“I take you to a journey on the wings of the night…” / “Ich geb dir was dir fehlt: eine Reise auf den Flügeln der Nacht…”
Soooo…. today was “the” day! I finally went to Seinäjoki to see the Dance of the Vampires musical!
I will – especially for the German people and even more especially for the German “Tanz der Vampire” fans – tell about the experience and compare it as far as possible.
WARNING: this is my own and private opinion about this musical and also about the German version. Feel free to disagree with me, but accept the way I see it or just don’t read it at all. ;)
I want to quote Jan Ammann first…
He, the German count “von Krolock”, my all time favorite, said once in an interview, that “who ever compares, didn’t get the sense of it”… because each and everyone is working so hard to play his role and the other roles. I agree with him, but still there are lots of differences I want to point out, because they were interesting/scaring/fascinating, etc.
All in all I have to say: I loved it!!! It was really, really good. I don’t think it can compeed with the German one, but I think that’s mostly a matter of money and not of talent.
The whole set was a lot less elaborated, of course, but it wasn’t bad. It was kinda strange that between the scenes they had pictures of like garlic and stuff like that on the curtain. I personally didn’t like it too much, but well.
There were some quite cool things, for example in the dream scene there turned out to be a hole in the bed, which was hidden perfectly, and in the end of Alfred’s “dream”, the Vampires “vanish” through this hole. But it was made so well, that it actually looked as if they were being sucked into the bed, like ghosts without a real body or something like that. The same happened with the count in one scene, where a hole was in the ground, hidden in fog.
But the thing which so threw everything else over and which I was soooo super impressed by was the crypt!
Actually the whole stage was lifted up with Alfred and Abronsius on it and under it the crypt appeared. Really well made with stones, sceletons and spider webs…
It was funny, cause Alfred got spider webs in his face and screamed in panic. :D
You could also actually see the coffins and Krolock and Herbert lying in them.
There was also one of the biggest differences in this scene, because Abronsius doesn’t actually get stuck while climing down, he just simply refuses to climb down. XD I need to mention here, that Abronsius, played by Esa Ahonen, was my favorite in the finnish version. He was super funny, had a great voice and even though his costume was a lot more simple than the German one it looked really authentic! And I guess he got the biggest applause of the whole play after the “logic” song, where he is singing supersuper fast, which is already too hard for me in German. But Finnish itself is often quite a fast language, so I even for finns singing THIS fast in Finnish is suuuperhard. Funniest part was actually in the end when the actual ball is taking place. He is wearing one of this old-fashioned, huuuge black velvet dresses. XD And walks down the stairs with Alfred, trying to act like a lady.
And then when they are dancing and in front of the mirrors the real vampires recognize their reflection, he is actually counting to the beat in German “eins, zwei, drei. eins, zwei, drei.” and when all vampires look at him he’s like “… … vier???” xDDD I cracked up.
Professor Abronsius and Alfred
Sooo, I kinda slipped into telling about the characters, so I’ll continue with Alfred.
Abronius’ student/assistent Alfred (Ville Salonen) is definitely not as attractive as the German one (when played by Krisha Dalke) xD, but he has one hell of a voice!! The song “For Sarah” actually gave me goosebumps. <3
But all in all he is quite similar to the German Alfred, so not much more to say.
Lets get to the most important character, the count, (in Finnish “Kreivi von Krolock“, played by Jyri Lahtinen). Like mentioned before the costume and especially the make up is a lot less impressive than in the German one, but it is actually not needed. He indeed does have a lot of charisma which is the most important thing in the role. He also has a very, very awesome voice, still he didn’t convince me 100%. =/ The most disappointing was the way that he first showed up. Who has seen the German one knows the way the count slooowly walks through the aisle towards the stage, leaving no doubt that HE is the main character, even for those who don’t know the musical. You just see it and you are already then stunned by him, when he didn’t even open his mouth yet.
Well, the Finnish one just *plopp* appeared on stage behind a half see-through curtain and started to sing. One can guess it’s the count (or know by seeing the pics before), but it’s still different. It makes it harder for Jyri to actually show the mightiness of the role. He managed quite well and especially the second half and the song “Unquenchable Greed” (Unstillbare Gier) hit the spot. He was nearly as good as Jan in that one, I mean it. You could really see this superdesperate vampire.
Theeeen Sarah. Second best after the professor in my opinion! She really has a great voice, plus she is superpretty! I had a hard time finding any German Sarah I liked, from the 4 different ones that I saw. Sabrina Auer was my favorite, but Raili Raitala, who plays the Sarah in Seinäjoki, was really better than every other one so far. I loved how she was totally annoyed by Alfred when he surprises her in the bathtub in the castle, while in the German one she is rather surprised.
