#if kunze sees this: hi you can have your lyrics back

[conquerthenight]

Here are the lyrics to my singable English translation of “Ehrlichkeit und Vertrauen” from Rebecca. At the moment I don’t have a proper title for it (“Honesty and Compassion” doesn’t really have a nice ring to it) but anyways:

My opinion isn’t worth much

But I speak it nonetheless

What creates a loving marriage?

I think I could certainly guess

For if all one has is beauty

Nothing more and nothing less

There is something else that’s lacking

Something more I believe you possess

Honesty and compassion

And a love without conditions

With the strength to take what’s given

And overcome any storm

You are the one my friend was chosen for

Deep down inside you’re worth much more

Than all the grace and all the beauty

In the world

To be loved for a lifetime

Finding hope among the shadows

To be free from every burden

Forging ahead unafraid

She is the one my friend was chosen for

I clearly see she’s worth much more

Than all the grace and all the beauty

In the world

So much more

[emptymasks]

I’ve seen a lot about your thoughts on Elisabeth and Tanz der Vampire, and they’ve been really helpful getting into those musicals! But you have a huge list of other musicals that people can get into…

So I was wondering if you had any musicals you hadn’t mentioned in a while that you really like or would like to talk about??? (preferably something from your lists that has a blue heart please?)

Oh if only you knew how long the list of European musicals really is... I however have only seen 9 (if I counted right) and I have a lot more that I still need to watch. Oh also, I only put the blue hearts on any musicals that I was providing multiple links for so people could see which version I reccoment the most highly. If a musical only had one link and didn't have a blue heart it doesn't mean I didn't like it.

I've watched: Mozart das Musical, Elisabeth das Musical, Tanz der Vampire, 3 Musketiers, Mozart L'Opéra Rock, Dracula (the Graz production), Rebecca das Musical, Roméo et Juliette and Schikaneder.

If you enjoyed those two you're likely to enjoy Rebecca! It's written by the same composer/lyricist team as Elisabeth and Mozart (and same lyricist as Tanz der Vampire - though if you're listening to any German musical, original or translated, 90% of the time the lyrics will have been done by Michael Kunze that man is everywhere). The Stuttgart production has my favourite set design of any musical! Well... Actually probably. There are so many big set pieces it's insane, way more than I've seen in some Broadway and West End musicals. You can tell so much work went into it and the visual effects that I won't spoil if you don't know the plot but if you know the plot you know what I mean by the effects at the end are so good and I didn't expect them at all and I freaked out so much the first time I watched it. Jan Ammann as Maxim in the Stuttgart production is the best Maxim. No I won't take any argument. Other actors feel a bit one-dimensional to me, but the way Maxim acts at times comes from trauma and some actors and productions seem to forget that, but Jan really goes for it and his Maxim is a lot more sympathetic and I just want to give him a hug. Pia Douwes as Mrs Danvers, if you've seen her in Elisabeth what more do I need to say, she's amazing. A musical goddess. Her Danny is a bit more wild than some, but she kills it. My favourite video, which I put the blue heart next to, has understudy Christina Patten as Ich/I, but I adore her she's my favourite. She adds some spunk to Ich in act 2 and her voice is so pretty and aaaa. I just love these three actors together in these roles.

Roméo et Juliette is another favourite of mine! It's hard to choose which one to recommend, but it has to be the original 2000/2001 production because of the sweetness and chemistry and voices of Damien Sargue and Cecilia Cara as Romeo and Juliet. They're so pretty and work together so well. The only reason I say it's hard to pick is Mercutio. I adore him, but in the original production they cut out a song they had planned for him and he doesn't really do much at all? In the 2010 revival they gave him two more songs and you care about him so much more and John Eyzen plays such a good Mercutio. So I'd recommend the original but if you want to like Mercutio more, which you should he's amazing, I'd recommend watching at least clips of John's. It's an interesting musical because all productions are non-replica and also change around the order of songs, add or take away characters, all sorts. The Hungarian production is also very popular and I'm sure it's great, I just haven't' gotten around to watching it yet.

