Re: GERMANY
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:06 pm
Any news?
The new forum for fans of Billy Elliot the Musical
http://billyelliottheforum.me.uk/forum/
Wouldn't it make more sense for the producers to move the West End production into another West End theatre if the show continues to be as successful as it is now? When they must temporarily vacate the Victoria Palace Theater, I imagine they will just find another London house to host the show. If they can continue the West End production, they will do so, and not end it for the sake of a European tour.accessmenj wrote:PaulWilly wrote:Why are you primarily thinking of touring Germany with a British BETM cast??
So many great world-class musicals have been running here for years and years in German major cities and are still running (of course in German productions in German language for the German audience) - just for example “Starlight Express”, where James Lomas is now in, has been running in Bochum in the densely populated Ruhr area for more than 21 very successful years now(!!) - btw in a theatre especially built for it. Or the German version of “Lions’ King” (“Koenig der Loewen”) is running in its successful 11th year in Hamburg, “Tarzan”, “Rocky”, and “Sister Act” have been on there as well for years now and are still running successfully. And many other German productions of world hits like for example “Cats” or “Phantom of the Opera” (“Phantom der Oper”) had been on for decades here before.
Would there be a German cast, adults, ballet girls and so exceptionally talented boys to do a German production of BETM (like the Koreans did it in their own language)? Oh, yes - after some advertising and very careful auditions like in the UK - and the huge logistics wouldn’t be too great a problem either - and it would last here at least longer will full houses than in Korea or in Australia. Would the Germans understand the story: Oh yes, very much so - most people in Germany do know and love the film Billy Elliot (very successfully dubbed in German) - so it’s repeated 3 or 4 times by different German TV stations every year around Christmas.
The only real problem has been so far to look for a most careful transfer of Lee Hall's great lyrics and prose texts into German by keeping up the British flavour as much as feasible, and the lyrics then still fitting to Elton's scores - a task near to impossible, that might explain why it takes so long to have BETM started here. So they needed a very creative, witty, funky team for that - and they might have found it in the meantime hopefully, as the success will stand or fall with that!
We would really like BETM permanently here for years and years in a German production.
(BTW and just for example: How long would have “Lés Misérables” stayed in the West End, had they adhered to it to do it in original French with an original French cast?!)
Of course a touring UK cast for some weeks would be nice as well - and at least much better than nothing,
The final goal should be a German production of Billy Elliot The Musical. But that would probably require an investment of millions of Euros. In these unstable economies, it would cost far less for a British-based tour that first toured the British Isles, and then Germany and elsewhere. The best time would be when the West End production could be converted to a tour while the theater is being renovated.This would probably be around 2014.
If Germany has enough confidence of a stay that it will warrant the construction, then sure, but it cost mega-pounds in London and mega-dollars in New York to excavate pits under the stages deep enough to accommodate the bedroom set. In both cases, the regular space under the stage was not deep enough to handle the height of the set plus the equipment to lift it, but perhaps there is a German theatre that has enough space without excavation.PaulWilly wrote:I don't think that there would be technical problems with elevators or so when bringing BETM to a well sorted out German musical theatre: For the show James Lomas is currently cast member of in Germany, "Starlight Express" in Bochum in the densely populated Ruhr area, they even had built a special brand-new theatre just designed for that musical. And "Starlight Express" has been running now in there without any interruption for more than 21 successful years - and already in March 2010 it reached the mark of 13 Million audience...
Similar with "Phantom der Oper" (Phantom of the Opera) - they had built a brand-new technically state-of-the-art musical thearte in Hamburg for that (with an artificial lake underneath the elevatable stage), where that musical started in 1990 and went on for more than 11 successful years with more than 4.400 shows and 7 Million audience. After that they changed those technics with the lake and that and renovated the theatre to make it suitable for other musicals - and now "Tarzan" has been on there since autumn 2008 - and is still going on very successfully.