#tanz network

[gdelgiproducer]

Announcing... a new podcast

Welp, I’ve been off this platform for some time. If I was coming back, it’d be to promote this notion for sure. Hello, #tanzblr; breadman missed you.

Coming soon to a podcast platform near you, in the vein of Out for Blood’s retrospective coverage of Carrie and after much development (probably closer to next year than this year): 

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely: The Rise and Fall of Dance of the Vampires.

The pitch:

When most American theater aficionados think of Dance of the Vampires, they don't think of a show that’s run successfully for 9,300+ performances, in 12 languages, in 14 countries, bringing in an audience of over 9.6 million. They think of its brief New York run starring Michael Crawford, which was such a critical and commercial disaster that it totally eclipsed the infamous Carrie in financial loss, set the new bar for legendary flops (at least until Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark came along), and is still widely cited as proof of the ‘wisdom’ that ‘vampire musicals don’t work on Broadway.’

20 years on, it’s time for a post-mortem. Two obsessive fans dive deep into the story behind its creation, interviewing cast, crew, creators, and detractors and fans alike who watched from the peanut gallery, as they recall all the gory details of the road to Manhattan, from the creation of the original Roman Polanski source film in the mid-Sixties to the present day.

When I say “two obsessive fans”... yeah, I’m co-hosting with ozymegdias. (As she has had significant input on my further development of the fabled ‘new English version more faithful to the European original,’ that may come up as well. We’re debating whether or not it’s necessary; I think it’s a novel hook.)

If you’d like to contribute, we’re looking for “detractors and fans alike”: enthusiasts of Tanz, of DOTV (slim crowd, but they exist), of both (even slimmer crowd, but they, too, exist), and rubber-neckers who watched the proverbial auto accident with interest, the kind of people who can offer color commentary of the “from the sidelines” variety. Get in touch!

[giraffenkuss]

Kevin Tarte - Die unstillbare Gier (Tanz der Vampire) - St Petersburg, Russia 04.03.2017

(fight me but this was Kevin’s strongest “Gier” performance EVER!)

[gdelgiproducer]

Possibly an unpopular opinion

Recently, on Reddit, I came across the phrase “Dance of the Vampires is barely even Tanz der Vampire” in a discussion. I debated whether or not to share this opinion in response to that general point (of which I’ve heard many variations over the years), but as somebody who’s been as close to the show as I have, I think I’ve earned the right to do so.

That opinion is: they’re really not super different.

The humor is arguably shittier in DOTV, yes (to the extent one can argue that a phallic sponge is that big a step down from, say, playing “uh-oh, it’s a booby” to discover that it’s not Chagal under the sheet), but take away the most egregious elements, and it’s not nearly as different from Tanz as people have made it out to be.

Which is not to say DOTV isn’t the worse version; it absolutely is. But it’s over-simplifying things to say that one is a brooding, sensual, dark, Gothic opera, the potential result if Anne Rice wrote a vampire musical (that worked), and the other is a campy Mel Brooks-reminiscent romp, especially when...

They stem from the same source material.

They feature largely the same score and many of the same characters and plot points, even if the portrayal of the latter is different.

Both, each in their own way, send up the mega-musical genre / format.

Both can’t really decide whether they’re fish or flesh, comedy or serious drama, and wind up being neither. (Let’s not forget... in both versions, the audience is asked to swallow “Total Eclipse of the Heart” as a serious love duet between a vampire and his potential victim at the top of Act II, sharing space with a song later in the same act where said vampire lectures us on how our greed will be our doom, monologuing about the existential pain of eternal life and of losing everything and everyone he loves. The phrase “one of these things is not like the other...” comes swiftly to mind.)

The real, salient difference is in the basic approach to each. As George Abbott, Broadway’s all-time greatest musical comedy director, once said, “If you play it for comedy, it won’t work; if you play it for real, it will.”

Tanz camouflaged its inconsistency by playing it straight, with focused, detailed direction and a (mostly) dark sense of humor. The acting style seemed to follow a principle aptly described by Keythe Farley (of the Actors’ Gang in Los Angeles) as “the height of expression, the depth of sincerity” -- in other words, an extremely sincere approach, one where the cast takes it so seriously it’s funny, but it also hurts. What comedy existed wasn’t overplayed, so that when one of the handful of emotional moments came along, it was able to hit its target. (I put this in past tense because, in my opinion, Stage Entertainment has been doing it so long that it’s gotten very watered-down; the humor now seems to be overplayed to such an extent that the more emotional moments aren’t landing.)

