"Dostoyevsky Goes Las Vegas"
The original German text of this article was found on the
Rheinische Post online service.
DOSTOYEVSKY GOES LAS VEGAS
In October
Eric Woolfson's
musical `Gambler' will open at the Municipal Theatre
of Mönchengladbach.
On 26 October 1996, Mönchengladbach will join the ranks of Music Hall cities.
`Gaudi'
producer Friedrich-Carl Coch has leased the city's Municipal Theatre
on the Hindenburgstrasse, where
Eric Woolfson's latest musical
`Gambler'
(based on Dostoyevsky) will open on the aforementioned date. The local
council is confident that this new musical production will not only be "an asset
to the town's cultural programming"; it will also draw many visitors, as does
the city's top league soccer team and the internationally renowned local
museum. This `venue policy' will offer new prospects for this troubled town.
In view of the increasing number of musical productions in Germany,
particularly in the Westphalia region, the `Music Hall Mönchengladbach Ltd.'
wants to distinguish itself. Coch spoke about the dangers of being "crowded
out of the market" and announced that he will exclusively stage new
productions in Mönchengladbach. He has leased the theatre for the next five
years, with an option for prolongation. How long `Gambler' will run, only time
will tell: "It's not going to be easy to run big productions for several
consecutive years". The plan is to run the show for two years. When box office
sales go down, however, something new has to be available to replace
`Gambler'. Stageing a production that has already run somewhere else is out of
the question.
`Gambler' is the second musical by
Eric Woolfson,
former `co-pilot' of the Alan
Parsons Project. It is based on Dostoyevsky's novel `The Player' and is said to
take the spectator to a modern, Las Vegas type gambling hall. According to
director Elmer Ottenthal, no expense is spared on stage technology. In July,
the theatre, which seats a mere 800 people, will undergo a five million
Deutschmark make-over for the benefit of a musical production; the Laser
Division of the RWTH, Aken, is commissioned to design spectacular new laser
effects, especially for Mönchengladbach.
As a result, cuts will have to be made elsewhere in the budget; the music, for
one. Yesterday, composer
Woolfson
announced that he would use a number of
popular songs from the Alan Parsons Project album
`Turn of A Friendly Card'.
He was not able nor willing to come up with any new material, despite promises
to the contrary when he was invited. Neither will there be an orchestra in the
pit of the future Music Hall: the music is prerecorded.
In any case, producer Coch attaches such great value to Mönchengladbach as
a Music Hall city, that he is already contemplating two venues. In the very
near future, the town will start on its latest pet project: the grand-scale
Nord-Südpark, which will include a new soccer stadium, a horseracing track,
hotels, an amusement park and a Music Hall (seating 1500).
The local council wants to emphasize that this does not mean that the city's
existing thespian activities will be put on the backburner. It will merely be
relocated to the Rheydt Opera House; the city's `three steps system' will be
maintained [note from the translator: I assume this refers to the hierarchy of
playhouse/theatre/opera in which the Municipal Theatre usually stages
prestigeous productions, such as classical drama, opera and ballet, all now
reallocated to the Rheydt Opera House. Musicals have always ranked rather
low in thespian prestige, that would explain the - implicitly condescending -
following remark -- PS]. And the musical is, as a genre, after all also "an
asset to culture" (councillor for Art and Culture, Rombey). However,
Ottenthal has enough of a grip on reality to admit that only time will tell if the
new production is a box-office hit or bomb.
RP/Wolfram Goertz, 27 February 1996
© Rheinische Post online
|
- Petra Souisa |
Gambler - Information From A Promotional Flyer
What follows is an English translation...
WORLD PREMIERE: 26.10.1996
Musicalbühne Mönchengladbach
GAMBLER: THE SECRET IN THE CARDS
The new musical by
Eric Woolfson,
adapted for the stage by Elmar Ottenthal
Tickets: +180-5.30.20.20
Souvenir shop in the foyer
THE STORY
GAMBLER, the new hit show by
Eric Woolfson,
is the moving story of gambling
passion, addiction and seduction. A casino owner, a young man, a showgirl
and an elderly duchess are the protagonists, whose destinies are linked
through the mysterious secret that lies in the cards.