Sarah and Kreivi von Krolock
Continuing with vampires and sadly one of the biggest diappointments: Herbert, the gay son of the count, played by Jouko Enkelnotko. It’s no secret that I’m really in love with Florian Fetterle’s interpretation of Herbert, but still. Flo plays really “too much” in a way, too much cliché, too much gay, almost in a ridiculous way, but still at a point where it is superfunny and not disrespective for gay people! The Finnish one: too much in a too much way. It was just… I didn’t think it was very funny anymore. That’s the saddest thing about it. In the first scene where you see Herbert he was wearing a pig-pink coat with white fur over the shoulders. OUCH. Then later he was wearing a pig pink satin shirt and a white corset over it.
What rescued it were the scenes of the ball, where he is wearing white with a cream-coloured/golden coat. You can see he’s supposed to be gay, but not in a “too much” way. And then the last scene, which is anyway my favorite of the play, which almost made me forget my disappointment. Black leather pants, a dark red satin shirt and red steel-cap leather boots. <3 It was PERFECT! And nothing against his voice, either, he really knows how to sing. Actually there was nobody whose voice I didn’t like.
What was cute too was when Afred runs away from him and he starts crying xD or at least snobbing. XD
But then again the “too much” when Alfred is in the crypt and doesn’t listen to Abronsius saying “three” and Abronsius starts screaming. In that scene both Krolock and Herbert actually “wake up” or at least sit up in the coffins, which would be kinda cool, but then Herbert turns around and sticks his ass out. And that’s just the way of “too much” that I didn’t like at all. Maybe it’s finnish humour, cause lots of the people in the audience cracked up, but I didn’t like it. In my opinion it was almost a bit despising towards gays. Thumbs down.
Herbert.
Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen Chagal, played by Heikki Vainionpää. He was really good and funny, too, even though I don’t like the character itself too much. The only really annoying thing about him was actually that in the scene when he bites Magda and also later on when they are in the coffin together he was always like “nomnomnomnomnom”. Graah. After the third “nom” I was like “Yeah, we KNOW it’s nom, now stop it already!” -.- That was really stupid. Otherwise I liked him more than the German version.
Rebecca (Leena Rousti) was pretty cool, too. Almost cute in a way. xD And the goose she has in the scene in front of the house was awesome. XD It was like made of cloth, but very poorly and the head was always hanging down. xD
Chagal and Rebecca
Magda (Anne Vihelä) was equally great as the German one. Her looks was different, she was that typical blond chick with big boobs, but funny and also with an awesome voice. And her costumes after she turned into a vampire were sooooo pretty. <3 Loveloveloved them!!
Last but not least: the biggest difference of the whole musical concerning the characters: Koukol (Antti Railio) and OF COURSE there is no picture of him in any of the videos ARGH! His whole character is interpreted in a different way. He is not the crippled creature as in the German one, but a vampire as well and kind of an evil version of Harry Potter’s Hagrid. HUGE (in both directions xD), with very long (no wig ;D) brown hair and a fur coat. In the scene with the dream he has a whip and is even singing some parts there! That was really a big surprise.
Then one more picture, just for Dana, Pati and Sandy:
Their beloved black vampire, whom I like to call “ballet bitch”. I don’t really like him in the German version. TOO much muscles, too much drawn muscles, to ewww dancing. Nah. I really liked the Finnish version of him tho. <3 Sexäy! and a better dancer in my opinion.
But yeah, like mentioned before, I really liked the musical and it was worth the money spent on train ticket and entry.
I didn’t get lost in Seinäjoki (aka. shithole – they don’t even have working traffic lights!) and came back happy but exhausted.
So, for all Finnish people or people living here: go and see it if you have the chance. And I guess if you don’t know the German one to compare it will be even more awesome. So DO IT!!!
Oh yeah, one thing still, almost forgot. Very disappointing/strange. They used fake blood only once, when Krolock bites Sarah and then only Krolock has it on his chin after the bite, Sarah’s neck is completely clean. And all the other bites – no blood at all. Whaaaat? O.o Well… :D
Aaaand… be jealous on my awesome Finnish fanshirt which I needed to buy:
It says “Excuse me, your teeth are in my neck!” xDDDDD Gotta love it.
On the front there’s the logo. <3
Huh. That took me almost 2 hours now. xD And I bet I forgot some important details. But still, I hope you got some idea… :D
[Anni's Life] 