If You Want The Rainbow, You Gotta Put Up With The Rain

Rocky over the Rainbow 

Stadttheater Hildesheim, 14th September, 2013

The ,two musicals for the price of one‘-Musical – First German production

I had originally intended to see the show already in June but due to sickness in the cast the show was cancelled and I just got to see it last month (yeah am continuing to fall behind writing posts, busy life) - and it was so worth waiting for it - NOT.

It was clearly a "bad shows to watch" week, first "Die Königs Vom Kiez", three days later this nonsense.
I am seriously starting to wonder whether more and more theatres are just able to bring such ridiculous shows on stage.

Bruce - Tim Müller

Janine - Caroline Zins

Dorothy - Magdalene Orzol

King - Alexander Prosek

Lick - Jens Plewinski

Argentina / Woman -  Karoline Goebel

Fritz Alive / Man - Jonas Hein

Witch - Michaela Linck

Narrator - Annika Dickel

But I better start at the beginning...

Description of the show found on official website:

In an alternate universe only slightly different than our own, we find L. Frank Baum's beloved Wonderful Wizard of Oz characters, Dorothy, King (the Cowardly Lion), the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, unwittingly traveling through the same forest as the newly engaged 1950’s couple Bruce and Janine… at the same time! And following the very same road! (You know--the goldish, yellowish one).

Worlds collide (quite literally) when the merry band of circus freaks “encounter” the panicky driver and his lusty, busty fiancée in an automobile accident, causing not only the untimely deaths of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, but the desperate need for Bruce and Janine to find a Triple A. And thus the world's one and only 'Two-For-The-Price-Of-One’ musical is off to a shaky start, or for that matter: a 'rocky' start. Rocky indeed: why is Bruce suddenly giving Dorothy the eye? Is Janine really a virgin? And what the hell is Dorothy doing with her dog?!

They seek shelter from the rain in a creepy with a light on, mistakenly assuming it to be the Emerald City; the place where the Wonderful Wizard resides. Once inside however, they find themselves in the midst of what seems to be a 7O's horror show complete with out-of-control residents and their Master. Lick, an ‘Igor’ type butler; Argentina, his partially finished robot bride/sister, and the supreme leader of the group: cross-dressing schizopath, schmitzopath Fritz Alive--who is clearly not as sweet a transvestite as advertised...
Though the four newfound friends only really want to make one phone call, they are forced to stay as guests and witness the birth of Fritz ‘s latest creation, ‘Rocky’. From here on out everything goes pear-shaped and pretty soon they all find themselves scheming, plotting and stealing to get whatever it is they’re after. Needless to say: None of these characters should ever have met, but now that they have, they quickly find themselves thinking things they’d never thunk of before. Oh if they only had a...

If only Bruce had a silky dress like Dorothy's. If only Fritz could get hold of a brain. If only the Lion could get the courage he was promised for certain services rendered. If only Dorothy wasn't as dumb as she looks. If only Lick could get his beloved sister/bride a heart. If only Argentina could feel. If only Janine could do…anything you want with her, actually!
One thing is certain; each and every one of the characters you thought you knew so well ends up being a witch of a different color…

So much about the story. I do love Rocky Horror Show and like the film "The Wizard of Oz" (not too keen on the last London stage production but that was largely due to the actual production), so I actually expected fun but all I got were platitudes.

Already with the opening scene, when after a musical number performed by Jonas Hein and Karoline Goebel singing about how much they are looking forward to a double feature at the cinema and some b-movie style clips appear on a screen at the back it starts to go downhill, instead of starting straight away with the show.
A student of cultural studies in the 18th semester appears on stage who turns out to be some kind of narrator to guide you through the evening with that part "showing off" every single cliché of a long time student in that subject - yaaaaaaawn and even more yaaaaaaawn when it is done as lame as by someone who has proved in past production she has only limited comic timing and does it again here.

But it did not stop here - no it actually went downhill from there... The only subjects of this show seem to be "sex", "sex" and of course "sex".
Wow, how innovative, soooo creative especially when it is less provocative as some soap during prime time on telly and coming with a R-18 on the official website - a musical just suitable for over 18 year oldss? I expected hardcore for that.
But what was shown on stage I am pretty sure most teenagers and even pre-teens will have seen already elsewhere.
And it totally misses the point of a PARODY (which, by the way ,the Oxford dictionary defines as "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect") - this show is anything but a parody and when it is told as lame and predictable as this it just makes me want to throw up. I really do not know what Eelco R. Claassen (also music) and Michael Diederich (also text) who are to be blamed for book were thinking.

