If you listen to conversations in the foyer of musical theaters, you will notice a special audience. Musical guests are theater-goers with a fanatic heart. And many are real experts at this intersection of opera and pop concerts. The musicals with green heroes, “Wicked” and “Shrek”, are relentlessly compared here, and there are raves about the second cast, which should actually be the first.
There are reports of shows in other cities, talking shop about backdrops and effects, and sometimes very acidic judgments about failures. These loyalists of the musical also seem like descendants of the circus visitors who thirst for magic and illusions. Some of them even dress up in witch hats or lions’ manes. And keep coming back. Came, you have to say for the past few months. But this joyless time is now over.
New start on the stages
Step by step, the four large musical theaters on the Elbe, in which before the pandemic as many visitors as Hamburg’s population took place, are being put back into operation. After the premiere of “Wicked” as a completely modernized new production on September 9th, Germany’s market leader for musical folk theater, Stage Entertainment, is resuming its other productions.
“The Lion King”, which celebrated its German premiere 20 years ago in its yellow tent on the southern side of the Elbe, at a time when the Elbphilharmonie across the street was just a crazy idea, is far from over. Starting this week, by far the most successful musical ever, which has grossed over eight billion dollars around the globe, will again spread a musical jungle atmosphere on the Waterkant. And the Tina Turner musical in the Operettenhaus on the Reeperbahn starts its soul winter from October 8th.
It was quiet for a long time in the Stage Theater an der Elbe, one of the four major musicals in the city.
Image: imago / imagebroker
From November onwards, the “Ice Queen” will be performed under the reflective helmet of the Theater an der Elbe.
Image: Stage Entertainment
At the beginning of November, Disney’s “Ice Queen” will have its German premiere under the reflective helmet of the Theater an der Elbe, which was inaugurated in 2017 with the “Miracle of Bern”. The Broadway musical, based on the animated film “The Ice Queen – Totally Unabashed” and premiered there three years ago, is an opulently choreographed adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”, conceived for friends of more traditional dream-making. The equipment is an American glamor version of historical operetta taste, the staging is a Christmas fairy tale for the whole year.
A musical theater piece with a completely different cut was actually supposed to celebrate its premiere this autumn, but had to be postponed to 2022 because of the well-known contagious disease: “Hamilton”. Lin-Manuel Miranda composed the material about a founding father in the USA, who may not be so easily docked in Germany, as a hip-hop musical with three times as many words as any current production. “Hamilton” premiered on Off-Broadway in New York in 2015. From there it got off to a highly decorated and grand scale with Grammy and Tony Awards. And with the slogan “A piece of revolution is coming to Hamburg” it will replace “Tina” in September next year, while the Abba musical “Mamma Mia”, which ran in Hamburg from 2002 to 2007, followed “Wicked” at the same time .
A “Mamma Mia” on the crisis
The lockdowns created a much more difficult situation for musical theaters than for the subsidized theaters, especially when the main owners are not in Germany. Although the Stage Theaters in Hamburg, Berlin and Stuttgart had lost sales of 500 million euros as a result of the pandemic closings, it was long uncertain whether they would be able to receive help in Germany as a subcontractor of the US media giant Advance. But the realm of dreams was saved thanks to short-time work for the 1,500 employees, a shareholder loan from the parent company – and the fans of their genre.
Because around 600,000 ticket holders did not have their tickets refunded after their performances were canceled, but instead had their tickets rebooked into the unknown. If the around 3,300 shows that Stage shows each year slowly start rolling again, then of course the loyalty must first be redeemed. And, according to company spokesman Stephan Jaekel, the flow of visitors is more “cascading”. Many guests are still unsure about large public events, although the stage theaters use air conditioning systems with which “26 aircraft” can be ventilated, as Jaekel proudly explains. But the lack of clarity about the access regulations make visitors hesitant.
2G or 3G – a question of existence
For 3G events, the Hamburg Senate demands that halls in a checkerboard pattern are occupied with the same number of free and occupied seats – and that a mask is worn on the seat. This 50 percent utilization is still the expensive rule for large companies like Stage, so as not to exclude anyone. The end of free corona tests will probably significantly reduce the willingness of unvaccinated people to get an expensive test from the doctor in addition to the theater ticket for 60 to 100 euros. 2G will presumably soon establish itself here as well.
Weird entertainment on smaller stages is also part of the Hamburg musical scene, for example in the Schmidt Theater on Spielbudenplatz.
(Photo: imago images / xim.gs)
For smaller private tour operators like the Schmidt’s-Tivoli-Gruppe on the Reeperbahn, 3G was never an economic perspective. The dazzling stages for weird entertainment, which still have an evergreen in their program with the St. Pauli musical “The Hot Corner”, which has already sold 2.5 million tickets since 2003, need full capacity in their small halls. That is why it was announced early on that since October 5th, only those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered have been admitted to Schmidt’s.
Competition stimulates business
People are singing everywhere in Hamburg. The Schmidt’s stages, whose original cell was founded by Corny Littmann on August 8th, 1988, are certainly the second main reason why Hamburg is Germany’s musical capital as a cheeky alternative to corporate business. For children, lovers and drunks, people sing outrageously here as well as sabotage at great speed. Although humor is the core message (not everyone’s, so as not to let misunderstandings arise), music is mostly a fun brother (and sister) here. The latest trick: the “sensational sensation show Schmidt’s Ritz” about vaudeville in the twenties. With a lot of swing music and some “uneducated” ramps.
But also at all other theaters in the city – from the try-out stage for young musicals, the First Stage Theater, to the state theaters – Singspiele provide planning security for audiences. The experts from the foyers of the stage theaters should be a little cautious (or willing to experiment) here. Especially in theaters with high cultural demands, “musical” does not mean what Andrew Lloyd Webber once introduced in Hamburg in 1990. Even excellent musical entertainment such as Clemens Sienknecht and Barbara Bürk’s classic new stories “with a different text and also a different melody” at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus develop their fun in the ironic demarcation from serious musicals. But that, too, forms a special theater audience with a fan-heart.