DOTV, on the other hand, opted for a broad, silly angle that milked every “punchline” it could, as much as possible, and it was about as focused as a nervous driver after twelve rounds of tequila.

One way is just better than another at masking the show’s flaws.

[gdelgiproducer]

Tanz vs. DOTV: Something to ponder

(Content warning: use of a common five-letter word for the female anatomy to illustrate a point)

Hi, everyone! Vulture article plugging aside, it’s been a little while since I used this platform to directly discuss the differences between Tanz der Vampire and (what I hesitate to call) its New York incarnation, Dance of the Vampires. A lot of people have already identified the key problems, me being extra loud and verbose at it, with what DOTV did on the road to Broadway that sunk its chances. But there are always new things to discover, and I thought this little illustration which occurred to me recently might add more to the overall picture.

Over the years, I’ve been none too subtle -- perhaps jaundiced by my own experience with the man, I’ll admit -- in pointing a finger of blame at Jim Steinman, arguing that, far from the remove at which he placed himself in retrospect, he was an engine behind many unnecessary changes which were not related to Michael Crawford’s creative control. As someone who spearheaded the closest thing to a reboot Tanz will ever have in English (which will hopefully see the light of day in the future as more than two rough demos), I spent a lot of time with 1) Michael Kunze’s original draft, dated July 1997, 2) at least four drafts of the script for DOTV, and 3) watching my team develop its own version from the original German, so I know whereof I speak.

Now, many of Jim’s fans who heard about our effort around the time it began scoffed upon hearing about it, partly because I was a purveyor of Encyclopedia Dramatica level fandom wank as a kid and they didn’t trust the source (why lie, the Internet is a semi-permanent archive of one’s faults) and partly because they didn’t see the need for a new translation when surely Jim and/or Michael Kunze had already done a faithful English draft: “Who are these assholes to interject?”

Well, there’s an easy answer to that: Kunze’s draft, like many of his English lyrics to his own work, bears no comparison to his work in German. (A first-year ESL student probably would do a better job. That sounds harsh, but ask Kunze’s fans. There are very few who will disagree.) As for Jim, it became quite clear that when he didn’t just re-use Kunze’s English version of the material and substitute a word or phrase here and there, capturing the German meaning in his... we’ll call them more loosely adapted... lyrics was not even remotely on his mind. Indeed, there were times he took something beautiful and made it downright creepy.

A handy example is “Für Sarah.” Michael Kunze wrote a straightforward innocent love song, with maybe a tiny bit of foreshadowing. The point is that Alfred’s not a romantic hero, and that’s the joke. You root for him, but you pity him. You’d think they’d honor that in an English version with better phrasing or a different way to say the same thing.

Instead, Jim Steinman, in his quest to make Alfred a romantic hero (an “impetuous young gallant,” in Giovanni’s ultimate words), shoehorned in brooding imagery that turned it into a ghastly incel anthem, and I can prove it by changing literally just one word of his lyric for the song:

Substitute “pussy” for every instance of “Sarah.” (Example: “I will slash / I will burn / There is nothing / I would not do or be / For pussy...”) 

See? Altering one word is all it takes to picture a pimply neck-beard idolizing a “dream girl” that doesn’t even know both that he exists and has built a hidden shrine to her. For that matter, the whole song is turned into a litany of horrible “male power fantasy” things this guy, who is supposed to be a shrinking violet in the original version, would do for her: stealing, lying, slashing, burning... none of this is in the German at all, but leave it to Jim to introduce it!

Not to toot my own horn too loudly about something people may never see, but my team’s translation, while it may not always have said exactly the same thing as Kunze did in German, at least tried to capture the same imagery and emotion in it. More than I can say for Jim. Way more than I can say.

[gdelgiproducer]

‘Within Fifteen Minutes, It Became Unbearable’

The bloody Broadway mess that was Dance of the Vampires.

