The Austropop cover band “Dr. Ösi und die Chefpartie” from Unterschleißheim has teamed up with the Haimhausen theater group from the neighboring town: They have edited the cult musical “Der Watzmann rufing”, with which Wolfgang Ambros and his troupe already performed 14 years ago once been to Unterschleißheim. Next weekend they bring the fabulously funny story of the mountain, which casts a spell over people, on the stage of the community center.
The play, which the Austropop star Ambros wrote in collaboration with Joesi Prokopetz and Manfred Tauchen in the 1970s, describes a phenomenon that is probably almost as old as humanity itself: a man tries to impress a woman, overestimates himself and his abilities massively and ultimately perishes from this overconfidence. In order to impress the “Gailtalerin”, a young farmer sets out to climb the universally feared and immediately magically attractive Watzmann. From this adventure, the young “Bua” not only hopes to reach the 2172 meter high Watzmann summit, but above all to fulfill his Gailtalerin fantasies. However, the farmer reckoned without the dark attraction of the Watzmann – his attempt fails miserably and he never returns home.
The Watzmann calls: the poster for the performance in the community center.
(Photo: private)
Martin Richmann, drummer and at just over 40 years old the “chick” of Dr. Ösi und die Chefpartie is very happy that the adaptation of the piece “is finally coming to the stage”. Due to organizational challenges and the corona pandemic, it took more than three years from the initial idea to the performance, according to the musician. Michael Rogg, deputy chairman and long-standing member of the Haimhausen theater group, also says “that it was a big challenge for the theater group at the beginning”. First, they are not used to acting and singing at the same time. According to Rogg, the second challenge for the members of the theater group was the Austrian dialect. Although this is relatively similar to Bavarian, it is very different in detail.
Richmann and Rogg are now both extremely confident about the coming weekend: “I and we are all very happy to finally be able to be back on stage – and then together with such a special band, it’s a great honor for us.” , says Rogg. The performance on October 21 is the first performance for the Haimhausen theater group since the beginning of the pandemic – the group had to cancel the last performance in March 2020 four hours before the start of the play. So it’s no surprise that the actors are all excited for the weekend.
In 2008, Wolfgang Ambros and his team were at the Ballhausforum in Unterschleißheim with the Watzmann piece.
(Photo: Kulturforum Unterschleißheim)
The members owe the fact that a collaboration between the cover band and the theater group was possible in the first place to a fortunate coincidence, namely Richmann and Rogg’s voluntary work in the Unterschleißheim fire brigade. For a long time, the two groups performed separately without being aware of their common potential. “Dr. Ösi” – in real life the Unterschleißheim general practitioner Helmut Eder – and the boss have been playing Austrian pop since 2014, initially only at private celebrations and gradually at public events. In the beginning the band consisted only of singer Eder and pianist Eugen Holzmann.
After the first official performances of the duo had been a great success, the other three members Martin Richmann (drums), Roland Stöhr (bass) and Peter Fischer (guitar) soon joined. The theater group Haimhausen has been putting on various plays for about 30 years, mostly with a local connection.
The concrete idea of setting up a production together finally came about in 2019. According to Richmann, Ösi and the Chefpartie had long wanted to rehearse the Watzmann album – of course the Ambros classics were familiar to them and their audience always enjoyed them. For a long time, however, it remained with individual songs of the Austrian “Rustical”. It was Richmann who finally suggested to his bandmates to make this wish a reality. As Rogg explains, the theater group was immediately hooked on the idea of his fire brigade colleague Richmann. After many bureaucratic questions had been clarified, rehearsals for the cult musical could begin in summer 2021.
Rehearsals were separated most of the time
These rehearsals were mostly separate: while the theater group made sure the dialogue, flow and lyrics were right, the band concentrated on perfecting their performance of the Watzmann album. The actors and band were only able to play together for the first time about a week ago. According to Richmann and Rogg, both sides were “absolutely thrilled” with how smoothly the first joint rehearsal went. “The most beautiful thing is simply,” says Rogg, “to see how much heart and soul each individual put into this piece and what a beautiful thing we have put together”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/landkreismuenchen/.” Yes,” agrees Wichmann, “we really are a great team.”
The play will be performed on Friday, October 21st and Saturday, October 22nd at 8 p.m. in the community center in Unterschleißheim. Tickets for the musical can be purchased either at the Forum Unterschleißheim or online with a Munich ticket.