Die Schatten werden länger” (The shadows grow taller) from “Elisabeth”. Elisabeth is very popular among German speaking musical fans and Mark Seibert played “Der Tod” many years and so it was no wonder that song belonged to him. His duet partner was Patrick Stanke. These two together singing the song just blow me away. You hear them fight for their lives in the song, this is what the song is about. You don’t need the costumes and the stage setting you just need their voices.

The other highlight that was amazing on so many different levels was Patrick Stanke’s “Du bist das Licht” (You are the light) what was written for him and also has a very personal meaning to him. He played the piano himself (I did not know he could play piano) and sung the song with such an ease to it that makes you feel that he loved the song. The tears just came because it was so beautiful.

I love “Phantom of the Opera” and “The music of the night” is a song that gives me goosebumps if sung like Christian Alexander Müller sings it. He sung this solo in 2011 too, but omg he got so much better. In 2011 I thought, that this is the best version I ever heard and even after seeing the musical in Hamburg after this I still have found no match, but this in 2018 just blew me away. The interpretation of the lyrics in every note and the nuances of the Phantom were so well played in the song. (I think I will share that audio with you later, because it was just this phenomenal.)

Also that little duet before with Jan Ammann from “Love never dies” “Til I hear you sing” was brilliantly sung, but I think some songs are meant to be sung alone.

Act 2

“Who wants to live forever/The show must go on” is a showstopper at its best. It has everything you want in a quartet in this arrangement. I am not sure I will ever be able to tell how amazing that mashup is.

“Never enough” from “The greatest showman” is a song that I am torn about, because it is a good piece of music, but lacks a bit “wow” factor for me. Also that repeatedly “never, never” is a bit annoying, BUT Christian Alexander Müller sang that. And that’s a challenge for a man, that he mastered brilliantly. I will never be a big fan of this song, but what he did with it was really difficult and deserves an extra appreciation.

Patrick Stanke excels in Kunze/Levay’s “Wie wird man seinen Schatten los” (How do you get rid of your shadow) from “Mozart”. This song just leaves so much room for showing off your vocal skills. It just leaves you speechless about what a great singer he is.

“Tanz der Vampire” could not have been left out at all with two Krlocks in the house. So sung with special guest Stefanie Schüper (Is this her name? I don’t know it…I am still so sorry) was “Totale Finsternis” and as my friend who went with me there just told me “Yeah well everyone is great, but Jan Ammann just stands out for fitting the role” and I cannot say it any better. The quartet plus special guest was nice and you will probably never hear such a diverse “Totale Finsternis” but some just fit the song like it is written for them, others just don’t have the feeling to it. And Mark Seibert is my favorit musical actor but I think “Tanz der Vampire” does not suit him as well as other roles. (He was still great when I watched him last year in TdV but I prefer Jan Ammann in this)

After this bombastic sound in Totale Finsternis, the duet “Die unstillbare Gier” just topped everything before. I don’t know if it was because of the hyped audience or anything else, but it was special. Mark and Jan both sung the parts alternately and in the end joined in two voiced. You can listen to it in the beginning of this post.

With this highlight it could have been the end of the show, but it was not. It followed two wonderful slow pieces of music.

Mark Seibert’s “Letzter Vorhang” (Last curtain call) from “Schikaneder” where Mark told a little anecdote beforehand. Mark told us that when he worked with Stephen Schwartz that he thought the song would end in a bombastic sound like many ballads in musicals do, but Stephen Schwartz just told him “No it is not like this, it is just a little song, not one where you show off” . I appreciate that Mark chose this song, because he could have shown-off his vocal skills but he did not and this little song is a beautiful piece of music with very beautiful meaningful lyrics. So it felt just like everyone calmed down and did not really know how to react. Of course people applauded loudly but much calmer.

The other slow song is also one of my personal alltime favorit songs that make me cry “Bring him home” from Les Mis. This was a beautiful duet with Christian A. Müller and Patrick Stanke. Even writing about it, gets me emotional….

The finish was “Vivo per lei” that is just an appreciation song to music and a wonderful song to finish, just that this was not the end at all.

There came the ABBA Medley that got the crowd going and screaming and hyped the audience again (almost everyone took out their phone and filmed) and they ended it with “Look with your heart” from “Love never dies” . They ended the same way they did in 2011. And the clever part of this song is that they slowly walk off the stage and don’t come back so the audience cannot scream for more. Very clever, because we could have stayed there all night.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know if I should share a bit more audio files of the show, I would do it.

SETLIST:

(Note: CA Müller is Christian Alexander Müller)

AKT 1

01. Tenors – Limelight Moderation A Alle

02. Tenors - Drei Musketiere Medley

03. Jan Ammann – Leuchtturm

04. Tenors – Auf der Strasse, mein Schatz wo Du lebst

05. Tenors - The Impossible Dream / Man Of La Mancha

06. Mark Seibert - Ein Traum ohne Anfang und Ende

07. Tenors – More Than Words

08. Seibert & Stanke – Die Schatten werden länger

09. Patrick Stanke – Du bist das Licht

10. Tenors – Memory

11. Müller & Ammann – Till I Hear You Sing

12. CA Müller – Die Musik der Nacht

13. Tenors – This Is The Moment

14. Tenors feat. Female Guest – I Believe in You

AKT 2

01. Tenors – Who wants to live forever / Show must go on

02. CA Müller – Never enough

03. Tenors – Closer To Heaven

04. Jan Ammann – Kalte Sterne

05. Female Guest – divers, je nach Konzerttermin

06. Patrick Stanke – Wie wird man seinen Schatten los…

07. Tenors - Am Ende bleiben Tränen (Tu Cosa Fai Stasera)

08. Tenors feat. Female Guest – Totale Finsternis

09. Mark Seibert & Jan Ammann – Die Unstillbare Gier

10. Mark Seibert – Der letzte Vorhang

11. CA Müller & Patrick Stanke – Bring ihn heim

12. Tenors – Vivo per lei

Encore

01. Tenors – ABBA - Medley

02. Tenors –Look With your Heart

Setlist from here

#tanz der vampire #mark seibert #jan ammann #patrick stanke #Christian alexander müller #musical tenors #personal review #berlin 2018

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coffintanz · 6 years

Text

Why is Tanz so successful?