Mozart das Musical was the first non-English language musicals I watched so I have a fondness for it, but it's not my favourite. However, I do realise I have forgotten most of the songs and the few I've gone back and listened to are better than I remember.

Dracula isn't super popular and I understand why, I don't love the plot of the Dracula/Mina romance in it, however. I do love this musical because despite how I find the plot lacking, the songs are so good! At least, I love them. And the actors are all doing a great job. And it's one of the few Dracula adaptions to keep Quincy Morris so they get bonus points for that.

Mozart L'Opéra Rock and modern French musicals... This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they're often more like pop-rock operas now. So if you're not into musicals with that style of music it might not be for you, but I still enjoyed it even though I didn't think I would because of the style of music. Mozart and Salieri's chemistry is very good, Salieri's bisexual crisis song is iconic, actually all of Salieri's songs are iconic.

Schikaneder... eh. I didn't like it that much and I didn't really like any of the songs. There's no English subtitles, but someone sent me the entire English synopsis and I watched it with a German friend so I had double the help of understanding it. Doesn't mean others might not like it, just none of the songs stood out to me and I had no desire to listen to any of them again. It's by Steven Scharwz of Wicked fame and I love Wicked, but I didn't love this.

3 Musketiers!! God it's so underrated and not spoken about within the European musical fandom that I even forget about it and literally forgot to write about it earlier in this post. It's a Dutch musical (though did also have a German production) and it's really good!? Faces you might know are Pia Douwes as Milady de Winter, Stanley Burlseon as Cardinal Richeliu (Netherlands Der Tod in Elisabeth), Henk Poort as Athos (Netherlands Phantom and Jean Valjean). The dialgoue is funny, the songs are good, some of the set pieces have no right to exist in this tiny musical?? They made this giant boat and pelt the actors with rain just for one 5 minute song and then we never see the boat again? And while I recommend the Dutch one because Dutch musicals deserve more love and it has official English subtitles!! Official ones, not fanmade! I have the DVD and it comes with English subtitles (and Dutch and German subtitles) which is so nice. The German version is also good, good cast, Pia came back and Uwe Kroger as Richeliu and omg they rearranged the songs and the German arrangement of Nicht Aus Stein is insane and amazing and frankly iconic.

That's all of the ones I have watched. Next on my list to watch are Rudolf and Notre Dame de Paris, both of which I have listened to some songs from and already love (I've listened to way too much of Notre Dame de Paris and am so in love).

I want to start organising streams where I'll host the musical either by getting the video from Youtube or my own files and anyone who wants to join can come along and watch with us, chat with us if you want or just watch there's no pressure to chat. I thought about doing weekly streams? This would also make me finally watch some of the ones I've been meaning to for ages. But I keep wondering about time zones. I'm in the UK and would want to stream at about 11pm at the latest (11pm BST/GMT+1 as we’re in daylight savings at the moment, if the streams continue past the end of October which would be wild then I’ll make a note of the time change that would be to 11pm GMT), which I know can work for other UK and Europeans, but for any Americans would be in the afternoon. So, I wondered if doing it on a weekend would be better? Then it doesn't matter if it's in the afternoon? Maybe Saturday evenings then? It would either be Saturday evenings UK time or Friday evenings UK time. What do you guys think? If people are down then I'll make a separate post with a list of what we'll be watching each week and if anything happens to me that means I can't stream one week then everything will just get pushed back a week, but I don't see that as likely to happen. And I'll only be streaming those that have English subtitles, so don't worry about not being able to understand anything.

edit: am also open to 10pm bst if others want that, im just trying to think of what time works best for everyone so sorry if 11pm is a little late for europeans, i know 10pm could be a little early for americans. also in case it sounded like these are the only musicals i will be streaming, thats not so, ive got more than just the ones mentioned on this list!