Look, Mom, I made the papers! (Sort of. They omitted a significant portion of the info I gave them, which is interesting considering they devoted substantial time to the efforts of an attempted revision of that veritable chestnut It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman in their other story for this series.)

If this article is hidden behind a paywall for you, DM me. In the meantime, I paste here the comment I made on said article:

Though I'm well aware this comment may seem the kind of nitpicking that would come from the fan Ms. Shaw describes, upon reading this otherwise very accurate and fair article, I was a little dismayed to see what I told her at length reduced to a couple of sentences in the final paragraph largely emphasizing my fandom. Whether due to time constraints in writing/editing or being erroneously considered outside the scope of the article, Ms. Shaw significantly downplays my (as she puts it) "trying to broker work with the man himself," especially as it relates to the article's content.

I'm a working producer actively involved in project development for stage, screen, and television (going on 15 years of 'almost famous' now, though that may be partially because I hang on to shows with flop stench like this one), and I devoted valuable time and effort -- at least three years and seven figures' worth of active development -- to creating a more faithful English stage adaptation of Tanz der Vampire. I assembled a creative team including a noted writer-director-producer who has worked extensively Off-Broadway, and was also previously a senior vice president of both NBC and Warner Bros. affiliates, by any account a major writing presence in media today.

We had both written and verbal authorization from Jim Steinman, a stream of interest from name stars and major U.S. film studio distributors based on our script and two rough demos, and were in the midst of preparing a reading with top-shelf Broadway talent when we were stonewalled by people on the European side of the table. Mr. Steinman proved singularly unhelpful in pleading our case.

It has since become increasingly apparent that he may or may not have had the right to commission such work from us, and years of my life, and the lives of members of our creative / project development unit, were used casually and recklessly. We have this completely documented at a level suitable for litigation, and there are several witnesses, including members of the original Austrian cast, such as Gernot Kranner, who advocated our script as "brilliant" and would confirm the outstanding artistic quality of the endeavor.

Our script is a superior English edition of the piece. The text is very faithful to the spirit of the German original and the underlying source movie, while maintaining an efficacy and substantial English-language virtue and vitality all its own. We would still like to effect a solution to the current situation.

[gdelgiproducer]

What new ending you talking about for tanz der vampire?

Oh, I forgot some people weren’t aware of that. Have you heard the 2009 revival recording? It can be heard there; it started there, and has since appeared in a few other productions, mainly the ones that use Kentaur’s production designs.

Here’s a thumbnail description that I’ve pieced together from various sources the best that I can, because I am based in America and not exactly made of money, so I haven’t seen it for myself aside from the odd clip here and there (I don’t seek them out, as, like I said, I don’t really like the new ending):

For starters, Abronsius sings the intro to the Act II finale same as always.

At the end of that first verse, the music changes in tone, becoming dark and threatening. (Not exactly “new” music, the whole moment is a restatement of old themes, but you’ve definitely never heard it outside of the revival recording unless you’ve seen subsequent productions.) He turns around and realizes Alfred and Sarah have disappeared, so he goes off looking for them, shouting “He ho he” – it’s sort of like a throwback to the beginning. (He doesn’t actually sing it, which is why I’m kind of hesitant to specifically call it a book-end.) Depending on the actor, it either plays as Abronsius being distressed and worried for the lad’s safety, or annoyed as per his usual nature.

After Abronsius disappears, or perhaps at the same moment, Krolock shows up and takes the stage, apparently once again a surprise entrance from the audience like when he first appeared in Act I. 

It then goes one of two ways: either he laughs triumphantly and then follows Abronsius, the implication being the professor’s price for curiosity will be his own end, as it was initially staged, or he just does a big “vampire laugh” and is lowered under the floor, which is the way it was ultimately re-staged and – at least to my knowledge – has remained.

When the “new” music is over, it picks back up with “Finale Part II,” the old transition into Magda and Herbert and the big dance party (which now includes Alfred, Sarah, and Krolock).

As I said, it feels out of place – it is quite literally an interruption to anyone used to the old version – and it doesn’t really add anything.