The scheming casino owner lures the young man to the card table, with the
ultimate goal of driving him into addiction. This young man, who is in love with
the showgirl, finds himself pulled deeper and deeper into his passion for
gambling, because he believes the woman of his dreams will only love him as
long as he is a winner.
The showgirl becomes involved with the player, because the casino owner has
led her to believe that the player is her ticket to moviestardom. Thus, the two
begin their quest for the secret in the cards.
But only the duchess knows the secret...
THE CREATORS
THE DIRECTOR
Between 1989 and 1992, Elmar Ottenthal was acting art director (replacing
general art manager Peter Weck) of the Vienna Associated Musical Stages --
`Cats', `Les Miserables', `Phantom of the Opera' and `Elisabeth'. Since 1992,
he is the general art manager of the Aaken Theatre.
After `Freudiana' and `GAUDI', Ottenthal and his friend and artistic partner
Eric Woolfson will now stage their third musical production, GAMBLER.
THE COMPOSER
Scotsman
Eric Woolfson,
who has been a songwriter and composer for over 20
years and has sold over 45 million records, is one of the most successful
popmusicians in the world. As a key member of the rock band `Alan Parsons
Project' he earned numerous Grammy nominations and many other music
accolades.
With
`Freudiana',
his first stage production which opened in Vienna, 1990, he
embarked on a new career as a composer of musicals. With the hit musical
GAUDI,
a story of love, art and passion, he has become one of the top
composers of musical theatre.
Ticket information: prices range between 60 and 160 Deutschmark,
depending on seating and on the day and time of the performance you plan to
attend. For more information, I refer you to the ticket information line:
+180-5.30.20.20
- Petra Souisa |
"A Testing Ground for Cologne?"
This article was taken from the Mönchengladbach Stadtmagazin,
April 1996. This is an English translation...
A TESTING GROUND FOR COLOGNE?
by Kirsten Wirtz
It's official! 26 October is the historic date the bigwigs of
Mönchengladbach's art and politics are very much looking
forward to. On that evening, `Gambler' will have its world
premiere at the Municipal Theatre, which is currently being
converted to a musical stage for the sole benefit of this
show.
The conversion has a budget of six million Deutschmark, which
was brought in by the `Music Hall Mönchengladbach Ltd.',
whose sole founder-member is Friedrich-Carl Coch. As of 15
July, Coch will lease the theatre for the next five years.
`Gambler' is based on Dostoyevsky's `The Player' and will, by
means of exploring the themes of gambling, addiction, seduction
and love, reveal `the secret that lies in the cards'. `Life
is one big gamble anyway,' says composer
Eric Woolfson, who
staged his first musical,
`Freudiana',
with director Elmar
Ottenthal, followed by another joint venture,
`Gaudi', which
is currently running in Aaken with considerable success.
Woolfson
is particularly pleased with the Municipal Theatre,
not least for its adjacent Theatre Gallery.
One doesn't have to be pessimistically inclined to note that a
project of such grand scale is also a financial gamble. `Gambler'
may prove to be the commercial equivalent of a trapeze
act without a safety net. When a relatively small town is
trying to pass itself off as a cultural metropole, it may be
like trying to jump on a band wagon travelling at 500 miles
per hour.
By stageing a new and hopefully successful musical, Mönchengladbach,
a town hobbled by cuts in the arts and culture
budget, is hoping to upgrade its prestige. Major growth areas
such as Hamburg and the industrial area known as the `Ruhrgebiet'
are predicted to go into a decline soon and it is
necessary to consider new avenues. To prevent getting crowded
out of the market, the local government will, according to
Coch, `not acquire already established shows for lots of
money, but invest in and facilitate new productions'. He did
not elaborate on which specific productions are to be staged
in the near future.
`Versatility and Vitalization' are the keywords for the initiators
at the local council. By adding musical productions to
Mönchengladbach's other major tourist magnets, the acclaimed
Museum of Abteiberg and the soccer team Borussia, they aim to
broaden the city's cultural appeal. The ultimate aim is to
attract new businesses to the inner city and stimulate the
economic growth of the area in general.
