Dance of the Vampires is a musical based on the Roman Polanski movie of the same name. It was written by Jim Steinman (music) and Michael Kunze (book).

Plot:
Professor Abronsius (Gernot Kranner) travels with his young assistant Alfred (Lukas Perman) to find Vampires. They end up in a remote village, which is strangely obsessed with garlic. They stay at the inn, where Alfred falls in love with Sarah (Marjan Shaki). Sarah likes him, too, but her heart is set on bigger things. Therefore she isn’t really unhappy from the attention she gets from the mysterious Graf von Krolock (Thomas Borchert). And things only go downhill from there.

Dance of the Vampires is an awesome mix of comedy and kitsch – it doesn’t play with all the Vampire stereotypes, it revels in them. The music is awesome (even if mostly recycled from previous Steinman works) and this particular production isn’t bad either.

Dance of the Vampires premiered 12 years ago in Vienna and it’s the first time that it’s been back here since then. I saw it during its first run and I loved it. So, when I heard that it came back, I had to see it.

Some of the cast stayed the same, which is awesome – Gernot Kranner and James Sbano (Chagal, the Innkeeper) for example. Unfortunately, Steve Barton, who played Krolock in the first production, died. Thomas Borchert, who took his part, had big shoes to fill: Barton was definitely an audience favourite. And though Borchert wasn’t bad, he couldn’t quite achieve the same heights.

Lukas Perman as Alfred isn’t bad, but Marja Shaki was very disappointing. Her voice is quite bland. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she actually needed a “body double” for the dancing… I really wonder what she did in this show.

They didn’t just use the old sets but made a new stage design, partly with video projections. This worked well for the most part, but they really screwed up the projection of Krolock’s castle. It was all weird Escher-like angles, in a bad way.

In any case, I’d recommend listening to the music if you don’t already know it. And if you know it and like it, you should really try to catch this live. The Viennese production is definitely worth seeing.

I know, it’s a bit quiet here. You know, I actually had the intention to use my last week of holidays to bake and bake. But – I’m siiiick! Okay, it’s not sick sick, but I can’t stop coughing and I’m not really in the mood to bake or to eat cakes. And my throat hurts. Bah. That’s so typical – it’s getting autumn, it’s getting a feeeew degrees colder (not even enough to wear jackets) and I get a cold. Because I always freeze! (I know, that’s kind of contradictory to my love for autumn and winter.)

I decided to show you an older photo because it would be so quiet here otherwise.

The Brownie Rolls Cake!

I made this cake last winter – it fits perfectly into the cold time of the year. It’s a cake made from yeast dough rolls with chocolate and nut filling, tasting very chocolaty and really good. You can decide yourself if you eat it in single rolls that you break off or if you cut it. I wanted to cut it because that shows a nice pattern. Look here:

The title says I’m not only whining because of my throat today. Nooo! I have some really good things to tell you, too.

I was in THE DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES on Monday!!! It was sooo cool. It was SO COOL! I would go there again and again and again if I could. It’s awesome! I wanted to see this since I was in elementary school – so I waited for more than 10 years for this musical to come to Vienna again. And it was worth it. Really. I want to see it again! Oh, I so hope I get to see it again.

Στα πλαίσια του σεμιναρίου της Πέμπτης 13/12 στις 20:30 θα προβληθεί η ταινία Fearless Vampire Killers (Dance of the Vampires) του Roman Polanski.