(Tagging some people who I know are or might be interested in streams to see what you think of that plan: @sirona-art @ringwraith100 @tanz-der-trash @smilingwoland @the-weird-dane @witchgaye @ami-fidele @kisstheghouls @looking-4-happiness @ladysapphire928 @sloanedestler @tinywound @persephonaae @phoenixdewinter @uwucoffee @freshbloodandgothicism )

[tanz-der-vampire-musical]

Personal concert review - Musical T’s - 29.9.2018 in Berlin

(gotta call them this because there is a thing called copy****t)

Please don’t share the audio outside Tumblr, not even the link. Thank you!

As I promised I wrote a review about Musical T's concert on 29th September 2018 in Berlin, Admiralspalast

The videos of the encore, you can find in this post!

Last time I decided to write the rest in German, but I try it in English to make everyone understand what a wonderful experience it has been.

The musical t's is a quartet, that includes 4 of the most well-known and popular musical actors in Germany who all happen to be tenors. Two of them are very well known by “Tanz der Vampire” fans. Mark Seibert and Jan Ammann, both portrayed the role Krolock in the past. The other two are Christian Alexander Müller, who played in the Phantom of the Opera musical 10 years ago and gained popularity by it, since then he was mostly in low-budget productions and off-musicals and Patrick Stanke , famous for potraying big lead roles in “3 musketeers” , “AIDA”, created the role Graf Axel von Fersen in the musical “Marie Antoinette” by Kunze/Levay and is known for his self-made shows “Stanke ohne Strom”. This is a quartet that fits to each other so well. You would never guess that in the first place, because they are all solo artists, but together they are in harmony.

I know now why I wanted this concert to happen so badly for 7 years. Yes 7 years ago I went to the same concert format and they never did it again in the past years. There was this CD back from 2011. (So if you don’t know it, listen to it, it is worth it.)The funny thing about this concert was, that even if it was 7 years later, I was immediately thrown back in time to 2011. Because many songs were just the same like back then, also added by some new songs from the musicals and concerts they did in between, but mostly same setlist as before. Also one little detail was different they all aged well and got even better in the years in between, but some of them just got a little, how should I say that, out of their old shape (you know what I mean, do you?)

The audio is the song: “Die unstillbare Gier” sung by two past Krolocks Jan Ammann and Mark Seibert

It is not an exaggeration to say, that this was probably the fan highlight both for me personally and also for the audience.

The whole audience was already very hyped by every song and I think I never saw so many standing ovations in a concert, where people sit. Usually standing ovations is to be seen after the last performance, but here we just had a contest for “who would jump first out of their seats”. And of course in a concert like this, there are mostly ladies, so screaming was foreseen. The audience was electrified and you could see that Jan and Mark were just overwhelmed after the standing ovation they received. I’ve never been to a concert like this with such a “wow” factor in so many areas.

Setlist and more detailed review under the cut!

Photos from here

To write about each and every song would be a bit too much, but I tell you a bit about my personal highlights and the TdV part.

Act 1

When the first notes were there I already knew it would be a great concert. In the Admiralspalast Studio there is a good quality about the sound. The band is never too loud and also each actor knows how to regulate his tone to make the right person stand out.

The “3 musketeers” medley is a greatly crafted piece, starting with original D’Artagnan of the original German production Patrick Stanke with “Heut ist der Tag” (Today is the day), joined by the whole quartet. It features one of my alltime favorit songs “Engel aus Kristall” (Angel of crystal) then went slowly to have “Wo ist der Sommer?” (Where is the summer?) and “Wer kann schon ohne Liebe sein?” (Who can live without love?) and then to gain momentum with „Heut ist der Tag“ to finish. You could see how much fun they had with this piece. Also amazing how songs originally sung by women in the musical also fits this quartet.

My personal highlight was Mark Seibert’s “Ein Traum ohne Anfang und Ende” (A dream without beginning and end) from the musical “Die Päpstin”. I heard him sing this piece in Hamburg in May and he is such a fit for the role with his warm voice.

Of course one song that gets the crowd going immediately with the first notes is “Die Schatten werden länger” (The shadows grow taller) from “Elisabeth”. Elisabeth is very popular among German speaking musical fans and Mark Seibert played “Der Tod” many years and so it was no wonder that song belonged to him. His duet partner was Patrick Stanke.  These two together singing the song just blow me away. You hear them fight for their lives in the song, this is what the song is about. You don’t need the costumes and the stage setting you just need their voices.