`The arts and culture should be pluralistic and accessible to
all forms and manifestations,' councillor for the Arts and
Culture, Wolfgang Rombey, says in defense of establishing
Mönchengladbach as a venue for musical productions, even if the
musical, as a genre, `has no cultural function, but is merely
a name to describe the packaging.' `The musical as a genre is
an excellent addition to the existing cultural programming,'
Town Clerk Semmler agreed.
As promising as these productions may sound, there has been
some criticism by people who feel that the outcome of the
ambitious project may not be entirely positive. In response to
an article in the 9 March edition of the `Aachener Zeitung',
Ulrich Elsen (the head of the town committee on cultural
affairs) expressed his
concern about `what will happen with a major theatre such as
the Municipal Theatre when the project doesn't live up to the
expectations'. Gaudi Musical Ltd., of which the founder is,
again, the ubiquitous Coch, is currently having a huge structure
in glass and steel built in Cologne. After its completion,
the musical production
`Gaudi',
which is currently playing
in Alsdorf (near Aaken), will relocate to Cologne. There is
the not unfounded fear that, like Alsdorf, Mönchengladbach
will be reduced to a mere testing ground for Cologne.
To prevent financial and cultural disaster when the circus
moves on, Elsen wants some kind of guarantee that `whatever
happens, the city's reputation as a venue for the performing
arts can be maintained at its present level and that the
investment risks remain within feasible limits.'
© Mönchengladbach Stadtmagazin, April 1996
|
- Petra Souisa |
German Newspaper Review
In its section on `culture' today (Oct. 27, page 27),
the largest German Sunday newspaper `Welt am Sonntag'
has the following (rather positive) review of
Eric Woolfson's
new musical `Gambler', which opened last
night in Moenchengladbach.
My translation may be inadequate and a bit awkward in
places; I'm sorry. -
I guess that the reviewer knows much more about operas
than about musicals, let alone rock music. -
Unfortunately, once more,
Alan Parsons or APP are not
mentioned.
Celebrated first night of the musical `Gambler' in Moenchengladbach
HONEST MAN IN A LAS VEGAS GAMBLING DEN
by Marieluise Jeitschko
As the first production of the recently founded `Musical Stage
Moenchengladbach', `Gambler -- the secret of the cards', third
musical of the Scot
Eric Woolfson
(`Freudiana',
`Gaudi') stood
its crucial test. Even during the pre-premiere on Friday night
there was a feeling of high spirits. In the end the makers
received standing ovations by an audience of 800 people in
Moenchengladbach's former playhouse. At least until the end of
1997 the gambling drama is supposed to draw visitors to the
crisis ridden town of textile industry in the lower Rhine area.
Tickets can be had for the comparatively modest prices of DM 60
to DM 160 [about 40 to 100 dollars]. The `Gaudi-Musicals Inc.'
hired the house in the center of the town, integrated into the
hypermodern new shopping mall `Theater Gallery', for five years.
Producer Friedrich-Carl Coch had it remodeled in a few months
for about five million Marks [3.3 million dollars]. Provided
there is success, it will then go on in its own musical hall in
the `North-South Park' (still a project).
Composer Woolfson
again wrote the book and lyrics of `Gambler'
himself, with English songs and German dialogues. During the
work, he appears to have changed his route. For, instead of
converting episodes from Dostoevki's novel `The gambler' (as
announced), he rather followed Pushkin's novel `Pique Dame',
which was already set to music by Peter Tchaikovski for his
opera of 1890 with the same name. Instead of in St. Petersburg,
the tragedy of seductibility to gambling now takes place in
the glittering world of glamor of Las Vegas: A young `honest
man' [German term: Biedermann] (the Austrian opera tenor
Reinhard Bussmann) falls in love with a `showgirl'
(Annika
Bruhns, former
`Gaudi'-Isabella). But the boss of the gambling
den (beautifully diabolic up to blasphemy as a catholic priest
in the Christmas mass:
Rafi Weinstock from Haifa) makes him
believe that she can only be had by a winner. Only after the
gambler against his own will lost everything, including the
girl, as gentle as a lamb, and gambled away all the loans so
amply granted to him, the shady mother of the owner of the
gambling casino signals pardon.
Georgina Chakos, however
beautiful and appropriately vulgar she may be, never has any
chance to be compared with Martha Moedl whose last dream role
was the old duchess in Tchaikovski's opera. The drama ends with
a `coup de theatre': The gambler shoots himself dead on stage.
