Review: Benefiz-Gala in Oberhausen
Nov. 13th, 2009 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterAfter three days of Roman angelic overload, I'm finally up to a review of Tuesday's gala.
To get bad things out of the way first: the concert was advertised with posters and annoucements featuring only Jan Ammann and Kevin Tarte, leading me to assume that they'd feature in at least half the concert. Instead, in a three-hour concert Kevin got one solo, Jan two, and there were two duets between the two of them, out of thirty-seven songs. I think that if the poster for a concert features only two stars, one can reasonably expect them to take up more than 13.5% of its duration. (One can also expect, say, drama musicals rather than crossdressing and Disney. One can be wrong.)
The concert was almost completely sold out (60 seats left, apparently, out of 1300+). It was all to help Inter Educare, a charity that builds schools in India etc. The charity's led by Gabriele Ramm, which explains the Oberhausen connection (she's currently the art director of the Metronom Theater). I did think that for a show this big, they could put on a slideshow with something more than basic Powerpoint effects that really don't translate to a screen dozens of metres wide...
The concert itself was directed by Michel Driesse, which... really explains the crack, because the guy is certifiable <3 I apologise beforehand for mixing names up and/or not giving them - I recognise few faces from the Oberhausen ensemble, mostly people I've seen elsewhere and/or in main roles.
The concert opened with Nature Boy from Moulin Rouge, sung by Jan Ammann. The song's so oneiric, combined with his deep voice, that the effect was unearthly ♥ There was a frozen crowd on the stage, and finally at the end of it they moved, rearranging into The Show Must Go On led by Kevin Tarte. The choreography was very good, but like in all the concert, I could really tell the dancers apart from everyone else.
Move from Dreamgirls was sung beautifully, but spoiled by the fact the girls couldn't coordinate in which hand they were supposed to hold their microphones ^^; I really have to praise the girls from Metronom for Omigod You Guys - they gave it their all. They're really extremely bouncy.
The first "themed" section was set in a celebrity nightclub. I'm afraid I wasn't paying enough attention to the songs (though I noticed that Starlight Express was done by an adorable waiter on rollerskates), because Jakub Wocial was being his show-stealing self in the background with his entire small plot. Another guy was making eyes at a girl, and Jakub strongarmed him into an introduction for himself. Upon which Jakub promptly kissed the girl's hand, swept her off her feet, and continued to romance her all over the stage, to glares from the rest of the guys :> It took a dark turn when he got drugs from one of the others and drugged her drink, but the segment finished before he could go further with it.
And what a finish. You know Stars - the Les Mis song that's all thunder and lightning of an unwavering policeman with a religious bend? First time ever that I've seen it done as a duet between two rival demonic celebrities ♥ Jan and Kevin in dark sunglasses, with fangirls, fanboys and trenchcoats, and those voices! This time, And if you fall like Lucifer fell... was clearly applying to them, and they loved it.
It led nicely into the next religious segment. Alle Fragen sind gestellt was the sole Elisabeth song of the evening (set list fail, natch). Florian Fetterle deliciously sneered his way through Die Glocken Notre Dames before ceding the stage to Kevin Tarte and Engel aus Kristall. Dear heavens, that man knows how to thunder and rage :D
How Do We Solve A Problem Like Maria fell a bit flat, but Neele-Liis Vaiksoo rescued the mood by singing the hell out of I don't know how to love him?. I'm in awe of how much she's developed over the past year, voice and acting both. After her came a trio of guys with Maria. I wish I knew their names, because they did it exceedingly well.
I also wish I knew who was singing Little Girls, because she was doing it while stumbling drunkenly through the audience and had to be carried out by security to stop her molesting Michel Driesse. Delicious, delicious crack.
The last segment of Act One was the Disney one, which I cared about least. There was a series of duets as an excuse to show off that the dancers know how to dangle in harnesses. The finale was The Impossible Dream as a group number without even Jan and Kevin onstage, and I'd stopped caring, especially since apart from his antics in the celebrity section, Jakub was reduced to background material as well. I was miffed about that because a, sentiment, b, patriotism, and c, how could anyone not realise this guy can blow the hell out of your sound system?
Michel got back into my good graces by dressing up every single guy except Jan and Kevin in feathers and heels and slinky things for We Are What We Are and Go West. Rumours about the cast's backstage exploits have been confirmed by how comfortable the guys are on high heels.
The girls got their own by being guys singing Mein Herr. Mind you, otokorashii but not otokoyaku - I'm not used to my FTM musical crossdressers grabbing crotches, belching and scratching like that ;) Very spirited rendition, anyway.
The Drag Queens and Kings segment closed with Always on my Mind sung by a guy mid-change out of drag and a girl in the same position. I wasn't sure what to think of her voice, but then it went into Confide in Me with her dubbing a guy's voice and singing it in high, gorgeous and pure bel canto. She's another one I need to find a name for, because girl's got lungs.
