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winterTwo days and a lot of chatter to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dunkle_feuer later, I'm ready to put my thoughts in order. Which does not change the fact that the show was On Crack.
The comments from my previous review still stand - this cast is absolutely on fire, and madcap to boot. It helps that they're given a great setting to work with. I was sitting in the right-most seats of the front row of Hochparkett, and apart from the fact I had to sit slightly sideways, they were perfect seats. I'm convinced there's not a bad place to sit in that entire house.
Mind you, I would appreciate a board displaying this day's cast instead of the animated display in the lobby. I had to wait through five minutes of announcements because learning that yes, I would be seeing the first cast - Jan, Neele, Krisha Dalke, Christian Stadlhofer (the new Abronsius - very warm and cute) and Jerzy Jeszke as Chagal.
And Jakub Wocial as Herbert, which made me squeal out loud. Dammit, it's been over three years since I'd last seen him in that role live.
The beginning was auspicious, in that Knoblauch featured somewhat... fewer dancers than usual. Jakub and Michel Driesse made up for it by being absolute pests of a peanut gallery, standing on the left table and commenting in signs on everything that happened, when they weren't strangling other castmembers. I thought Chagal would come there and yank them down by the legs, but he just insulted them and everyone else in Polish :>
Jan Ammann... more about him later, but his Gott ist tot was an illustration of why he's so good - after a year in this role, he's still playing with it to the point of trying out four different takes on Krolock in the same song. He started it out like Lukasz Dziedzic or Yamaguchi, then went into his own usual interpretation, segued into a Borchert-like roar, and finished in pure Steve Barton. I just about fell off my chair ♥
The rest of the cast were very good. Krisha Dalke impressed me with how he's improved his acting - rather than a vapid prettyboy, he's now an impressive prat :)
There was a lot of very energetic cloak-twirling in the audience before the Act 1 finale. Jan's Krolock was absolutely gracious, laughing all over the place, and Jakub's Herbert got laughs and applause by simply appearing, which is not how I remember Florian from last time ;) Boy's still got it, it seems. (Oh, and according todunkle_feuer, Jan always looms Right Behind Alfred for all of that song. A very... direct approach to seduction, I must say.)
Act 2 started off quietly, but Jan was practicing his acting chops on that staircase, turning from a Nosferatu monster into something human under the spell of Sarah's voice. (Um. That would be me with opera glasses not good enough to watch both Krolock and Sarah at the same time. Neele was adorable, though.) Also, yay for the cloak without the stiffened edges that can actually be twirled.
Carpe Noctem had a surprise Herbert as the second solo - I think the lot of them might have been down with flu/etc. Not like I'm complaining, though Jakub's laid off the extremely energetic pole dancing on the bed. Since he's switched it for molesting the sleeping Alfred, after all :)
I'd seen the show 31 times before, so I can say with certainity that the subsequent scenes were up to par. Linda Konrad's Magda added an extra flourish by letting Chagal tip her backwards until she was upside down with her leg around his waist - very impressive.
And then they went into Bücher. Or they were supposed to go into Bücher, but the orchestra kept playing the prelude to it over and over again, as Abronsius and Alfred stared cluelessly around the empty stage. Finally one bookcase out of three rolled out. Abronsius's "Bücher, bücher.... Hunderttausend Bücher???" cracked everyone up.
They managed to get through the first Bücher sequence, but when the set was supposed to roll off again to show Sarah in the bathroom, it wouldn't budge. After a few more repetitions of the first beat of the Sarah sequence, they mercifully dropped the curtain and announced a five-minute intermission.
You can bet that when the curtain rolled up, set rolled in and Abronsius went "Hunderttausend Bücher!!!" he got a roaring ovation.
Bücher finally went off without a hitch, and so did Wenn Liebe in dir ist. Jakub's gone and refined his performance; he's a grown-up Herbert now, with the confidence and maturity, but still every inch the predator. I do miss the loose Warsaw wig though, since instead of hair-tosses he could only play with his ponytail. "Heyyyy" has turned into a "Mwah!" kissing sound, which scared poor Alfred just as much :D
And then there was Sie irren, Professor and the moment the first syllable of Krolock's song rang out, I was blinking in confusion. I have no idea what happened, but I was sitting in the equivalent of Row 10, I had opera glasses, and I swear that the Krolock had blue eyes rather than Jan's brown O.o Looks like Kevin Tarte hung around backstage since the matinee and stole a little bit of the show? It was definitely an additional piece of crack in a show full of it already.