The story has a slow start in the first part. Everything looks
like a warm-up for a great showdown. One show number follows
the next one just as in a cabaret performance. Since the story
of seduction takes place in the `Beijing Palace Casino', two
`inspired bodies' [German: `Begnadete Koerper', the title of
a famous show with Chinese acrobats, directed by Andre Heller
some time ago], the Chinese duo of acrobats Lodoi, are
integrated. Blond girls with long legs and long hair do not
miss to present their female charms on the show stairs.
The hidden star of the production is light designer Wieland
Mueller who learned his business at the Bavarian State Opera.
With refined effects, he simulates large spaces and
phasmagories on the small stage of the playhouse. The stage
decoration, as economical as effective. was designed by
Hannes Rader from Vienna, former student of Caspar Neher. With
Elmar Ottenthal, the superintendent of Aachen's public
playhouse and also art director of
`Gaudi',
a serious stage
professional is responsible for the entertaining `mise en scene'.
Eric Woolfson
is a clever theater man who is very well
acquainted with the stage. Starting from Puccini's `Gianni
Schicci', beyond `A chorus line' and Tchaikovski's classical
ballets up to Charlie Chaplins `Limelight' - so the
sentimental final song of the show girl, with distinct musical
reminiscences of [the musical] `Man of La Mancha' [I cannot
believe that part of the story!] -, he quotes nearly everything
for four bars that can be had free of charge. Thanks to such a
`back up' never feeling alone, everybody in the audience may go
home with his own, very personal treat for the ears...
|
The report includes a (black-and-white) photo of
Annika Bruhns
(kneeling in front, looking up, fitting perfectly the description
of `blond girl with long hair and long legs') and Reinhard
Bussmann (standing to her right and looking down, just as one
would imagine a younger opera tenor: with beard, but not overly
corpulent).
- Klaus Bierstedt |
| Another German Newspaper Review
`GAMBLER' DID NOT SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF THE CARDS
The Premiere was on October 26
Moenchengladbach (AP). `Faites vos jeux' - that's what it
was all about on Saturday night, the first night (worldwide)
of the musical `Gambler' in Moenchengladbach. The show of
two and a half hours, centered around the mania of gambling,
passion and disappointment had attracted more than 850
visitors to the city in the lower Rhine area. Besides
the Minister of Economy of [the Federal State of] Nordrhein-
Westfalen, Wolfgang Clement, the comic actor Dirk Bach and
the actor Raimund Harmstorff were among the prominent guests.
With the [former] national soccer player Berti Vogts [who
has now been the coach of the German national soccer team
for several years], a genuine professional `player/gambler'
had come who, however, had searched for his luck not on the
green velvet of roulette, but on the green playground.
[In German, there is just one word for both `player' and
`gambler'; I don't know how to translate the pun at this point
in a better way. - Let me add that it is well-known that
Berti Vogts loves musicals; when there is a break in German
soccer in December, he usually goes to NYC with his family
and is a frequent visitor to Broadway musicals.]
Confusion in Beijing Palace
`The mystery of cards', as the subtitle of the musical is
called, could, however, not be solved during the first night.
Too rarely the scenes took place in the well-done gambling
casino `Beijing Palace', too vague was the story of the young
visitor who first defies the arts of seduction of the
diabolical owner of the casino and nevertheless - hard to
understand for the audience - falls victim to the charm of
cards and roulette balls. The best scene is at the very end.
At this point, the gambler, in the meantime completely
dependent, wins and feels like a king who is flattered and
ensnared [?] by everybody. After he has put all his money
on one card, he loses everything, and, of course, all the
false friends, too. Completely desparate, he shoots himself.
Songs of different quality
The music of the Scottish composer
Eric Woolfson
was, in part,
breath-taking and full of melody. Much intermediate applause
arose after the songs
`Eye in the sky' and
`Green light means
danger'. Rafi Weinstock presented the role of the casino boss of
satanic effect with a very good voice. Too colorless, however,
and not passionate enough the gambler, played by Reinhardt
Brussmann. [Originally, somebody else was announced to play
the role of the gambler. It is not clear if there was a change
of cast or if the other guy was just ill.]
Annika Bruhns
gave a successful presentation of the show girl.