The other highlight that was amazing on so many different levels was Patrick Stanke’s “Du bist das Licht” (You are the light) what was written for him and also has a very personal meaning to him. He played the piano himself (I did not know he could play piano) and sung the song with such an ease to it that makes you feel that he loved the song. The tears just came because it was so beautiful.

I love “Phantom of the Opera” and “The music of the night” is a song that gives me goosebumps if sung like Christian Alexander Müller sings it. He sung this solo in 2011 too, but omg he got so much better. In 2011 I thought, that this is the best version I ever heard and even after seeing the musical in Hamburg after this I still have found no match, but this in 2018 just blew me away. The interpretation of the lyrics in every note and the nuances of the Phantom were so well played in the song. (I think I will share that audio with you later, because it was just this phenomenal.)

Also that little duet before with Jan Ammann from “Love never dies” “Til I hear you sing” was brilliantly sung, but I think some songs are meant to be sung alone.

 Act 2

“Who wants to live forever/The show must go on” is a showstopper at its best. It has everything you want in a quartet in this arrangement. I am not sure I will ever be able to tell how amazing that mashup is.

“Never enough” from “The greatest showman” is a song that I am torn about, because it is a good piece of music, but lacks a bit “wow” factor for me. Also that repeatedly “never, never” is a bit annoying, BUT Christian Alexander Müller sang that. And that’s a challenge for a man, that he mastered brilliantly. I will never be a big fan of this song, but what he did with it was really difficult and deserves an extra appreciation.

Patrick Stanke excels in Kunze/Levay’s “Wie wird man seinen Schatten los” (How do you get rid of your shadow)  from “Mozart”. This song just leaves so much room for showing off your vocal skills. It just leaves you speechless about what a great singer he is.

“Tanz der Vampire” could not have been left out at all with two Krlocks in the house. So sung with special guest Stefanie Schüper (Is this her name? I don’t know it…I am still so sorry) was “Totale Finsternis” and as my friend who went with me there just told me “Yeah well everyone is great, but Jan Ammann just stands out for fitting the role” and I cannot say it any better. The quartet plus special guest was nice and you will probably never hear such a diverse “Totale Finsternis” but some just fit the song like it is written for them, others just don’t have the feeling to it. And Mark Seibert is my favorit musical actor but I think “Tanz der Vampire” does not suit him as well as other roles. (He was still great when I watched him last year in TdV but I prefer Jan Ammann in this)

After this bombastic sound in Totale Finsternis, the duet “Die unstillbare Gier” just topped everything before. I don’t know if it was because of the hyped audience or anything else, but it was special. Mark and Jan both sung the parts alternately and in the end joined in two voiced. You can listen to it in the beginning of this post.

With this highlight it could have been the end of the show, but it was not. It followed two wonderful slow pieces of music.

Mark Seibert’s “Letzter Vorhang” (Last curtain call) from “Schikaneder” where Mark told a little anecdote beforehand. Mark  told us that when he worked with Stephen Schwartz that he thought the song would end in a bombastic sound like many ballads in musicals do, but Stephen Schwartz just told him “No it is not like this, it is just a little song, not one where you show off” . I appreciate that Mark chose this song, because he could have shown-off his vocal skills but he did not and this little song is a beautiful piece of music with very beautiful meaningful lyrics. So it felt just like everyone calmed down and did not really know how to react. Of course people applauded loudly but much calmer.

The other slow song is also one of my personal alltime favorit songs that make me cry “Bring him home” from Les Mis. This was a beautiful duet with Christian A. Müller and Patrick Stanke. Even writing about it, gets me emotional….

The finish was “Vivo per lei” that is just an appreciation song to music and a wonderful song to finish, just that this was not the end at all.

There came the ABBA Medley that got the crowd going and screaming and hyped the audience again (almost everyone took out their phone and filmed) and they ended it with “Look with your heart” from “Love never dies” . They ended the same way they did in 2011. And the clever part of this song is that they slowly walk off the stage and don’t come back so the audience cannot scream for more. Very clever, because we could have stayed there all night.

