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What joy and what a happening – a sold-out large house with an audience rocking and singing along in the Ulm Theater celebrates the musical Blues Brothers. Completely fine.
It’s good that there are still twelve performances. The promised detailed review.
What a premiere of the musical Blues Brothers at the Ulm Theater – wow.
A sophisticated production by Patrick Stanke that is absolutely suitable for the theater stage. And if the two main protagonists look just like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd – then, yes, that’s due – of course also to the make-up artist – but above all to the typical Blues Brothers outfit with a black suit, black tie, black shoes and black hat – but colorful humor. And the all good voices of the musical actors.
The Blues Brothers as a musical in the Great House of the Theater Ulm – six identical chords in triple step – then full brass section – another six notes, then full soup of brass again – when the Blues Brothers’ “She Caught the Katy” rattles along with really abnormal lyrics – (“She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride…”) then everything in the Great House of the Theater Ulm rocks and snaps and nods – staged in a straight and funny way. Can you take the gags from the original one step further? Yes, you can, in the Ulm Theater. For example, by having the annoying, constantly pursuing police officer not appear in Chicago slang, but in Swabian dialect – hilarious.
How do you get a road movie with sometimes rapid movement onto a stage (without a revolving stage)? You simply let the “Blues Mobile” made of composite wood panels ride on the ground floor and drive through the tunnel in the stage structure. So the vehicle is always on the move – not visible for a few seconds, and then drives straight into the next scene.
The police also had their own vehicle in the piece. In the film at least 850 police cars are wrecked, but here the Ulm Theater saves money (wink-wink).
The band – really great! The group of seven does not sit in the orchestra pit, but rather on the first floor of the stage structure. You need the pit to change the scene – in a road movie without a road and without a movie, there is a lot of movement on stage.
The vocals are very well performed – with great support from Siyou Isabelle Ngnoubamdjum (Penguin, Sugar) and David Whitley (Reverend, Ray, Murray). The main protagonists are really strong Frank Roeder (Elwood Blues) Markus Hottgenroth (Joliet Jake Blues).
In addition to some of the usual minor inconveniences and coordination problems at premieres, it was absolutely great cinema – just in the theater. From last night onwards there will be some repeat and first-time offenders in the audience. We’re excited to see how often there will be an encore and a standing ovation. There were plenty of them at the premiere. It is possible – said musical director Kai Metzger at the premiere party – that the time had slipped into the surcharge tariff. For extras, an extra – absolutely appropriate.
Das Ensemble
Musical direction Panagiotis Papadopoulos
Giordana Rubria Fiori
Staging Patrick Stanke
equipment Petra Mollérus
Light Marcus Denk
Choreographic collaboration Gaëtan Chailly
Dramaturgy Dr. Christian Katzschmann
Assistant director, evening director & soufflage Dominique Dietel
Study management Nikolai Petersen
Musical production Vincenzo De Lucia
Inspector Felix Goldbeck
With Frank Roeder (Elwood Blues), Markus Hottgenroth (Joliet Jake Blues), Siyou Isabelle Ngnoubamdjum (Pinguin, Sugar), Anne Simmering (Carrie), David Whitley (Reverend, Ray, Murray), Gunther Nickles (Judicial Officer, Murph) Samson Fischer (Matt Guitar Murphy) Adele Schlichter (Mr. Fabulous)
Additional roles
The Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Ulm
The Ulm Theater extras
Blues Brothers – the plot
Musical based on the cult film by Dan Aykroyd and John Landis Stage adaptation by Patrick Stanke Musical arrangement by Tim Allhof & Jochen Pietsch What begins as a strange appearance in bee costumes in an American comedy show develops into a global success: the Blues Brothers! Black suit, sunglasses and hat: The trademarks of actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd aka the Blues Brothers have been burned into the collective memory of all blues, soul and R&B fans, but especially the film world.
In 1980 the cult duo conquered cinemas. Elwood and Jake Blues are on a quasi-divine mission, trying to reunite their band to save the Catholic orphanage where they grew up from financial ruin. The fact that not everything goes smoothly and that the rocky brothers turn half of Chicago against themselves is what makes this adorably crazy story so charming: cheated fiancées shoot rockets around each other, resulting in unforgettable songs like “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “Jailhouse Rock”. one or two shopping centers were devastated.
Musical star Patrick Stanke, most recently seen at Ulm’s Wilhelmsburg in “Sister Act” and “Dracula”, stages the bizarre, humorous road movie “Blues Brothers” as musical fun with a guaranteed catchy tune. But really true.
As I said, there are still twelve performances left at the Ulm Theater – the next four are already pretty much sold out.