We can establish one thing about Tanz before I even begin writing this post, Tanz is very successful and popular. But why? Why do people after 20 years still find it such a captivating musical? These are some reasons why I think it still thrives like it did when it first started.

- You get something out of the story even if you don’t like vampires. Honestly, I don’t know why you would go to Tanz if you dislike vampires, but aside from that, the thing that Tanz is trying to get across the most is that finding and discovering yourself is very important. This happens mainly to Sarah but also to Alfred and a bit to Krolock. Although there are people who say that Tanz doesn’t have much of a meaning and that it’s just trying to be good fun, if that were the case, I don’t think the show would continue to be as popular as it is.

- It’s cliché and people love that. There’s a dude with a giant cape, he has the most ridiculous long fangs and he sleeps in a coffin, exactly what the general public would describe a classic vampire as. And that’s what you’re getting with this show, you’re getting nothing new, and that is a good thing. The show doesn’t have to explain to you what you need to know about vampires, because basically everyone already knows! Audiences love a cliché if it’s well done, and it is very well done in this case. It isn’t cheesy and the show takes itself seriously in the right moments, which is important because this topic might already be seen as a joke to some people.

- Along with the previous point also belongs that people can make of it what they want. Do you want sexy vampires? Sure, you can see it as that. Do you want scary traditional vampires? Sure, you can also see it as that. Tanz is very open to interpetation, there are a lot of ways to interpret it, and it doesn’t force a particular view of vampires on the audience. I won’t go into it too deeply, but there has been quite a change in what people think of vampires in the last years, and that mostly has to do with a very popular young adult book series that came out in 2005. For Tanz to stay so immensly popular even though people’s expectations might have been altered also says someting about the audience, audiences still want and keep wanting the “classic” vampires that Tanz offered in 1997. And they are able to provide that.

- It’s very rewatchable. I don’t know the likelihood that someone in “the general public” would want to see Tanz multiple times, but as a fan (and I hopefully can speak for many of you) seeing it once simply isn’t enough. One of the reasons for wanting to see it multiple times is because there is too much to focus on all at once, this is especially the case with Knoblauch, Ein Mädchen das so lächeln kann, Wahrheit, Ewigkeit, Tanzsaal and Der Tanz der Vampire, a lot happens in those scenes and you miss a lot of the smaller elements if you just pay attention to the bigger picture. Adding to that is also the fact that during some of the songs the actors walk towards the stage from where the audience is seated. This is one of the most awesome parts of the musical to me, but it also makes you not pay attention to what is happening on the stage if a dark figure suddenly walks by. So maybe that could be one of the reasons to see it again, and again and again.

- It ages well. There have been some minor changes to the musical over time which mainly had to do with the text, but those didn’t have anything to do with keeping it up to date. A lot of the music is from the 80′s and that music still holds up well. The story isn’t linked to a particular person who existed (for example, the musicals Evita and Elisabeth are based on a real person) which makes a show like Tanz in which everything is fictional, much more accessible and not very dated. With that aging of the show comes the type of audience that goes to Tanz, I’ve seen people who are 16 go to Tanz and I’ve seen people who are 70+ go to Tanz. Although it’s already 20 years old, it keeps attracting new people, and a reasonable amount of the people who first saw it in 1997 still love it, that shows that the audience wants to support the show as well.

- There is a lot of material from Tanz to be found online. The VBW and Stage Entertainment really want to get Tanz out there to the people. Sometimes bootlegs on youtube get deleted for copyright infringement reasons, but there is so much other stuff about Tanz as well that it’s very easily accessible. I strongly believe that bootlegs usually make people want to see a musical more than not see it at all, because they have seen a bootleg and now realize how great the show is. But if you want to go down the safe route and not watch a bootleg, there are multiple official cast albums to be found on all the big streaming platforms and there are lots of videos of Tanz that the theatres make themselves. Because of the large quantity of material that can be found about Tanz, more people get to know about the show and more people want to see the show.

- And lastly, the German musical culture. I am focussing on Germany (and not on Austria) because that is what I’m most familiar with. It’s very simple, Germany loves musicals. Currently there are multiple big musicals in Germany which are all doing very well. Tanz is one of them, the current tour of Tanz through Germany is the 7th run of Tanz in Germany, so it’s safe to say that Tanz is massively successful. A thing that should be said is that not all musicals which come to Germany will be successful, but when they are doing fairly well and the musical is owned by Stage Entertainment, then the chance is big that it will be shown as much as possible or as long as possible. Take The Lion King in Hamburg, since 2001 it has been playing continuously there, that might give you an idea of how dedicated the German musical-goers are to musicals. The same thing is applicable to Tanz, in many interviews with actors from Tanz the question is asked what it is like to be in a musical with such a big fanbase. Their answer usually is that it’s awesome! So, to come back to the question for this paragraph, what does the German musical culture have to do with the success of Tanz? Germany holds the position as the world's third largest musical stronghold, and events such as the summer performances of musicals in Tecklenburg are not very common in other countries. So, if there is a successful musical in Germany, it will probably stay successful.

#tanz der vampire

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