But the best was yet to come. After a very energetic Ewigkeit, it was Jan again for Unstillbare. A completely rockstar Unstillbare, roaring and captivating. Even his hair seemed to get into the mood, fluffed up by the way he was tossing his head ;) He was absolutely excellent, and like all good Krolocks, he stayed on the graveyard set even as it started tilting up, up and up.
He's supposed to walk/run down in the middle of the second chorus. Instead, he waited until the end of it and a second or two more, which was too long. He came crashing down, half-running, half-sliding, and stopped on one knee, braced with both arms over the edge of the orchestra pit. The momentum made his legs swing sideways, and one leg and the entirely of his cloak ended up dangling over thin air.
On the edge of my opera glasses, I caught the terrified face of the conductor. I suppose getting crashed into by two metres of vampire isn't everyone's idea of a good time ;)
Jan didn't drop a single note, but he did remain on the floor for a good long while before he remembered he should be pacing around. There was a masterful curse, and a cloak-twirl at the end that I certainly recognised from a Herbert of my acquaintance.
And as if I weren't dead enough, Tanzsaal was the Daddy-and-Son show in the way I love it to be. For the first time I saw Jakub not trying to steal the scene, but playing the adoring boy who's indulgent of his dear daddy's little whims. Even the shirt-cuff-straightening (and nail-polishing) was done discreetly. Not to mention the fact they fixed each others' clothing and hair. All that was underscored by the fact that Krolock exclaimed "Herbert!" when Herbert crashed into him during the dance, and then when Herbert was trying to draw his attention to the mortals, Krolock was at first trying to apologise for shouting at him...
Oh, and the fact that Jan is the only Krolock other than Lukasz who ends Tanzsaal/Der Flucht by roaring at the top of his voice rather than letting it fade away just put the cherry on top of Beth's Perfect Show.
I think there was a finale. I was too busy melting from glee.
Back when I first saw Jan, in June of 2007, my first comment was "Can somebody give this guy fangs and a cloak already?" He's got the voice, the looks (former model, check), the poise, and the acting skills.
I was almost afraid to see him as Krolock, since I had high expectations. He lived up to them :)
His Krolock is what Máté Kamarás's Krolock would have been if not for the Vienna/Steve Barton connection, if instead of the sadness there was just an avalanche of rockstar charisma. He's forceful, gleeful, refined, a little bit resigned to his existence with a hipster ennui that he swings out of when there's someone to impress, someone to get him out of his introspection. He definitely knows he's pretty, and plays up the factors of it - the cheekbones, the hands, the jawline. (And the very very tight trousers. I still don't understand German theatre's obsession in showing that amount of detail through the costume.)
Instead of him playing Krolock, Krolock is emerging through him. Even when the spotlight's off (before and after Das Gebiet, for example), he's in perfect poise, cloak/wings folded precisely around him. It's not that he's come up with this concept; it's like he's channelling it.
And he's 100% crazy ♥ To wit: during the Tanzsaal minuet, the vampire girl hitting on Abronsius made "Myah" sounds that were probably meant to represent "Omnomnomnom". Out comes Krolock, shoots Sarah a mischievous look, and goes, loudly, "Myah!"
I got this far without even mentioning his voice. It's this effortless baritone shading up into tenor range if he wants to, with a purring undercurrent and crystal clarity. The closest comparison I can think of is Yuichiro Yamaguchi, with the caveat that Yamaguchi rarely goes into "complete rockstar" mode these days ;) Still, I was reminded of old Japanese Cats recordings, with Yamaguchi as Tugger.
(And for the record, my Krolock top 5, in order of seeing them: Lukasz Dziedzic, Steve Barton, Egyházi Géza, Yuichiro Yamaguchi, and now Jan Ammann.)
