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↳ star troupe's elisabeth, graph 1.1997 ☆

please don't repost <3

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I’m back with more Elisabeth art 😛

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Hugh Panaro & Sandra Joseph, POTO Broadway 2003

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And more!

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Let hopes pass

Let dreams pass

Let them die

Without you what are they for?

I always feel no more than halfway real

Till I hear you sing once more~

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Elisabeth das Musical: Dresden Review

I saw Elisabeth das Musical in Dresden last week!

Below the cut are my thoughts on the performance/adaptation/etc. tl;dr at the end.

Elisabeth is a show I’ve loved for many years and so I was very excited to have the opportunity to finally see it live.

I’ve seen bootlegs of various German language productions but I deliberately did not watch anything related to the Schönbrunn version as I wanted to go in with no expectations. I will also mention my German is quite weak but I’m familiar enough with the show that I don’t need subtitles.

So.

The Staging

I guess if you’re going to do a staged concert, an archway is a versatile set piece. I thought the swing worked best, but there were some other instances (I.e the exercise rings in act 2) where I was distracted by things being put up/taken down from the archway in the background of another scene. There were also a few unintentionally comedic moments when characters passed each other, like when Franz Joseph leaves after Elisabeth gives him her ultimatum. He walked upstage and casually went around der Tod, who was waiting to enter the “door.” I chuckled.

Honourable mention to the ensemble who managed to execute dramatic movements in a tiny space.

Dishonourable mention to the whip/cat toy.

Honestly the blocking is probably as good as you can get for a staged concert, but that being said it still felt underwhelming. A running theme of my experience is disappointment that this show isn’t being given the spectacle it deserves. Projections don't count.

The Music (or lack thereof)

Perhaps this is on me but I thought it being a concert version, the orchestrations/arrangements would be souped up at least a little. Tbh I was really hoping for an excessive electric guitar solo during “Die Schatten werden länger” but there wasn’t even a guitar on stage! (Fine, there was a bass, but you get what I mean.)

This might be due to us sitting on the far side of the theatre, but the audio balance was a little off at times.

But my biggest grievance was the amount that was cut from the show. It was noticeable even to my partner, who has only seen the 2005 proshot once and doesn’t know the show by heart like I do.  The pacing felt jarring at times, particularly the total lack of transition between “Ich gehör nur mir” and “ta-da here’s your dead baby.” I also particularly missed “Éjen” and the build up to the reprise of “Alle Fragen” at the end of act 2.

The choices didn't make sense to me. And if we're getting rid of things, why are we keeping the asylum dance number which was... not great to witness.

It just seems like such a shame to strip the show of nearly everything but the music, and to then cut that, too.

The Costumes (or lack thereof)

Elisabeth’s costumes were gorgeous to see in real life.

I’m not sure why the ensemble (particularly the women) didn’t get full costumes, but it was painfully noticeable during the wedding procession when the gentlemen had embroidered coats and the women had… black t-shirts and a tiara.

The Performance

I’m not really here to criticise individual performers, I will say everyone was pretty good and there were no flubs!

BUT

Poor Lukas Mayer (who was a standout der Tod) had some sort of issue with his earpiece during “Die Schatten werden länger” reprise. I have no clue what went wrong but he spent the whole first verse pulling them out/putting them back in each ear multiple times until it seemed he gave up and just went without. To his credit, he did all this in character, trying to be discreet and not make it super obvious he was having trouble, all without missing a note or an entrance (or the stupid whip lmao).

Obligatory mention of his compelling physicality which was one of the most interesting parts of the evening (also my partner insists I mention he looked and moved like Jasper from Twilight).

tl;dr

This is still one of my favourite shows and I’m so grateful I got to finally see it in person with such a cool cast. It’s just a pity that theatre producers are determined to strip everything down to its bones and then strip it some more. Audiences, performers, and stories deserve better.

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Yearning for my angel of music

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Jon Robyns & Chumisa Dornford-May, POTO West End 2024.

This duo personally victimized me in 4K last night.

(📷: @or-what-you-will)

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Mark Jacoby and Karen Culliver (SCAN) 1990 Chicago, Illinois Credit: Joan Marcus?

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Rebecca Caine and Michael Crawford during I Remember / Stranger Than You Dreamt It

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Tomas Ambt Kofod & Sibylle Glosted, POTO Copenhagen 2019

Thank you @markbbrooklyn for reminding me how much Kofod and Glosted absolutely wreck me with all their freaking face and hand touching *crying emoji*.

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ELISABETH DAS MUSICAL + DEATH AND THE MAIDEN ART

Der Tod und das Mädchen, Charlotte Salomon (1938) / Death and the Maiden, George Clark Stanton (1832-1894) / Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Richard Tennant Cooper (1912) / Death and the Maiden, Egon Schiele (1915) / The Girl and Death, Frederick Simpson Coburn (1871–1960) / Death and the Maiden, Marianne Stokes (1908) / Dancing With Death: A German Tango, Louis Raemaekers (1916) / La jeune fille et la mort, Henri-Léopold Lévy (1900)

bonus:

Der Triumph des Todes, Jan Swart van Groningen (1525-50)

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GUYS

Wake up babes, MASQUERADE Costumes dropped

(left to right) Masquerade costume, Carlotta's Think of Me dress, Christine's wishing outfit

Raoul's Masquerade mask

Rik mask (one of many? YK phantom found shaking)

Piangi's mask

Masquerade mask (ensemble?)

Carlotta's ToM dress

source: Vogue

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Thomas James O'Leary & Tracy Shayne, POTO Broadway 1998

Continuing my '90s Phantom nostalgia. (But is it really nostalgia if you were three years old? Idc.) Anyway, TJO does the absolute most and I love every bit of it!

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Hugh Panaro & Sandra Joseph, POTO Broadway 2003

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Amy Manford as Christine Daae. 💙

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what about immersive love never dies