And then. Ah, and then.
The next item on the set list was Phantom of the Opera. I know it's one of Jan Ammann's show-off songs, and a role he's planning on. I, and everyone else, was expecting him to make an appearance on the darkened stage.
Instead, there were the soft notes of the music box's Masquerade behind me. A glimpse out of the corner of my eye, and I jumped. I knew this mask - I'd seen it up close and personal. (Mind you, I didn't know the music box. He's got a new one.)
It was indeed Jakub, running up to the stage and blowing the sound system thoroughly with a voice that's better with every performance ♥ He manage to spell-bind 1300+ people. Good for him!
Then it went into rock of all things - Jan Ammann in torn jeans and a motorcycle jacket, on an actual motorcycle, launching into rock!Phantom of the Opera in the exact same tonation. There was hair-tossing and hip-twisting and me falling off the chair. Oh, boys ♥
The rock segment's other highlight was Defying Gravity. So much less irritating when sung by not!Cyndi Lauper.
The last "theme" was Hair, though not in the Hair-the-musical sense. More like Hairspray, and Jakub was on again as hairdresser!Abronsius. I now wish I'd stagedoored just to kick him, because I broke something laughing.
And then the "headliners" of the concert again, in their last appearance. The Winner Takes It All, in Spanish for some reason. With how well their voices work together, I didn't quite care.
There was something later. High School Musical, I think, and Boogie Wonderland. I was off drifting in a happy daze.
Mind you, no encores got me in a cranky mood again. Can't we even get a Gott ist Tot? Or a Letzte Tanz? I'd settle for If I Can't Love Her!
And to save you from the wall of text up there:
Jan Ammann - Nature Boy
Jan Ammann and Kevin Tarte - Stars (demonic version)
Jakub Wocial, Jan Ammann - Phantom / Rockstar Phantom
Kevin Tarte and Jan Ammann - The Winner Takes It All
To get bad things out of the way first: the concert was advertised with posters and annoucements featuring only Jan Ammann and Kevin Tarte, leading me to assume that they'd feature in at least half the concert. Instead, in a three-hour concert Kevin got one solo, Jan two, and there were two duets between the two of them, out of thirty-seven songs. I think that if the poster for a concert features only two stars, one can reasonably expect them to take up more than 13.5% of its duration. (One can also expect, say, drama musicals rather than crossdressing and Disney. One can be wrong.)
The concert was almost completely sold out (60 seats left, apparently, out of 1300+). It was all to help Inter Educare, a charity that builds schools in India etc. The charity's led by Gabriele Ramm, which explains the Oberhausen connection (she's currently the art director of the Metronom Theater). I did think that for a show this big, they could put on a slideshow with something more than basic Powerpoint effects that really don't translate to a screen dozens of metres wide...
The concert itself was directed by Michel Driesse, which... really explains the crack, because the guy is certifiable <3 I apologise beforehand for mixing names up and/or not giving them - I recognise few faces from the Oberhausen ensemble, mostly people I've seen elsewhere and/or in main roles.
Act one
The concert opened with Nature Boy from Moulin Rouge, sung by Jan Ammann. The song's so oneiric, combined with his deep voice, that the effect was unearthly ♥ There was a frozen crowd on the stage, and finally at the end of it they moved, rearranging into The Show Must Go On led by Kevin Tarte. The choreography was very good, but like in all the concert, I could really tell the dancers apart from everyone else.
Move from Dreamgirls was sung beautifully, but spoiled by the fact the girls couldn't coordinate in which hand they were supposed to hold their microphones ^^; I really have to praise the girls from Metronom for Omigod You Guys - they gave it their all. They're really extremely bouncy.
The first "themed" section was set in a celebrity nightclub. I'm afraid I wasn't paying enough attention to the songs (though I noticed that Starlight Express was done by an adorable waiter on rollerskates), because Jakub Wocial was being his show-stealing self in the background with his entire small plot. Another guy was making eyes at a girl, and Jakub strongarmed him into an introduction for himself. Upon which Jakub promptly kissed the girl's hand, swept her off her feet, and continued to romance her all over the stage, to glares from the rest of the guys :> It took a dark turn when he got drugs from one of the others and drugged her drink, but the segment finished before he could go further with it.
And what a finish. You know Stars - the Les Mis song that's all thunder and lightning of an unwavering policeman with a religious bend? First time ever that I've seen it done as a duet between two rival demonic celebrities ♥ Jan and Kevin in dark sunglasses, with fangirls, fanboys and trenchcoats, and those voices! This time, And if you fall like Lucifer fell... was clearly applying to them, and they loved it.