Now, off to catch that git and yet another git in concert. Wish me luck with not melting outright!
dunkle_feuer later, I'm ready to put my thoughts in order. Which does not change the fact that the show was On Crack.The comments from my previous review still stand - this cast is absolutely on fire, and madcap to boot. It helps that they're given a great setting to work with. I was sitting in the right-most seats of the front row of Hochparkett, and apart from the fact I had to sit slightly sideways, they were perfect seats. I'm convinced there's not a bad place to sit in that entire house.
Mind you, I would appreciate a board displaying this day's cast instead of the animated display in the lobby. I had to wait through five minutes of announcements because learning that yes, I would be seeing the first cast - Jan, Neele, Krisha Dalke, Christian Stadlhofer (the new Abronsius - very warm and cute) and Jerzy Jeszke as Chagal.
And Jakub Wocial as Herbert, which made me squeal out loud. Dammit, it's been over three years since I'd last seen him in that role live.
Act One
The beginning was auspicious, in that Knoblauch featured somewhat... fewer dancers than usual. Jakub and Michel Driesse made up for it by being absolute pests of a peanut gallery, standing on the left table and commenting in signs on everything that happened, when they weren't strangling other castmembers. I thought Chagal would come there and yank them down by the legs, but he just insulted them and everyone else in Polish :>
Jan Ammann... more about him later, but his Gott ist tot was an illustration of why he's so good - after a year in this role, he's still playing with it to the point of trying out four different takes on Krolock in the same song. He started it out like Lukasz Dziedzic or Yamaguchi, then went into his own usual interpretation, segued into a Borchert-like roar, and finished in pure Steve Barton. I just about fell off my chair ♥
The rest of the cast were very good. Krisha Dalke impressed me with how he's improved his acting - rather than a vapid prettyboy, he's now an impressive prat :)
There was a lot of very energetic cloak-twirling in the audience before the Act 1 finale. Jan's Krolock was absolutely gracious, laughing all over the place, and Jakub's Herbert got laughs and applause by simply appearing, which is not how I remember Florian from last time ;) Boy's still got it, it seems. (Oh, and according to
dunkle_feuer, Jan always looms Right Behind Alfred for all of that song. A very... direct approach to seduction, I must say.)Act Two
Act 2 started off quietly, but Jan was practicing his acting chops on that staircase, turning from a Nosferatu monster into something human under the spell of Sarah's voice. (Um. That would be me with opera glasses not good enough to watch both Krolock and Sarah at the same time. Neele was adorable, though.) Also, yay for the cloak without the stiffened edges that can actually be twirled.
Carpe Noctem had a surprise Herbert as the second solo - I think the lot of them might have been down with flu/etc. Not like I'm complaining, though Jakub's laid off the extremely energetic pole dancing on the bed. Since he's switched it for molesting the sleeping Alfred, after all :)
I'd seen the show 31 times before, so I can say with certainity that the subsequent scenes were up to par. Linda Konrad's Magda added an extra flourish by letting Chagal tip her backwards until she was upside down with her leg around his waist - very impressive.
Act Two, an oops
And then they went into Bücher. Or they were supposed to go into Bücher, but the orchestra kept playing the prelude to it over and over again, as Abronsius and Alfred stared cluelessly around the empty stage. Finally one bookcase out of three rolled out. Abronsius's "Bücher, bücher.... Hunderttausend Bücher???" cracked everyone up.
They managed to get through the first Bücher sequence, but when the set was supposed to roll off again to show Sarah in the bathroom, it wouldn't budge. After a few more repetitions of the first beat of the Sarah sequence, they mercifully dropped the curtain and announced a five-minute intermission.
You can bet that when the curtain rolled up, set rolled in and Abronsius went "Hunderttausend Bücher!!!" he got a roaring ovation.
Act Two, continued
Bücher finally went off without a hitch, and so did Wenn Liebe in dir ist. Jakub's gone and refined his performance; he's a grown-up Herbert now, with the confidence and maturity, but still every inch the predator. I do miss the loose Warsaw wig though, since instead of hair-tosses he could only play with his ponytail. "Heyyyy" has turned into a "Mwah!" kissing sound, which scared poor Alfred just as much :D
And then there was Sie irren, Professor and the moment the first syllable of Krolock's song rang out, I was blinking in confusion. I have no idea what happened, but I was sitting in the equivalent of Row 10, I had opera glasses, and I swear that the Krolock had blue eyes rather than Jan's brown O.o Looks like Kevin Tarte hung around backstage since the matinee and stole a little bit of the show? It was definitely an additional piece of crack in a show full of it already.
