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I will be in Germany next week, to be a "show doctor" for a musical based on Part 2 of Goethe's Faust. I will see the production in Dresden (the equivalent of "out of town") and work with the writers/producers to tweak it.

Have fun Steve. Let me know what you think of Dresden. I was there just a couple of years after the wall came down and it was just waking up to renovation. I'd love to hear what the city is like now.

Safe Travels!
Christine

Hi Christine,

Got back from Germany a week ago, and I'm finally caught up on things (including sleep). I wound up with one night in Hamburg, one night in Berlin, one night in Dresden, then one more night in Berlin, then home the next day. Ergo the delay in responding.

I was in Dresden once before, actually, back in 2002 for the premiere of my Violin Concerto (at the Dreikonigskirche). Dresden was literally just recovering from a horrific flood, so many things were closed for repairs, wholesale renovation, and cleaning. Even the main opera house was affected then. This time, it was very different. Not only all of the previous places were open and running fine, but construction is on the rise. Most impressive. I just hope they don't over modernize the area near the recently restored Frauenkirche.

"Faust, Part 2" turned out to be different from what I expected. It's not a musical in the Broadway sense, but more what we might call "new music theater" here. Very downtown-y. It was also even better than I expected; I know the writer (a former NYU student who had come from Germany to study with me specifically) and that he writes very well.

Still, the writer, director, and producers brought me over for a reason, to look at the show and help them tweak it. And it does need tweaking. Essentially the problem (too strong a word, but I can't think of another) is that they were on one hand too respectful of Goethe's play, and too "serious" in producing it. We wind up seeing what Goethe did, having Faust do the same sort of thing (try to make the world better) with always the same result (failure), with no discernable dramatic arc to it and no real reason to care for Faust in any way. By the end Goethe, and the show, have Faust die but is redeemed. Why? Goethe doesn't provide an answer, and wasn't too thrilled with that solution in any case.

I made a long list of suggestions that only an outsider (non-German) would have the nerve to make. They come down to making Faust someone we can understand, even a little, and care for on some level (even if we don't like him); and making his actions not just repetitions but an escalation in intensity backed by an underlying logic. Musically, I essentially said that more variety is needed, that Faust needs a "motto theme" or something of the sort that will help guide us (and help understand the man better), and that even the orchestration should play a role, so to speak, in how this is all accomplished.

The reasons, by the way, for the three different cities: 1) Hamburg is where the writer lives; 2) Dresden is where the show was being produced; and 3) the writer took me to Berlin to see some shows. First time in Berlin we went to the Staatsopera to see "Die Fledermaus." Second time to see "the last of the typical Berlin revues" which, as it turns out, would be at home in Las Vegas or a cruise ship--except it also includes living tableaus and (shades of Cirque du Soleil) acrobatics. It also used a 40-piece orchestra (yay!) and original music (not yay--there wasn't one memorable tune in there). Oh, and all of the musical theater they boast about there, and in Hamburg? All American and British imports. Not one original German musical.

Anyway, that was the trip.

Hi Steve,

Glad to hear you made it safe and sound.

I was in Dresden when the church was still a jigsaw puzzle of rubble they were cataloging to put all the stones back together. They had them all labeled and laid out on these racks in football field sized areas. I'd love to see it complete now.

When I was working over there, I worked for musical theatre tours. Evita and Superstar. The Germans just love American Musical Theatre. They'd bring the whole company from America too. Something about the German orchestras not getting the feel right....lol

Sounds like the changes you suggested for Faust are right on the money. I think it's a general fault of some modern musical theatre to forget about the depth of characters and go instead for pure spectacle which can leave the audience cold. One of my personal peeves is the songs happening for no reason.

I feel like a tune should break out only when the characters' emotions on stage are too extreme to be expressed in just words anymore.

> I'd love to see it complete now.

It's impressive, I'll tell you that.

> They'd bring the whole company from America too. Something
> about the German orchestras not getting the feel right....lol

From what I've heard they're starting to "get it," but then, they're also into rapping in German at this point. Oy.

> I think it's a general fault of some modern musical theatre to
> forget about the depth of characters and go instead for pure
> spectacle which can leave the audience cold.

The spectacle aspect was the director's doing in this case, but the depth of the characters was the result of the writer being too respectful of Goethe's work. He went with Goethe's take all the way without once saying, "but this doesn't work!"

> One of my personal peeves is the songs happening for no reason.

Mine too. (You've read my book!) Or, and pardon me for critiquing shows you worked on, in the case of ALW---songs that come at the right spot but are the wrong ones for the moment or, worse still, there arbitrarily or simply because we hadn't heard that particular "hook" in a while. (Evita does that all over the second act.)

> I feel like a tune should break out only when the characters'
> emotions on stage are too extreme to be expressed in just words
> anymore.

I agree, although I assume you know that it's not always so clear-cut. The only =other= obvious reason to have a song is to establish a place/time or to set the tone of the whole show. ("Ascot Gavotte" as an example of the former, "Comedy Tonight" for the latter.)

There's a great example of when NOT to have a song in "Jekyll and Hyde," in the big "This is the Moment" number. Why, for goodness sakes, is J singing about whether he should take the d@#* drug when he just spent a good portion of the act getting ready to do that very thing? Even if we never read the original story or even heard of it, we =know= he's going to take it then anyway. Stupid, stupid, stupid. (Shakes head in wonder.)

Steven