The dancer who, despite the warnings of her mother, falls
in love with the gambler and then loses him to gambling, got
much applause during the first night, to the great delight of
her mother, sitting in the front row, TV journalist Wibke
Bruhns.
[Sorry, this time it is not my bad translation - the
reviewer wrote this confusing sentence in which both the
mother of the dancer and the mother of the one who plays the
dancer appear and reality and play are mixed up.]
Visitors tried their luck on gambling tables
Prior to the start of the musical and during the long
celebration afterwards, [which took place] right next to
the former Moenchengladbach playhouse, reconstructed for
about 6.5 million DM [more than 4 million dollars], one
could see - quite appropriate for the occasion - stunts by
card-players; moreover, there were plenty of gambling tables
at which the visitors could test `Black Jack' and other
games, but without real stake and thus without danger for
their purse.
[I have left this long sentence more or less as it was
written - to provide reconfirmation of what Mark Twain
had said about the German language: one can go on and on,
never ending, without ever having to finish a sentence...]
The costumes and the stage decoration of `Gambler' were
impressive and took the audience in Moenchengladbach to a
world full of passions and dark secrets around professional
gambling. However, too many dancing scenes of the show girls,
some monks' chants and scenes in the church which would not
have been necessary for the story, and finally a touch of
`Circus Roncalli' [German version of Barnum], with gigantic
Chinese dragons and two snake girls, made a mixture out of
the musical which was overloaded. Director Elmar Ottenthal,
who had already been responsible for the musical
`Gaudi'
in Alsdorf, should rather have taken the word of the croupier
as orientation: `Rien ne va plus'.
The audience on the first night, on the other hand, liked it
and honored the performance with standing ovations of nearly
ten minutes, for which the ensemble thanked with several da
capos.
|
A few comments are in order at this point:
This reviewer appears to know a little bit more about musicals
than the one in `Welt am Sonntag', but he does not seem to
have much experience with the first nights of musicals.
Many big musicals reach Germany only after long runs in the
West End or on Broadway, and they are exact copies of the
original - except for the translation (which, unfortunately,
usually is much worse than the original). Broadway musicals,
on the other hand, are `tested' somewhere else prior to the
first performance in NYC. And in many cases (if not all),
these tests lead to major changes. Some songs are `lost in
Boston, Washington, D.C. or somewhere else', the book is
changed etc. [Andrew Lloyd Webber tests his musicals for
quite a long time before they open in the West End. E.g.,
there was a different version of `Sunset Boulevard' which
was discarded later on - somebody else wrote a completely
new script.]
Thus, it is a completely different story to review the
first night of a Broadway musical (or, say. the first night
of `Sunset Boulevard' in Germany) and the first night of
German production such as
`Gaudi'
or `Gambler'.
The reviewer of the first night of
`Gaudi'
(in Alsdorf) in
the German magazine `Musicals' mentioned a large number of
weak points, which were changed pretty soon after the
premiere. Long run musicals `live'.
[Andrew Lloyd Webber usually changes his musicals quite
a bit when they are exported to the US. With `Whistle down
the wind', which will start in Washington, D.C. and then
go to the Broadway before opening in London, it may happen
the other way around.]
Thus, one should not take the criticism of the reviewer
in `Rheinische Post' too seriously: It's good to have
more than necessary - it is rather easy to cut...
On the other hand, all the three musicals of
Eric Woolfson
can be criticized for having no `really good' stories.
In `Gaudi' (the only
Woolfson musical that
I have seen on
stage), the second act is a mixture of dream and reality
which is rather hard to understand. (Petra's explanation
was by far the best I have seen, read or heard.)
In the TV report on German musicals on which I reported this
morning, Helen Schneider said that the librettos of some famous
operas are very bad - `some of the stupidest stories I have
ever seen'. She is right. From this point of view,
Woolfson's
stories are still good (e.g., as compared with the `story' of
`Cats') - but they could be much better!
[Rather than taking his story from `Pique Dame', he should take
it from a famous novel (`Les Miserables') or movie (`Sunset
Boulevard'). But this would probably require to compose even
more `new music'. - Incidentally, it looks as if `Gambler' is
a step in this direction.]
- Klaus Bierstedt |
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