It led nicely into the next religious segment. Alle Fragen sind gestellt was the sole Elisabeth song of the evening (set list fail, natch). Florian Fetterle deliciously sneered his way through Die Glocken Notre Dames before ceding the stage to Kevin Tarte and Engel aus Kristall. Dear heavens, that man knows how to thunder and rage :D
How Do We Solve A Problem Like Maria fell a bit flat, but Neele-Liis Vaiksoo rescued the mood by singing the hell out of I don't know how to love him?. I'm in awe of how much she's developed over the past year, voice and acting both. After her came a trio of guys with Maria. I wish I knew their names, because they did it exceedingly well.
I also wish I knew who was singing Little Girls, because she was doing it while stumbling drunkenly through the audience and had to be carried out by security to stop her molesting Michel Driesse. Delicious, delicious crack.
The last segment of Act One was the Disney one, which I cared about least. There was a series of duets as an excuse to show off that the dancers know how to dangle in harnesses. The finale was The Impossible Dream as a group number without even Jan and Kevin onstage, and I'd stopped caring, especially since apart from his antics in the celebrity section, Jakub was reduced to background material as well. I was miffed about that because a, sentiment, b, patriotism, and c, how could anyone not realise this guy can blow the hell out of your sound system?
Act two
Michel got back into my good graces by dressing up every single guy except Jan and Kevin in feathers and heels and slinky things for We Are What We Are and Go West. Rumours about the cast's backstage exploits have been confirmed by how comfortable the guys are on high heels.
The girls got their own by being guys singing Mein Herr. Mind you, otokorashii but not otokoyaku - I'm not used to my FTM musical crossdressers grabbing crotches, belching and scratching like that ;) Very spirited rendition, anyway.
The Drag Queens and Kings segment closed with Always on my Mind sung by a guy mid-change out of drag and a girl in the same position. I wasn't sure what to think of her voice, but then it went into Confide in Me with her dubbing a guy's voice and singing it in high, gorgeous and pure bel canto. She's another one I need to find a name for, because girl's got lungs.
And then. Ah, and then.
The next item on the set list was Phantom of the Opera. I know it's one of Jan Ammann's show-off songs, and a role he's planning on. I, and everyone else, was expecting him to make an appearance on the darkened stage.
Instead, there were the soft notes of the music box's Masquerade behind me. A glimpse out of the corner of my eye, and I jumped. I knew this mask - I'd seen it up close and personal. (Mind you, I didn't know the music box. He's got a new one.)
It was indeed Jakub, running up to the stage and blowing the sound system thoroughly with a voice that's better with every performance ♥ He manage to spell-bind 1300+ people. Good for him!
Then it went into rock of all things - Jan Ammann in torn jeans and a motorcycle jacket, on an actual motorcycle, launching into rock!Phantom of the Opera in the exact same tonation. There was hair-tossing and hip-twisting and me falling off the chair. Oh, boys ♥
The rock segment's other highlight was Defying Gravity. So much less irritating when sung by not!Cyndi Lauper.
The last "theme" was Hair, though not in the Hair-the-musical sense. More like Hairspray, and Jakub was on again as hairdresser!Abronsius. I now wish I'd stagedoored just to kick him, because I broke something laughing.
And then the "headliners" of the concert again, in their last appearance. The Winner Takes It All, in Spanish for some reason. With how well their voices work together, I didn't quite care.
There was something later. High School Musical, I think, and Boogie Wonderland. I was off drifting in a happy daze.
Mind you, no encores got me in a cranky mood again. Can't we even get a Gott ist Tot? Or a Letzte Tanz? I'd settle for If I Can't Love Her!
Audio bonus
And to save you from the wall of text up there:
Jan Ammann - Nature Boy
Jan Ammann and Kevin Tarte - Stars (demonic version)
Jakub Wocial, Jan Ammann - Phantom / Rockstar Phantom
Kevin Tarte and Jan Ammann - The Winner Takes It All
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-13 10:22 pm (UTC)But I agree completely with your review, the good as well as the bad, especially about Jacub and Jan!Phantom and the two duets. If I wouldn't already have been so madly in love with the two of them, I would certainly have fallen for them during Stars.
And I felt quite a bit cheated of getting so few Jan and Kevin. What they did was brilliant, but seeing that the gala was promoted with them, they should have gotten a bit more to do. And I think nobody can say that Michel Driesse doesn't like to surprise the audience. I'm pretty sure that nobody expected such a crack-tastic performance :D
Also - I just spent my evening tracking your audio, just so that I could put the ones you posted (+ Kevin's Engel aus Kristall) onto my iPod. Next time I will just wait, I think *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-14 06:36 am (UTC)I just cut out the four above, so if you could toss the tracked audio my way, it would be appreciated ^^;
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-14 12:59 pm (UTC)Also - it was also very nice meeting you. I never spent such a long time in Starbucks, least of all fangirling *g*
And next time you will come here, the weather will hopefully be nicer as well. I mean, it can hardly rain every time you are here :)
Also: check your mail (and ignore me being confused between my online handle and my RL name. It was a short night :D)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-14 07:25 pm (UTC)