Average Fun Put In Funeral

 Zum Sterben Schön - Stadttheater Hildesheim, 22nd February, 2013

"Zum Sterben Schön" is a brand new musical written by Marc Schubring (music) and Wolfgang Adenberg (book/lyrics) which is based on the British black comedy "Plots with a View" aka "Undertaking Betty" (international title) from 2002 starring the fantastic Alfred Molina, Naomi Watts and Christopher Walken.

Alexander Prosek - Boris Plots
Magdalene Orzol - Betty Rhys-Jones
Jens Krause - Hugh Rhys-Jones
Jonas Hein - Frank Featherbed
Tim Müller - Delbert/ Colin Warburton
Karoline Goebel - Meredith Mainwaring
Jens Plewinski - Dick/ Mr Pryce/ Dr. Owen
Michaela Linck - Dilys Rhys-Jones
Caroline Zins - Miss Gwynnffrt/ Mrs Pryce
Annika Dickel - bank clerk
Members of the TfN choirs - town people

In the small Welsh town of Wrottin Powys we meet the town people at the funeral of the former town mayor. In charge of it is undertaker Boris Plots who has been forced to hide his secret thirty-year crush on Betty Rhys-Jones after he dithered too long to ask Betty to dance at the school dance.

Betty is married to the uncaring, self-important and arrogant Hugh Rhys-Jones, the new mayor, who is more interested in Betty's money than herself and who is having an affair with his tarty secretary Meredith while Betty is stuck caring for his mean bedridden mother. But when her mother-in-law accidentally dies choking on cereals, Betty and Boris are drawn together while arranging the funeral and Boris confesses his love at last and wants to take her away to Tahiti escaping her miserable life.

© Andreas Hartmann

This coincides with the arrival of US-American Frank Featherbed, after inheriting a local business which is now competition, and his assistant Delbert who have a whole new angle of what funerals should be like and want to offer the people new styles of funerals as musical and sci-fi themed funerals and marketing gags as 2-4-1 funerals, caskets of the months etc.
Just as Hugh's mistress plots to poison Betty, Boris comes up with the plan that Betty has to play dead with him staging her death including Betty's funeral so that they can run off together. Unfortunately the plan doesn't exactly go off without a hitch as Frank and Delbert learn of the truth and Betty making the mistake walking around the town being seen by various town people.
But at the end, after Betty learnt the truth about her husband, the two rivals Boris and Frank come together, the 2 and Betty and Delbert teach Hugh and Meredith a lesson and all get what they deserve in life.

The musical had a reading in Berlin in September 2011 starring the amazing Kevin Kraus and the stunning Mirjam Zipf as Boris and Betty plus some big household names looking pretty promising:

I am not really a fan of the movie, the overall ratings on platforms as IMDB and Rottentomatoes tell me am not on my own (yes I know the positive reviews prevail but people are more likely to write a positive one than a negative).
The basic plot idea is not bad, some people might be offended by such a key subject in a comedy, I personally have no issue with it actually loving stuff like "Six Feet Under" , but even with a running time of just around 90 minutes it drags with one preposterous scene followed by another and just the last 20 minutes once Betty has "died" when it becomes quirkier and the ones featuring Christopher Walken and Lee Evans are enjoyable.

And the dragging is my major issue I have with the musical. The first act is long, 80 minutes, so nearly as long as the original movie, ending with the faked death of Betty (act 2 is around  an hour, total running time including interval was around 2 hours and 55 minutes at the opening night).

© Andreas Hartmann

There are several scenes which just seem to go on forever without really bringing the show forward just for usually the sake of another song and another and another. Directing by Jörg Gade totally failed here in tightening the show but also in giving the characters more than the one dimensional trait most had with the story staying most simplistic and sappy as also the lyrics with some show sage ideas, some others are just so ridiculous for the sake to get them to rhyme and the dialogues often miss the essential ingredient not daring enough to make a black comedy work.

The award for the most stupid idea actually goes to this show as when Frank and Delbert organise the funeral of a lady who liked musicals the funeral is done in "Phantom Of The Opera" style with Frank being the phantom, the corpse Christine arriving in a boat like in the actual show and "deadly" lines are sung (the corpses mouth is just moved and Delbert sings them from the background) to the melody of one of the POTO songs. WTF? It made me laugh - but for all the wrong reasons just totally pathetic.

Since I mentioned already the songs, which were certainly performed light-footedly by an eight piece band conducted by Andreas Unsicker and several non ballad songs (the ballads are just the usual dull cheese) certainly having a nice Cole Porter swing touch or any other composer similar to his style, sounded like heard dozens of times - most probably because they reminded me massively of musical numbers from 30s - 50s but unlike Cole Porter creating great numbers as "Anything Goes" standing the test of time this musical has none (hard to believe that Adenberg and Schubring apparently worked NINE years on this show as I read the other day) that even was still stuck with me when I left the theatre after the show (and I left straight after not bother with the after show party as no longer interested in these sycophancy events).

Magdalene Orzol certainly can technically sing most well, has a lovely voice colour, it just sounds so bland and sugary like a girl's voice and not that of a grown up woman (and Betty is not an 18 year old kid, even if this Betty looks like it), there's nothing special in it as in the voice of the stunning Navina Heyne, all songs, whatever emotions her character goes through in the moment, have very much the same sound.