Thank you for reading!  I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know if I should share a bit more audio files of the show, I would do it.

SETLIST: 

(Note: CA Müller is Christian Alexander Müller)

AKT 1

01.  Tenors – Limelight  Moderation A Alle

02.  Tenors - Drei Musketiere Medley

03.  Jan Ammann – Leuchtturm

04.  Tenors – Auf der Strasse, mein Schatz wo Du lebst

05.  Tenors - The Impossible Dream / Man Of La Mancha

06.  Mark Seibert - Ein Traum ohne Anfang und Ende

07.  Tenors – More Than Words

08.  Seibert & Stanke – Die Schatten werden länger

09.  Patrick Stanke – Du bist das Licht

10.  Tenors – Memory

11.  Müller & Ammann – Till I Hear You Sing

12.  CA Müller – Die Musik der Nacht

13.  Tenors – This Is The Moment

14. Tenors feat. Female Guest – I Believe in You

AKT 2

01.  Tenors – Who wants to live forever / Show must go on

02.  CA Müller – Never enough

03.  Tenors – Closer To Heaven

04.   Jan Ammann – Kalte Sterne

05.  Female Guest – divers, je nach Konzerttermin

06.  Patrick Stanke – Wie wird man seinen Schatten los…

07.  Tenors - Am Ende bleiben Tränen (Tu Cosa Fai Stasera)

08. Tenors feat. Female Guest – Totale Finsternis

09.  Mark Seibert & Jan Ammann – Die Unstillbare Gier

10.  Mark Seibert – Der letzte Vorhang

11.  CA Müller & Patrick Stanke – Bring ihn heim

12.  Tenors – Vivo per lei

Encore

01.  Tenors – ABBA - Medley

02.  Tenors –Look With your Heart

Setlist from here

[gdelgiproducer]

DOTV AU: An Exercise in Alternate History (Part VII)

Parts I, II, III, IV, V, and VI offer more detailed context. (To briefly sum up why these posts are happening: alt history – as in sci fi, not “alternative facts” – buff, one day got the idea that DOTV could have turned out hella different if Jim Steinman looked for a star lead in other places, decided to reason out how that might work.) This is still getting a good response, so I’m gonna keep the train rolling.

Parts of the AU timeline established so far:

Instead of stopping at recording two songs from Whistle Down the Wind on a greatest hits compilation, Meat Loaf wound up taking more of an interest in Steinman’s new theater work than he did in our timeline, and through a series of circumstances found himself volunteering to play Krolock in the impending DOTV when Jim poured out his woes to him about needing to find some sort of star to attract investors. At a loss for any better ideas, Jim accepted Meat’s impulsive proposal, but not without resistance from his manager, David Sonenberg, who proposed Michael Crawford as an alternate candidate. Through quick thinking on Meat’s part, and inspiration on Jim’s, Crawford left the room accepting an entirely different role than he walked in hoping to get, leaving Krolock still open for Meat.

There was a brief speed bump, when Meat disliked Jim’s English script for the show, but after meeting with the original German author Michael Kunze and convincing Jim to compromise, things were on the road to being back on track… at least until 9/11 occurred.

Following a brief hiatus, everyone involved met to re-assess their options. The current game-plan was to put the new script on paper, schmooze with potential investors or producers, and put together a new creative team. Preferably not all at the same time, but with the crunch on, they’d do whatever needed to be done.

So far, the schmoozing has gone well, but everybody that Meat, Jim, and the crew would like to be involved is tentative. The newest conclusion is that they need to show them there’s a working show, and a concert of selections from the score seems to be the route they’re taking, possibly financed by an unlikely source.

Continuing the alternate DOTV timeline, a little differently this time! This time we get a feature on the concert from the New York Post’s own Michael Riedel. Take it away!

