This musical was composed by Jim Steinman with a book from Michael Kunze and was first staged in Vienna in October 1997. It's a musical adaptation of Roman Polanskis movie "The Fearless Vampire Killers".
In the original cast Steve Barton played the role of Graf von Krolock, Cornelia Zenz the role of Sarah, Gernot Kranner as Professor Abronsius and Aris Sas as Alfred.
Like Polanskis movie, the musical tells the story of Professor Abronsius, a mad scientist, who goes to Transilvania in order to prove the existence of vampires, getting so the recognition and respect of his fellow scientis and a Novel price. Together with his asistant, a young boy named Alfred, they arrive at an inn, where Alfred falls in love with the innkeepers daughter, Sarah. The second night Alfred and Professor Abromsious stay at the inn, Sarah runs away into the forest to attend to the Vampire Ball. The Ball is an anual party Graf von Krolock throws for his fellow vampires and to which he invites Sarah as a special guest in order to turn her into a vampire. Sarah ignores her parents warnings and flees to the castle, for she's secretly in love with the elder vampire.
The music of Tanz der Vampire is magnificent. It's in german with a lot of witty lines and funny lyrics. I love nearly every piece of it.
The songs by the humans are full of life and very cheerfull ["Alles ist hell"/ "Everything's bright" or "Knoblauch"/"Garlic"], while the ones by the vampires are very agressive and ferocious, ["Tanz der Vampire"/"Vampire Ball" or "Ewigkeit"/"Eternity"].
Krolock is a very sad and melancholic character and he laments and reflects often on the tragedy of being a vampire. ["Gott ist tot"/"God is dead" or "Unstillbare Gier"/ "Endless Appetite"]
There are two comical relieve characters in this musical: one of them is Chagal [James Sbano], the innkeeper and Sarah's father who's in love with the hot readheaded maid, Rebecca [Anne Welte] and gets turned into a vampire while chasing after his daughter. And the other one is Herbert [Nik Breidenbach], Graf von Krolock's homosexual son who falls in love with Alfred. As well as by Professor Abromsius, who although he's very intelligent never gets things quite right.
The songs by the humans are full of life and very cheerfull ["Alles ist hell"/ "Everything's bright" or "Knoblauch"/"Garlic"], while the ones by the vampires are very agressive and ferocious, ["Tanz der Vampire"/"Vampire Ball" or "Ewigkeit"/"Eternity"].
Krolock is a very sad and melancholic character and he laments and reflects often on the tragedy of being a vampire. ["Gott ist tot"/"God is dead" or "Unstillbare Gier"/ "Endless Appetite"]
There are two comical relieve characters in this musical: one of them is Chagal [James Sbano], the innkeeper and Sarah's father who's in love with the hot readheaded maid, Rebecca [Anne Welte] and gets turned into a vampire while chasing after his daughter. And the other one is Herbert [Nik Breidenbach], Graf von Krolock's homosexual son who falls in love with Alfred. As well as by Professor Abromsius, who although he's very intelligent never gets things quite right.
Something I really like about the musical is that, even though it's ment to be a comedy, it has some very serious and 'dark' lines. The whole song of "Unstillbare Gier" is a hard critic on the immorality of society. While "Tanz der Vampire" at the ending of the musical, embraces that immorality and somehow 'justifies' it saying: well, if that's what you need to do to survive, then go ahead and do it'.
Two of the most popular songs of the musicals where also used by Bonnie Tyler and Meat Loaf.
The Main Theme "Totale Finsternis" had been made popular in 1983 by Bonnie Tyler as "Total Eclipse of the Heart", when it became one of the bigest musical-hits ever.
The song sung by Krolock "Unstillbare Gier" was used by Meat Loaf to compose "Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are" in the album with the same name.
The staging of the musical is done in the most flashy way. The costumes a great, the props not all so small and with complex structures like the ones used in the mayor productions in broadway. There are a lot of different locations and a lot of different scenes every one of them done with very different props. I think it is remarcable and that it's very atractive visually speaking. For me it's a novelty as in Spain musicals tend to an economy of props. But it is not so unusual to see such efforts put into a musical in Austria and Germany. Both countries are not far behind of New York and London in their musical productions. And Tanz der Vampire is a very good example for that.
Tanz der Vampire was recorded with the original cast in 1999. This was the last time that Steve Barton ever sung as Graf von Krolock. It can also be found in the interent for downloading, buy I recommend you to buy the DVD, for the quality is generally not very good. There had also been an attempt to take the musical to Broadway. But they changed so many things, that it ended up being something else entirely and failing monumentaly.
Other than that, the music is very good and can be easily enjoyed without the images. I personally like the musical better than the movie. Here I leave you four of my absolute favourite songs of this musical.
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| Steve Barton as Krolock inviting Sarah to the Ball |
Two of the most popular songs of the musicals where also used by Bonnie Tyler and Meat Loaf.
The Main Theme "Totale Finsternis" had been made popular in 1983 by Bonnie Tyler as "Total Eclipse of the Heart", when it became one of the bigest musical-hits ever.
The song sung by Krolock "Unstillbare Gier" was used by Meat Loaf to compose "Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are" in the album with the same name.
The staging of the musical is done in the most flashy way. The costumes a great, the props not all so small and with complex structures like the ones used in the mayor productions in broadway. There are a lot of different locations and a lot of different scenes every one of them done with very different props. I think it is remarcable and that it's very atractive visually speaking. For me it's a novelty as in Spain musicals tend to an economy of props. But it is not so unusual to see such efforts put into a musical in Austria and Germany. Both countries are not far behind of New York and London in their musical productions. And Tanz der Vampire is a very good example for that.
Tanz der Vampire was recorded with the original cast in 1999. This was the last time that Steve Barton ever sung as Graf von Krolock. It can also be found in the interent for downloading, buy I recommend you to buy the DVD, for the quality is generally not very good. There had also been an attempt to take the musical to Broadway. But they changed so many things, that it ended up being something else entirely and failing monumentaly.
Other than that, the music is very good and can be easily enjoyed without the images. I personally like the musical better than the movie. Here I leave you four of my absolute favourite songs of this musical.
- "Gott is tot" - ["God is dead" sung by Graf von Krolock]
- "Einladung zum Ball" ["Invitation to the Ball" by Graf von Krolock]
- "Unstillbare Gier" ["Unending Appetite" by Graf von Krolock]
- "Knoblauch" ["Garlic" by the humans]
- "Wenn Liebe in dir ist"["When you're in love" by Alfred and Herbert]
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