| Okay, so I promised... | |
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Posted by: |
samurai7 02:52 am UTC 04/03/08 |
| ...that I would post my thoughts on the litle Steintrip to Berlin. As it was my first 'official' Steinmeet, and I'd never met any of you before I was a little unsure what to expect, so here's my thoughts. The people... We all know who went, and have seen the photographs, but I think it's worth mentioning that you're all great. There was a pretty diverse buch of us there, some loud and brash (in a good way!) and some less so (but still in a good way lol.) There is absolutely not one person that I would not want to meet again (well, maybe one :-p lol) and I'm proud to call you all friends (if you'll let me that is). I had a wonderful time meeting you, and it really is fantastic to now have faces and personalities to go with the names I see (and some I don't) on this board. I had a blast and can't wait for the next opportunity, so Jim if you're reading hurry up and get this Bat show up and running so we can do it again ;-) And now for the show (this is the long bit)... I saw the matineé performance, which was obviously the penultimate show in the Berlin run. This meant that we got the 'second' Graf von Krolock and Sarah. It was the first time I'd seen the show (apart from a few dodgy video clips here and there lol) but the cast album has been heavily played at chez Samurai for nigh-on 10 years, so I was already familiar with the format and the songs and characters. Obviously Steve Barton's performance was going to be impossible to top, as was in my opinion Aris Sas', so I didn't try to compare the actors too much to the wonderful templates of the originators, but I did quite like the von Krolock guy. In the evening performance the lucky few who managed to go got to see Tomas Borchert, who is apparently awesome, but I thought that the guy in the matineé was pretty good. Like I said, no Steve Barton, but I wasn't disappointed by his performance at all. Sarah's voice was a little bit of a letdown for me though, as she seemed to be struggling on some of the gutsier notes, but like I said, this was effectively the '2nd' cast. Arbronsius was fantastic, and really stole the show, but he had to fight off some strong competition from Koukol, who really milked some of the comedic scenes (such as the part where the ressurected Magda and Chagal sing from inside the coffin, and when he 'accidentally' left the table prop from the Carpe Noctum scene on the stage) and Herbert, whose every move (or should that be 'flourish'?) was greeted with gasps from the really rather vocal audience. It was obviously a meet-up for the fanclub too, as the noise some of them made drowned out a lot of the spoken parts - the ovation after the songs went on for what seemed like a long time, and there were a number of times when the actors had to wait a few moments before continuing. Whereas this works brilliantly in a concert, when watching a play it can be a little annoying. And this brings me on to the sound... For me, it was far to quiet. The whole lot should have been turned up, because even though I was sat right at the front, there were some parts that were barely audible, and when mixed with the contrastingly loud audience is not a good combination. Sarah's vocals frequently got lost in the mix, and the whole sound seemed to have very little 'punch'. Like I said, the cast album gets played a lot in my house, and it really is wonderfully produced. The engineers at Theatre des Westens don't seem able to make it sound even remotely reminiscent, although I expect that most of this was due to a lack of overall volume. Some of the more playback-based tracks, such as Carpe Noctum and the finale did have a better overall sound, but in my opinion the music was underwhelming on the whole. I was expecting a bigger sound, and other theatre shows I've seen, such as We Will Rock You in London, have previously delivered on this front. Don't get me wrong, though. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and will go to see future productions. What I've mentioned were minor niggles, not complaints per sé. I just like to 'fell' the sound as well as hear it ;-) Anyway, that's all I have to say apart from to mention that Berlin is a great city that I would love to visit again, and to congratulate anyone who's actually read this far! Well done you! And well done Steinmanics too. Same time next year? :-D Samurai | |
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