VAMPIRES: NEW MUSICAL BLOOD by Michael Riedel

If you’ve heard the buzz on the Rialto of late, you’d be forgiven for wondering if you were having a particularly nasty acid flashback. Dance of the Vampires, a new $15 million musical of the macabre based on the 1967 Roman Polanski movie The Fearless Vampire Killers, is already a monster hit in Austria and Germany, and it’s starting to gather steam here in the States as well, with some... we’ll call it unlikely... star power attached. After all, what other musical (even in a preliminary concert presentation) can boast Courtney Love as an emcee slash investor, and such disparate names as Meat Loaf and Michael Crawford as co-headliners?

Admittedly, Meat Loaf’s presence is slightly less surprising, as the driving force behind the show is Jim Steinman, who wrote Mr. Loaf’s classic Bat Out of Hell albums as well as the lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind.  He has written the score and is co-adapting the book for Vampires with playwright David Ives (All in the Timing), who is also currently at work with Steinman for Warner Bros. on a musical version of Batman, from German dramatist Michael Kunze’s original script. He also co-directed this concert with Starmites composer Barry Keating, though early reports that Steinman would be co-directing the eventual Broadway run with Jane Eyre creator John Caird have ultimately been dismissed.

“Roman directed it in Vienna, but he can’t work here because of his legal problems,” Steinman said, referring to Polanski’s indictment for statutory rape in the 1970′s. “He may be the first director who can’t work over here because of a statutory rape charge.” When queried about who then would be directing the New York run, Steinman was tight-lipped, but among those in attendance at the evening’s proceedings was Urinetown’s Tony-winning helmer, John Rando, who is now rumored to be in talks for the slot. Said Rando of the new show, “It takes the vampire myth and pokes fun at it, but it also embraces it. Its message is about the excesses of appetite. It has wit and an edge to it. I’d love to be involved!”

The presentation (at the 499-seat Little Shubert Theatre, about half a mile west of Broadway; events like this cause us rightfully to wonder why it doesn’t see more use) for a by-invitation-only crowd was kicked off by Ms. Love, Hole rocker and widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, in memorable form. Says a source in attendance, “You could sum it up in two words: too drunk. She was literally falling over. She wasn’t coherent at all.” Managing to gather herself enough to announce that Dance of the Vampires is a musical for people “who think musicals suck,” she didn’t manage to say much else of importance. “It just became a little too sloppy, and she was removed.” Insiders report that Steinman’s manager, David Sonenberg, who is also one of the show’s producers (and a first-timer at that), worried that those involved would be seen as taking advantage of a troubled addict. Ms. Love’s performance did little to dispel this perception. Lucky that representatives from noted L.A.-based promoter Concerts West, major music manager Irving Azoff (who numbers The Eagles, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Christina Aguilera, and Sammy Hagar among his clients), film and music mogul Jerry Weintraub, and Broadway’s own Barry and Fran Weissler were in attendance; a cash infusion from such sources may well be needed to save face if she can’t “live through this,” to twist a phrase from her 1994 album of the same name.

In addition to Sonenberg, already attached to Vampires on the producing side are Andrew Braunsberg (another first-timer, who also produced Polanski’s 1971 film version of Macbeth), Leonard Soloway, Bob Boyett (Sweet Smell of Success, Topdog/Underdog), Lawrence Horowitz (Electra, It Ain’t Nothing But the Blues), and Barry Diller and Bill Haber’s USA Ostar Theatricals. Boyett, a TV producer turned legit entrepreneur, used the phrases “trial by fire” and “going to war,” perhaps because while some novice producers just put up the money, get the credit and run, Boyett says he’s been taking the process very seriously: “I went to all the meetings and learned, like it was grad school.” While some Hollywood types find Broadway “less cutthroat,” Boyett finds it “more restrictive.” He mentions the sheer physical space of the theaters but also all the rules and regulations: "I’ve dealt with unions all my life, but I do find Actors’ Equity is very restrictive to the creative process.” Further, he regrets that Vampires will not have an out-of-town tryout. “I loved the experience of taking Sweet Smell of Success to Chicago,” he says with real enthusiasm, as if the project ended happily. “It was helpful to have the critics say what they did.” Not that Boyett thinks the right message from the critics got to the creative team. 

