REVIEW: Rebecca - Raimund Theatre, Vienna
Mar. 9th, 2010 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelofmusicMusical: Rebecca
Production: Live
Theatre: Raimund Theatre, Vienna, Austria
Date: 11/10/2008
Cast:
Ich - Wietske van Tongeren
Maxim de Winter - Uwe Kröger
Mrs Danvers - Susan Rigvava-Dumas
Jack Favell - Ramin Dustdar
Mrs Van Hopper - Carin Filipcic
Beatrice - Kerstin Ibald
Frank Crawley - Andre Bauer
Ben - Norberto Bertassi
So, I finally saw Kunze and Levay show, in the original city and language, and live, and with Uwe Kröger :) The cast couldn't have been better, with all of the originals, save for the new Jack Favell. (Also, for the record, recognising cast members by voice alone as members of revival Elisabeth = sign of a true dork)
I love this show. It's as simple as that. While they've diverged from the book and more towards the Hitchcock film as source material, it's still done well enough that I don't mind. Plus, it's easier to justify accidental death rather than a shooting, which always irked me in the book ("Why didn't you tell me?" "That I shot my first wife? Gee. I wonder!"). The music is gorgeous and the orchestrations send shivers straight down your spine.
Cast-wise, I couldn't have asked for better as my first experience of Viennese musical theatre. I never really took to Uwe as Death (the hair. I'm sorry. It terrified me) but as Maxim, he was wonderful, with such restraint and barely hidden emotion. He was so stiff-upper-lipped sometimes, with a gently mocking, affectionate side that he seemed afraid to show. I adored him for it, although in his first big solo, he had a long note at the end and he was so off-key on the long-note that I was cringing. Not helped, of course, by the orchestra still playing in tune.
All the same, he was a lovely Maxim, and Wietske van Tongeren was adorable as Ich, especially with her progression from frightened little lamb to realising she's a strong woman and she can outdo anything Mrs D throws at her. "Mrs de Winter bin Ich" was such a fantastically strong song, in a similar vein as "Ich Gehör Nur Mir" in Elisabeth.
Speaking of Mrs D, Susan Rigvava-Dumas owns the show. Even when she's not doing anything. Even when she just happens to walk off stage, she has the presence and the power and the charisma. This is the Death role. This is Von Krolock. She is the lead. No matter what Maxim and Ich are, Mrs Danvers is the one who IS the show.
Mind you, I loved the minor characters as well. Andre Bauer as Frank was the sweetest gentleman you could find. When he was trying to comfort Ich, and awkwardly tried to work out if patting her on the hand would be considered in appropriate, he made me smile. And then, we have Kerstin Ibald as Beatrice (who I recognised as Esterhazy from revival Elisabeth) and I want to marry her off to Frank instead of her idiot husband to have lots of exceedingly sweet and jolly smashing babies!
Incidentally, the British song? Cracked me up SO HARD. And say nothing of Beatrice who reminded me so much of my old teacher. It's like that, it really is. Minus the quite so awful golfing gear. Darling, don't you know bright lemon yellow was never in?
Who else? Hummm. Carin Filipcic playing Mrs Van Hopper wouldn't stop eating the scenery ;) Someone should warn her about that. And Ramin Dustdar as Jack Favell moved like a snake. I don't know if anyone's seen The Little Prince film, but he moves like the snake-man in that, sleazy, creepy and utterly perfect.
However, on this show, what utterly blew me away were the sets. They were absolutely and mind-bogglingly stunning. Now, sets can be good, but thee were sets that had depth, and character, and they were used so beautifully. I have never seen a show that was so perfectly and magnificently staged. Everything transitioned from one scene to the next so easily, so wonderfully, that I was struck breathless. (Given that last year, I saw a professional production of Joseph wherein they put off all the lights every time they did a scene change, I almost wept with awe seeing the Rebecca stuff)
I think one of my single favourite moments is in the finale of act 1, with the party ongoing downstairs. The whole staircase, party and all, sinking into the floor, while Beatrice trots up it, so you know she's going upstairs, and then the reverse process when Ich descends. It's visually perfect, with her on the stairs in white and the party gradually coming into view. And then that instant of freezeframe after Maxim freaks out, Mrs D to the left and Ich at the top of the stairs. Stunning. I pretty much crumpled in a heap of flaily glee during the intermission.
Another thing that impressed was the sheer depth they created - the fact they went "hey, let's use a wind machine when someone opens the windows" with the wave sound behind it added so much. Likewise, the boathouse, with the black background and sound of the waves and things like that. Even when Ich and Maxim go walking and the edge of the stage looking like the edge of cliffs. It was all designed so beautifully.
Quite aside from the used of huge set pieces (ie. the hotel in scene one, the windows and drapes of the bedroom, the staircase), the use of cross-scene lighting to split the stage into two distinct scenes at the same time was wonderfully done (especially during "Sagt Mir Was Liebe Ist" - possibly wrongly spelled, but close enough). Oh, and the use of projections! So many times that can go horribly, horribly wrong, but this used it right. They didn't forget they could show people behind the projection screen while projecting, so action ongoing all over. Plus, projecting on the back screen while using props at the front, like the boathouse, with waves in the background. Stunning.
Actually, that's what it is - they did a musical like a film, on stage. Cut aways, split screens, angled shots, the stage equivalent of camera movement, following the action. All I could think while I was sitting there is "Yes. This is what a perfect musical should look like". It made me effortlessly happy :)
It's not my favourite musical, altogether, but staging-wise, it is by far the best musical I have seen to date.