But the best was yet to come. After a very energetic Ewigkeit, it was Jan again for Unstillbare. A completely rockstar Unstillbare, roaring and captivating. Even his hair seemed to get into the mood, fluffed up by the way he was tossing his head ;) He was absolutely excellent, and like all good Krolocks, he stayed on the graveyard set even as it started tilting up, up and up.
He's supposed to walk/run down in the middle of the second chorus. Instead, he waited until the end of it and a second or two more, which was too long. He came crashing down, half-running, half-sliding, and stopped on one knee, braced with both arms over the edge of the orchestra pit. The momentum made his legs swing sideways, and one leg and the entirely of his cloak ended up dangling over thin air.
On the edge of my opera glasses, I caught the terrified face of the conductor. I suppose getting crashed into by two metres of vampire isn't everyone's idea of a good time ;)
Jan didn't drop a single note, but he did remain on the floor for a good long while before he remembered he should be pacing around. There was a masterful curse, and a cloak-twirl at the end that I certainly recognised from a Herbert of my acquaintance.
And as if I weren't dead enough, Tanzsaal was the Daddy-and-Son show in the way I love it to be. For the first time I saw Jakub not trying to steal the scene, but playing the adoring boy who's indulgent of his dear daddy's little whims. Even the shirt-cuff-straightening (and nail-polishing) was done discreetly. Not to mention the fact they fixed each others' clothing and hair. All that was underscored by the fact that Krolock exclaimed "Herbert!" when Herbert crashed into him during the dance, and then when Herbert was trying to draw his attention to the mortals, Krolock was at first trying to apologise for shouting at him...
Oh, and the fact that Jan is the only Krolock other than Lukasz who ends Tanzsaal/Der Flucht by roaring at the top of his voice rather than letting it fade away just put the cherry on top of Beth's Perfect Show.
I think there was a finale. I was too busy melting from glee.
Jan Ammann: Definitely in my Krolock top 5
Back when I first saw Jan, in June of 2007, my first comment was "Can somebody give this guy fangs and a cloak already?" He's got the voice, the looks (former model, check), the poise, and the acting skills.
I was almost afraid to see him as Krolock, since I had high expectations. He lived up to them :)
His Krolock is what Máté Kamarás's Krolock would have been if not for the Vienna/Steve Barton connection, if instead of the sadness there was just an avalanche of rockstar charisma. He's forceful, gleeful, refined, a little bit resigned to his existence with a hipster ennui that he swings out of when there's someone to impress, someone to get him out of his introspection. He definitely knows he's pretty, and plays up the factors of it - the cheekbones, the hands, the jawline. (And the very very tight trousers. I still don't understand German theatre's obsession in showing that amount of detail through the costume.)
Instead of him playing Krolock, Krolock is emerging through him. Even when the spotlight's off (before and after Das Gebiet, for example), he's in perfect poise, cloak/wings folded precisely around him. It's not that he's come up with this concept; it's like he's channelling it.
And he's 100% crazy ♥ To wit: during the Tanzsaal minuet, the vampire girl hitting on Abronsius made "Myah" sounds that were probably meant to represent "Omnomnomnom". Out comes Krolock, shoots Sarah a mischievous look, and goes, loudly, "Myah!"
I got this far without even mentioning his voice. It's this effortless baritone shading up into tenor range if he wants to, with a purring undercurrent and crystal clarity. The closest comparison I can think of is Yuichiro Yamaguchi, with the caveat that Yamaguchi rarely goes into "complete rockstar" mode these days ;) Still, I was reminded of old Japanese Cats recordings, with Yamaguchi as Tugger.
(And for the record, my Krolock top 5, in order of seeing them: Lukasz Dziedzic, Steve Barton, Egyházi Géza, Yuichiro Yamaguchi, and now Jan Ammann.)
Now, off to catch that git and yet another git in concert. Wish me luck with not melting outright!