Hi everyone!

I just had to write something about the Bad Hersfeld show. I had the fortune to see the very last show of J&H. The lead was sung by Jan Amman a young german musical artist.
The show was of course in german. I don't know what it is, but there is something special about musicals in Germany. They really can do them originaly and well.

The show had no intermission so we saw it from start to end. The songlist was as complete as it can get (without "Bitch,bitch,bitch", "The world has gone mad" and "No one knows who I am").

The shows was held in an old ruin with a membrane roof. About 1500 people in the audience.

Everything started with the cast walking around the stage before the opening of the show when the audience still were looking for their seats. There was a police keeping order. A lady walking her dog.Gentleman talking. The life in the London city. It was fun to watch the cast of 40-50 people living on the stage.

The scenery was very simple but functional. It was a mix of well made scenery from the nineteenth century and building raffold from today. They used the building raffold very smart climbing it up and down and singing on it. They where in different levels floating in the air.

Of course they had to move them around but that did not bother as much as the stair moving in Stockholm. And the stage area was very wide and they had placed the scenes so that they acted in other areas when moving the scenery.
You also had to be awake and follow the show to see who was singing and where if you have 30-40 people on stage.
They also knew how to used the depth of the stage. So they really had a lot of space in every direction.

Young Amman performing Jekyll&Hyde did it well. Although his voice tended to sound weak. He did had the strength, but not perhaps the power. But I liked him. The girls in the other hand where very good. Annemieke van Dam playing Lisa has an excellent voice.Perhaps the best Lisa I've seen. (Sorry Andrea).And
Lucy (Maaike Schuurmans) was as powerful as a Lucy can be.
Over all the singing was really good. Jan Amman was awarded with a ring for his performances. The audience had voted for him. There where playing 3 other
shows on this very nice music festival in a very nice town called Bad Hersfeld and he was voted "the best performer". I had seen him before as "Ludwig the second" so i knew what to expect.

I had also awarded the director Frank Alva Buecheler. I think he did an excellent jobb.

The scenes with the big cast sounded great.Lot of voicepower is always nice.
Especially "Facade" was great.

"This is the moment" had a lack of power but was sang very well.

The murdering went on well :P . Had a lot of detaling that i had not seen before. The dead people disappered very nicely from the stage.

"In his eyes" was one of the highlights.

Unfortunately Hyde had short hair??? The difference between J&H could not be seen visually from the last rows or even at row 33 where i sat. That was miss.
Though "Confrontation" was done nicely with a sharp light beam on the floor.
Jekyll looking up and Hyde looking down.

The end was a bit strange Utterson shoting Hyde and then himself. There where some laughts in audience because of the sudden brutality at the wedding reception.
Utterson should continue living-shouldn't he? This was not the end scen!

In the end scene we returned to the town centre and Hyde that just died seemed to be taken away ( or assaulted) by three other Hydes. Then the cast freezed and everything went dark.

This was a very enjoyable performance. It was a shame that we did not had the oportunity to see it more than once.

I you visit Germany or Hungary don't hesitate to visit the musical theatres. They really can do musicals.

Franks shows work really well here in Europe. Unfortunately we don't have had opening performance of J&H. But I'm working on it.

Cheers
Risto,Finland

Hi Risto,
Thanks for posting this review, it sounds like a good production indeed. Except for Utterson shooting himself - I agree, that's quite strange, and seems out of character for him!

hi Risto from Finland, :lol:
you was in Bad Hersfeld? Nice
Thank you too for the review.

I found a trailer from Bad Hersfeld
click on the video on the right site (with the girls)

Jekyll&Hyde Bad Hersfeld Kreisanzeiger online

in the middle there is an interview with Frank Alva Bücheler, who directed the first J&H show in Bremen 1999 and now in Bad Hersfeld. They had totally new lyrics.

I visited the rehearsals and we had the possibility to talk to Frank Alva Bücheler and Jan Ammann. :lol:

Didn't the famous opera director Dietrich Hilsdorf direct the Bremen production of Jekyll & Hyde and Frank Alva Buechler was just the producer?

Yes, we saw the last performance of j&H on the 03.08. We were there only for that day. Which was a shame since it is very nice city.
I wanted my son (17 years old) to see J&H and Jan Amman. He has started his musical career this year :) and wants to learn more about performing. He also enjoyed the show very much.

Hopefully he will sing a lot of Franks melodies in the future. Why not as J&H? ;)

Sorry about some spelling errors. Hyda sounds a bit like Jekylls angry wife B)
I wrote it in hurry.

Risto

@Jekyll23: yes, you´re right, sorry

@Risto: I believe, it was a good decision to let see your son this show. There is something like a virus, you can receive if you´re watching this live shows, or? :D
They have put a lot of work in the costumes. They were very costly designed. Jan Ammann said, he has never seen so costly costumes and he was before king Ludwig from Bavaria and they had quite great costumes.
Does your son want to visit a musical school? In Germany, we have a couple of very good schools.

And yeah, Bad Hersfeld is a very nice village. We were sad too, that we couldn´t spent more time there.
Just because my English is bad, I don´t write more on this board ;)

Don't be worry MinaHarker. Your english is good.
I'll tell my son about the schools. Where are they situated in Germany?

For example in Hamburg there's probably on of the best musical school in germany. It is called "Stage School Hamburg"
here's the website:

http://www.stageschool.de/ (In English and German)

And another prime adress is the "Folkwangschule-Hochschule" in Essen

The Site:

http://www.folkwang-hochschule.de/ (Also in english and german)

Anyway good luck for your son and I hope I could help you =).

and this
Joop van der Ende Academy

Here is the trailer again from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tghT9Vy3HFA

what was dangerous game like and alive? any detail of them?

Dangerous game started froom the top of the raffold (Lucys room) and continued
down to the scene. On the scene Lucy sliding away backwards from Hyde sitting down and Hyde on his knees chasing her slowly. After a while catching up on her. Lucy was then forced on here back and they seemed to have sex. After a while Hyde lying under and Lucy sitting on top. The scene was very erotic indeed and well acted. Showing how much Lucy disliked the act and how scared she was.

The Alive scene i don't recall so much of. I think Hyde was just moving around the scene. Basic stuff.
Alive reprise. Killing the Bishop. This time the Bishop had malested two young boys. Hyde killing him with his stick. The stick broke into two pieces after the last blow on Bishops head.

You must see it a couple of time to recall all the details. Especially when you are as old as I am :blink:

is there any video from dangerous game. alive or confrontation. speakin of that what was that like?

I don´t know
but if you are able to read German, I can post a link to a German review <_<

nope can't read german althought i know a few words of it. anyway tell me about confrontation part?

Here is Dangerous game
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=37429965

another one :lol:
here