Production: Live
Theatre: Raimund Theatre, Vienna, Austria
Date: 11/10/2008
Cast:
Ich - Wietske van Tongeren
Maxim de Winter - Uwe Kröger
Mrs Danvers - Susan Rigvava-Dumas
Jack Favell - Ramin Dustdar
Mrs Van Hopper - Carin Filipcic
Beatrice - Kerstin Ibald
Frank Crawley - Andre Bauer
Ben - Norberto Bertassi
So, I finally saw Kunze and Levay show, in the original city and language, and live, and with Uwe Kröger :) The cast couldn't have been better, with all of the originals, save for the new Jack Favell. (Also, for the record, recognising cast members by voice alone as members of revival Elisabeth = sign of a true dork)
I love this show. It's as simple as that. While they've diverged from the book and more towards the Hitchcock film as source material, it's still done well enough that I don't mind. Plus, it's easier to justify accidental death rather than a shooting, which always irked me in the book ("Why didn't you tell me?" "That I shot my first wife? Gee. I wonder!"). The music is gorgeous and the orchestrations send shivers straight down your spine.
Cast-wise, I couldn't have asked for better as my first experience of Viennese musical theatre. I never really took to Uwe as Death (the hair. I'm sorry. It terrified me) but as Maxim, he was wonderful, with such restraint and barely hidden emotion. He was so stiff-upper-lipped sometimes, with a gently mocking, affectionate side that he seemed afraid to show. I adored him for it, although in his first big solo, he had a long note at the end and he was so off-key on the long-note that I was cringing. Not helped, of course, by the orchestra still playing in tune.
All the same, he was a lovely Maxim, and Wietske van Tongeren was adorable as Ich, especially with her progression from frightened little lamb to realising she's a strong woman and she can outdo anything Mrs D throws at her. "Mrs de Winter bin Ich" was such a fantastically strong song, in a similar vein as "Ich Gehör Nur Mir" in Elisabeth.
Speaking of Mrs D, Susan Rigvava-Dumas owns the show. Even when she's not doing anything. Even when she just happens to walk off stage, she has the presence and the power and the charisma. This is the Death role. This is Von Krolock. She is the lead. No matter what Maxim and Ich are, Mrs Danvers is the one who IS the show.
Mind you, I loved the minor characters as well. Andre Bauer as Frank was the sweetest gentleman you could find. When he was trying to comfort Ich, and awkwardly tried to work out if patting her on the hand would be considered in appropriate, he made me smile. And then, we have Kerstin Ibald as Beatrice (who I recognised as Esterhazy from revival Elisabeth) and I want to marry her off to Frank instead of her idiot husband to have lots of exceedingly sweet and jolly smashing babies!
Incidentally, the British song? Cracked me up SO HARD. And say nothing of Beatrice who reminded me so much of my old teacher. It's like that, it really is. Minus the quite so awful golfing gear. Darling, don't you know bright lemon yellow was never in?
Who else? Hummm. Carin Filipcic playing Mrs Van Hopper wouldn't stop eating the scenery ;) Someone should warn her about that. And Ramin Dustdar as Jack Favell moved like a snake. I don't know if anyone's seen The Little Prince film, but he moves like the snake-man in that, sleazy, creepy and utterly perfect.
However, on this show, what utterly blew me away were the sets. They were absolutely and mind-bogglingly stunning. Now, sets can be good, but thee were sets that had depth, and character, and they were used so beautifully. I have never seen a show that was so perfectly and magnificently staged. Everything transitioned from one scene to the next so easily, so wonderfully, that I was struck breathless. (Given that last year, I saw a professional production of Joseph wherein they put off all the lights every time they did a scene change, I almost wept with awe seeing the Rebecca stuff)
I think one of my single favourite moments is in the finale of act 1, with the party ongoing downstairs. The whole staircase, party and all, sinking into the floor, while Beatrice trots up it, so you know she's going upstairs, and then the reverse process when Ich descends. It's visually perfect, with her on the stairs in white and the party gradually coming into view. And then that instant of freezeframe after Maxim freaks out, Mrs D to the left and Ich at the top of the stairs. Stunning. I pretty much crumpled in a heap of flaily glee during the intermission.
Another thing that impressed was the sheer depth they created - the fact they went "hey, let's use a wind machine when someone opens the windows" with the wave sound behind it added so much. Likewise, the boathouse, with the black background and sound of the waves and things like that. Even when Ich and Maxim go walking and the edge of the stage looking like the edge of cliffs. It was all designed so beautifully.
Quite aside from the used of huge set pieces (ie. the hotel in scene one, the windows and drapes of the bedroom, the staircase), the use of cross-scene lighting to split the stage into two distinct scenes at the same time was wonderfully done (especially during "Sagt Mir Was Liebe Ist" - possibly wrongly spelled, but close enough). Oh, and the use of projections! So many times that can go horribly, horribly wrong, but this used it right. They didn't forget they could show people behind the projection screen while projecting, so action ongoing all over. Plus, projecting on the back screen while using props at the front, like the boathouse, with waves in the background. Stunning.
Actually, that's what it is - they did a musical like a film, on stage. Cut aways, split screens, angled shots, the stage equivalent of camera movement, following the action. All I could think while I was sitting there is "Yes. This is what a perfect musical should look like". It made me effortlessly happy :)
It's not my favourite musical, altogether, but staging-wise, it is by far the best musical I have seen to date.