As for Boyett’s teammates, Bill Haber attended on behalf of USA Ostar, and although he wouldn’t consent to a formal interview, he couldn’t resist answering one question -- and it has nothing to do with Dance of the Vampires. Why is Haber’s other fall production, Imaginary Friends by Nora Ephron, being called a play if it has six songs by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia? “It has nothing to do with how many songs there are,” he shot back. “It has to do with the fact that if you took all the songs out, it still works and you still have a play.”

And all this before we even get to the show itself. Vampires is your typical erotic musical about an innocent girl (played this evening by impressive newcomer Mandy Gonzalez, currently standing by for the role of Amneris in Aida and late of Off-Broadway’s Eli’s Comin’) choosing between two lovers, in this case an older, aristocratic vampire (Loaf, whose appearance here marks the first time he has worked with Steinman in theater since the early Seventies) and a hunky young grad student (Max von Essen, who reportedly also appeared in the Steinman/Caird-helmed reading in April 2001) under the tutelage of a rather intensely wacky vampire hunter (Crawford). Given the level of Loaf’s obvious commitment to the piece, it is surprising that his manager (Allen Kovac, of Left Bank Management) was a no-show, and in that light, rumors that Loaf has yet to formally sign on the dotted line for Vampires (in spite of previous announcements to the contrary, no less) prove even more curious. Calls to Kovac’s office were not returned. The rest of the cast, boasting some fine voices indeed, was filled out by assorted Broadway names and members of Meat Loaf’s long-time touring band, The Neverland Express, which also provided accompaniment for the evening under the crisp musical direction of veteran rock bassist Kasim Sulton (best known for his work with Todd Rundgren and Utopia, among others).

Speaking of the music: the score, as per Steinman’s usual style, is appropriately big and Wagnerian, with plenty of luscious, operatic melodies, including one familiar favorite that sticks out like a sore thumb: Steinman’s famous “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” under whose operatic pretensions I swooned as a teenager. “I couldn’t resist using it,” he says of a song that goes, ‘Once upon time there was light in my life / But now there’s only love in the dark.’ “I actually wrote it for another vampire musical that was based on Nosferatu, but never got produced.” Close listening to the CD sampler for interested investors also reveals a rehash of the vigorous “Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young,” his song for the film Streets of Fire, which I saw in Los Angeles in 1984 and sent me racing along Mulholland Drive to keep up with the propulsive beat.

As for the new stuff, maybe 50′s rock ‘n’ roll with a 70′s preen isn’t what the 80-year-olds who constitute Broadway’s audience want to hear (and Jim’s rock-mock-Wagnerian shtick admittedly tends to play better in London and Las Vegas than in Manhattan), but my sources say they knew from the first number --  an angelic trio with a beguiling (what did they used to call it?) melody and some expert (the Andrews Sisters used to do it) harmony -- that this would be my kind of score. Frankly I’m glad; since the prehistoric vinyl days, Steinman has been the guy I keep calling for to rejuvenate, or just plain juvenate, the Broadway musical, in a world where the musical theater establishment pronounces old ABBA records a hip pop sound.

The book, while reportedly in better shape than the April reading, is something else again. From the excerpts on display last night, the mix of bawdy humor and eroticism still needs fine-tuning. Says Sonenberg, “By the time we open, it will be a new version of the show, significantly changed with a view toward a New York audience, but right now it plays very much like the original in several respects.” Adds David Ives, “The German production is probably more faithful to the film, but it’s a fairly humorless show, with people getting hit on the head with salami. And I’ve been brought in to take out the salami and put in the chorus girls, without veering into camp in the process. Now it’s just a question of finding the balance, which, needless to say, isn’t easy. But I like what we’ve accomplished so far: Meat’s character is vastly different, a much more multifaceted, dynamic, complete figure. We’ve also made other changes and cuts and restructured the show into a book musical, with dialogue; the original is all sung. I think we’ve made it a much more interesting story.”

Time, as always, will be the ultimate arbiter of fate.