Yes, RHS has a large number of sexual references but that show also has something that ROTR totally lacks - heart. The motifs of the protagonists in RHS but also in WoO are "followable" but here the action is just purely based on the other stories, and quotes and scenes also nicked from other musicals, but done so cheaply, and trying to make it ridiculous but without making the characters vivid and therefore totally fails for me. Sex may sell but that does not mean it does work all the time.

And the rubbish storytelling went on, just when the show seems to accelerate a bit it is interrupted by the narrator, so that the show never has a chance to flow, particularly in act 1, often just to "sell" the audience interactions (yes, of course there are some as in RHS, even "interaction bags" are sold for 2 EUR before the show (IMO a bit of a rip off considering what's in them)) which are in RHS fun and properly worked in but here they are regularly stopping the show sufficiently and are just not funny - and not funnily adumbrated.

As for the "Königs Vom Kiez" this is just another brainless heartless show to purely cheaply entertain and get into people's pockets - but for me theatre is more. I like a good comedy but I still look for some kind of meaning, it does not have to be much, beyond cheap entertainment when it also has not more to tell then all kind of stereotypes of sexual frustrated women, closet gays... you name it and you can be sure it was in the show. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

I actually really felt like drifting off a few times and I think I know the ceiling of the Hildesheim theatre pretty well now - not a very pretty sight but it felt like more exciting than the action on stage most of the time. Oh and the orchestra pit was also usually more fun (band conducted by Andreas Unsicker delivering considering the weak material which sounded like heard hundred times before a good job with just the sound being off regularly again - but then am used to that at that theatre).

Do I need to say more about the show? I could, but I really do not want to, to say what I did not like about the actual production and why. It actually still makes me shiver thinking about what I watched.

Magdalene Orzol's Dorothy is always a bit too shrill, always a bit too hyper to be believable as a child not even a damsel in distress, her portrayal of Tobias in Sweeney Todd was a lot closer to a child than this. Here she is just a grown up trying to play a child. Yes, it is a parody (or not as mentioned above) but not a farce  (Google will help to tell you what the difference is). But later when she has the task to seduce Bruce dressed as a domme she also cannot convince sounding way too sweet with that "girly" voice and not self confident and dominant.

Alexander Prosek as the lion can also once again not impress. Here called King he or the director Katja Buhl seems not to know that the lion in WoO is a coward and walks to the wizard to be given courage despite it being said in the show. His lion is anything but a coward neither in his play nor in his singing (and I cannot tell how much  his accent annoys me, that rolled "R" drove me insane!) but from the beginning a sexually driven animal and all over the place - respectively all people around him.

Caroline Zins continues to bug me, technically her singing really may be fine but since for me musical is just more than decent singing she continues to be a miss with her stiff acting, her ongoing accentuation being off and her play feeling like such an unnaturalness.

Tim Müller delivers a decent performance, it is just so characterless as other parts he played though that might be director's decision (as said Katja Buhl directs and her productions are always a bit, well, uninspired and missing important fine-tuning) - he at least he infills every cliché he has to deliver with alacrity - whether it helps the show or not is another question.

Jonas Hein as Fritz Alive has obviously THE role in that show but for the first time he is a let down for me. I do adore Jonas but this part is a bit too big for him, he just simply is not (yet?) a Frank N. Furter. Furter is for me a radiant mix of flamboyance, evilness, hedonism, egocentricity, egotism, intelligence and total OTT-ness and while Jonas certainly showed some good approaches it was just never enough for me to be satisfying. 
Especially he missed flamboyance and egocentricity for me attracting a lot more to be THE focus of attention not being able to capture mine as other Frank's have in past RHS productions.

At least Jens Plewinski, Michaela Linck and Karoline Goebel could please.

Especially Michaela Linck as the witch is an utter delight to watch. Missing her in Sweeney Todd and being disappointed she had not been given one lead last season despite being the most obvious choice in two shows, she has also the smallest part in this but leaving the biggest impression being such a whirlwind witch. 

Jens Plewinski and Karoline Goebel are a lovely alienated couple feeling for once human unlike the other actual human characters in the show. 

It is actually such a shame that Karoline Goebel is no longer a permanent member of the musical company as she has kinda grown on me also seeing how she developed. I may not have been too keen on her in Sweeney Todd but she definitely has the talent and the motivation and her Argentina is played with a lot veracity and sentience. 

To watch Jens is reminding me why I adored him so much in shows as LSOH as the kinda geeky parts are just what suits him best. That is when he shines and adds that little bit extra to a show even when it is failing as this one. 

What is not failing is the set and the costumes but when that is a highlight of the show I suppose that says it. 

Overall this was a most disappointing evening at a theatre I used to love to go to. 

I actually think I need to see Rocky Horror Show again some time....