© Andreas Hartmann

Seriously, if a character falls in love, I want to hear that in the voice, if a character is angry like when Betty finds out Hugh betrayed her, I want to hear that in the voice, if a character is sad, I want to hear that in the voice, unfortunately Magdalene couldn't deliver that in her singing for me.
When she was speaking it was a bit better, it still was too often too stiff with her accentuation, already an issue for me when seeing "The Full Monty" last year, questionable and her comic timing not existing but so needed for that part, after all this is a black comedy,  it also did not help that I thought she looked and acted way too young.
Her character graduated school with Boris and they more looked like father and daughter with the most obvious age difference (hello make up??), the odd kiss just did not convince me they are in love and have been secretly for many years. Where some fanatics as the ones who posted "reviews" on musicalzentrale.de (anyone only writing most positive ones are not been taken serious by me) saw a spark between her and Alexander Prosek I saw a tiny smouldering lacking oxygen to turn into a fire.

Alexander Prosek, with a weird on and off accent, that, if he spoke English, nearly could have passed off as a Southern Welsh accent, was just not what I wanted to see as Boris. He has his fans, I just do not like him a lot on-stage, especially not his dancing. It just looked ridiculous. I am also not a fan of his voice, it is way too unmanly for me, how some reviewer can call it lyrical goes beyond my understanding.
When I think back to the reading of the musical when the incredible Kevin Kraus took over that part who even when I watch the video these days (see above), gives me goosebumps and then I get Alexander Prosek in that role... Yes there is a sincerity to his play conveying emotions, some bits are there but this is a musical so I want something else. Just give me someone of Kevin Kraus' calibre.

Fortunately the others could impress more. Jonas Hein as Frank Featherbed and Tim Müller as Delbert are delightful to watch especially Jonas Hein who goes completely over the top as a 'modern' undertaker is of pure gold being the USP of the show.
Good to see that Jonas can not just be dumb and sweet as in past productions but also eccentric and fancy. His performance though again showed me he needs to get out into the big theatre or music world with his star qualities.

© Andreas Hartmann

Jens Krause gives a solid performance of the unfaithful husband though he could be occasionally a bit sharper and ignoble, though I am sure he just needs a few more shows to deliver that having known him for so many years, and Karoline Goebel continues to leave pleasant footmarks as the slutatious and conniving Meredith just lacking some more flamboyant expressions especially during her "Tu Es Für Betty" (do it for Betty, not sure whether that is really the title, just seemed most sung line) but again it might be a case of more routine needed.

Michaela Linck was totally wasted. Yes, she gave a hilarious performance as chairbound Hugh's mother, similar to the character she played in "The Full Monty" (most probably the wheelchair was recycled), but since her character dies a few minutes into a show, she did not have much stage time. For me she would have actually been the preferred choice as Betty as she has the comic timing needed for such a black comedy unlike Magdalene Orzol. It is such a shame that the leading lady of past productions has been degraded to ensemble in this year's productions with the other bog standard girls in the TfN musical company ensemble getting the lead parts.

Jens Plewinski as Dick/ Mr Pryce/ Dr. Owen was decent as much as the parts give him the chance to be that. The rest of the ensemble kept a low profile though saying that I can not care less about the other two from the musical ensemble anyway and I was glad their parts were of low profile.

© Andreas Hartmann

If the choreography were a thesis of a German politician it might be of interest for Martin Heidingsfelder who became known to the public for finding out that several doctoral theses as mentioned on VroniPlag were plagiarisms as while it did not look too bad it just seems to be an accumulation of most well known dances and movements to me - and not just the odd movement here, another from there, no full sequences. There was nothing innovative and creative to the choreography for me.
Additionally the BIG chance of proper ballroom dancing, which were rare outstanding scenes in the movie, was totally wasted   Booooooring.

The set was most simplistic, all we got was this painted wall that reminded me on clouds or the continent Europe put in a mixer and a platform in front of it (as on picture below). The wall had revolving elements behind one was e.g. a shelf . Integrated in the platform there was a bed like element pulled out for bed scenes. Just the odd prop as caskets, urns were then brought on the stage.
I am still wondering actually what this wall shall tell me, it just made no sense and just felt wrong.

Talking about wrong - the costumes. While looking neat it totally irritated me that Frank and Delbert were dressed in 70s style clothes with matching hair styles and e.g. Betty in 50s style close and Meredith wore modern suspenders. The movie is, as far as I recall, not indicating a period, with clothes etc. implying it is set in current days, but this show just seemed not to be able to decide what decade it is set in or shall it tell me that it is based in the 70s, town people as Betty nevertheless stuck in the past? Yes, these are the questions I asked myself during the show with the moments on-stage dragging.

© Andreas Hartmann

Well overall for me "Zum Sterben Schön" is an okay show that needs some serious tightening, polishing and please two other leads who can actually carry a show to work for me.
After the most disappointing "High Society" in autumn last year this is certainly an improvement and since the male lead of "Sweeney Todd" was NOT cast with Alexander Prosek as I had feared there is some hope for a satisfying season highlight as the actual IS definitely the best (just a question what they will make out of it).