If, as some have suggested, it was put in to justify Alfred, Sarah, and Krolock appearing in the choreography at the very end, I honestly – if arrogantly so – don’t accept that as an excuse. The implication of the choreography, and the scene preceding it, is that the vampires did survive, and now they’re gonna be able to take over the world. Alfred, Sarah, and Krolock are not ruled out of participating in the “revolution” just because they aren’t physically there, and if one does add them to the dance, they don’t need a whole scene to justify it.

And if, somehow, you’ve only seen the newer production and missed older ones… yeah, this was never there before 2009. It went from the professor straight into the vampires taking over.

[gdelgiproducer]

Continued discussion of the new(-ish) ending to “Tanz” (4)

ninallthatjazz:

@gdelgiproducer in this bootleg you can see it crumble - it's from the german production in 2011/12 (I think) https://youtu.be/FvA7SeErpGg In the 1997 recording you can't tell what happens unfortunately. But since the german production has bought the rights to the 'old' viennese version, I'm pretty sure it happens there as well.

Well, I checked out this fairly decent quality clip from the original, and it doesn’t look like total destruction there, just a lot of strobes, scattering vampire hordes, and a fairly speedy recovery for Krolock, who seems appropriately embarrassed at being outwitted by rank amateurs, after a moment of immobilization / frustration. (I also find it telling that it seems to be Alfred who grabs the other candelabrum while Abronsius is frozen in fear, another moment contrary to every script I’ve ever read, but I kinda like it; the scared student surpasses the master in the nick of time, sort of like Johanna in Sweeney Todd -- on stage -- shooting the owner of the asylum when Anthony is too flustered to pull the trigger.)

As to which outcome I prefer in the ball scene... I think I understand why they go the “total destruction” route now. Like one person says on that TV Tropes Headscratchers page (hidden by a spoiler tag), a momentary inconvenience doesn’t really help the “twist” ending land like total destruction does (especially the kind Jim describes in early drafts of the American version, with an eruption of fire, walls crumbling, and a river of blood pouring down the middle of the ballroom). If all the vampires are seemingly doomed, then it looks to a first-time viewer like Alfred and Abronsius have, against all odds, actually won the battle, which would make Sarah's surprise snack at the end of the show more shocking.

Having said that, even with the castle’s destruction included, I still don’t feel like the extra moment in the Finale is super necessary. In my (frequently stated) opinion, simply introducing Alfred, Sarah, and Krolock in the choreography neatly ties up those loose ends and secures in the audience’s minds the message that the vampires are in control now and possibly never lost control of the situation, and as for Abronsius... well, clearly he was powerless to stop the outbreak, if he ever noticed it happened to begin with.

[gdelgiproducer]

Re: “Breda von Krolock”

It’s not his name.

It is not now, nor has it ever been.

Knowing that the film The Fearless Vampire Killers had a mainly British crew who were given to practical jokes on set, and that the person in the graveyard couldn’t possibly be the Count since -- for openers -- they weren’t in the crypt, I frankly never bought into it to begin with, no matter what alternate etymology people turned up in other languages.

(In fact, that’s literally the only thing I’ve ever said every time someone brought it up: the Count reposes in the crypt, not in a simple grave. There would be no marker for him outside, it would make no sense. And, assuming the Hungarian origin for the name is correct, a vampire named Breda... doesn’t that seem like the kind of in-joke only Giovanni would find funny?)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the fandom’s efforts, and all the stuff you guys have turned up over the years to justify a shot of a random gravestone in the movie (including that cute bit about “names were often passed down in aristocratic families, so even if it’s not his grave, it could still be his name” -- the lengths people will go to in order to retain cherished headcanon!) is attention to detail that is nothing short of mind-boggling. But the simplest explanation is often best, and to me, given what I’ve noted above, what makes the most sense is that it is simply not his name.

I will also add that in my time working on the show, though admittedly I never went out of my way to ask, no one ever mentioned the Count having a first name, which is something you’d think would come up -- at least in passing -- if there was one. The only production to give him one, to my knowledge, was the American one, and I think we all know better than to count that as canon.

If you wanna believe he’s Breda, go ahead, fine. Headcanon is headcanon. If you wanna believe you yourself are not a human being but in fact a palm tree, go ahead, fine. Headcanon is headcanon. Just know that the preponderance of evidence suggests it is not true in the text (or reality, in the case of the palm tree) itself.