Dance of the Vampires is a musical based on the Roman Polanski movie of the same name. It was written by Jim Steinman (music) and Michael Kunze (book).
Plot:
Professor Abronsius (Gernot Kranner) travels with his young assistant Alfred (Lukas Perman) to find Vampires. They end up in a remote village, which is strangely obsessed with garlic. They stay at the inn, where Alfred falls in love with Sarah (Marjan Shaki). Sarah likes him, too, but her heart is set on bigger things. Therefore she isn’t really unhappy from the attention she gets from the mysterious Graf von Krolock (Thomas Borchert). And things only go downhill from there.
Dance of the Vampires is an awesome mix of comedy and kitsch – it doesn’t play with all the Vampire stereotypes, it revels in them. The music is awesome (even if mostly recycled from previous Steinman works) and this particular production isn’t bad either.
Dance of the Vampires premiered 12 years ago in Vienna and it’s the first time that it’s been back here since then. I saw it during its first run and I loved it. So, when I heard that it came back, I had to see it.
Some of the cast stayed the same, which is awesome – Gernot Kranner and James Sbano (Chagal, the Innkeeper) for example. Unfortunately, Steve Barton, who played Krolock in the first production, died. Thomas Borchert, who took his part, had big shoes to fill: Barton was definitely an audience favourite. And though Borchert wasn’t bad, he couldn’t quite achieve the same heights.
Lukas Perman as Alfred isn’t bad, but Marja Shaki was very disappointing. Her voice is quite bland. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she actually needed a “body double” for the dancing… I really wonder what she did in this show.
They didn’t just use the old sets but made a new stage design, partly with video projections. This worked well for the most part, but they really screwed up the projection of Krolock’s castle. It was all weird Escher-like angles, in a bad way.
In any case, I’d recommend listening to the music if you don’t already know it. And if you know it and like it, you should really try to catch this live. The Viennese production is definitely worth seeing.
kalafudra's Stuff 
are you stupid??? every sarah has a body double, because the cannot sing while they get thrown around… common. get your brain work.
My my, what a friendly comment.
yes, i am sorry. but i am tired of reading personal statements when they don`t even hold reality. of course, everybody can like and dislike but don`t forget that you also may destroy someones work in a personal way.
I don’t think that my blog is that influential (unfortunately?) that it would make or break a career in any way whatsoever. But even if it were, it’s my opinion that Marja Shaki was disappointing and I’m sticking to that.
If every Sarah had a body double, I apologise, of course. But as far as I (and my company) could remember that wasn’t the case. Anyway, her needing the body double (and having it) was not Marja Shaki’s fault but the director’s.