Die Feuerzangenbowle (musical)
Die Feuerzangenbowle - Das Musical is the first musical implementation of the novel of the same name by Heinrich Spoerl with music and a book by Thorsten Wszolek and lyrics by Werner F. Krause and Mathias Münch .
The world premiere took place on June 18, 2004 in the Mund Art Theater Neu-Isenburg. In September 2004, hr-fernsehen recorded the musical highlights of the piece and broadcast them on January 1, 2005 at 8:15 pm.
action
The musical is largely based on the Helmut Weiss film adaptation from 1944 with Heinz Rühmann in the leading role. Only a few small sequences of scenes were changed, other scenes were merged in order to avoid too many breaks.
first act
The successful writer Dr. Johann Pfeiffer from the city of Wiesbaden discovered in an intoxicated group of men that he had missed the joys and sorrows of a normal student life in a public school by teaching a tutor. The gentlemen present can persuade him to do just that again for a few weeks. Pfeiffer had his hair cut, his beard removed, dressed like a student from the 1930s, and traveled to the small town of Neu-Isenburg to attend high school there. At first, students and teachers are equally skeptical of him, but soon he becomes a class favorite and never misses an opportunity to fool his drummers with any jokes.
By chance he meets the school principal's daughter, Eva Knauer, and falls in love with her. In Wiesbaden, however, his real fiancée Marion is furious because of his sudden disappearance. When she found out his current accommodation from Pfeiffer's servant, she quickly traveled to Neu-Isenburg to bring her beloved Johann back home.
Second act
Johann Pfeiffer, who has almost let himself be influenced by Marion's brainwashing, decides at the last second not to give up the student life so quickly and leaves her bitterly to leave alone.
When his class teacher, Prof. Crey, got more and more wind of the liaison with Eva, he asked Pfeiffer to talk to him in his apartment, where he got all the clocks set back by an hour in a short absence. As a result, he overslept the next morning and shows up at high school too late. Pfeiffer uses this hour to play his farewell trick on the teachers.
There is a showdown . Dr. Pfeiffer steps out of the shadows and announces his real identity. According to the novel and the old happy ending musical tradition, he finally gets his Eva.
musical
Production staff
- Music: Thorsten Wszolek
- Lyrics: Werner F. Krause and Mathias Münch
- Production design: René Bissinger
- Mask: Lutz Paschke and Karin Saalbach
- Musical direction: Sándor Karoylí
- Orchestration: Thorsten Wszolek
- Technical management: Reinhold Schrodt
- Light design: Manfred Möller
- Clay design: Otto Schäfer
- Director: Thorsten Wszolek
Leading actor in the world premiere
- Thorsten Wszolek (Dr. Johann Pfeiffer)
- Barbara Kornek (Marion, his fiancée)
- Wolfgang Bier (Prof. Crey, class teacher)
- Helga Kolb (his housekeeper)
- Jürgen Bülow (Director Knauer)
- Gerti Schäfer (his wife)
- Stefanie Wszolek (both daughter)
- Werner F. Krause (Prof. Bömmel, physics teacher)
- Horst Becker (Dr. Brett, history teacher)
- Gisela Wolf (Mrs. Windscheidt, Pfeiffer's room landlady)
- Jürgen Link-Hessing (High School Administrator)
- Sascha Kaspar (Rudi Knebel, student)
- Thorsten Klees (Ackermann, student)
- Viola Schäfer (Husemann, pupil)
- Jochen Wenzel (Luck, student)
- Simone Lindenberger (Rosen, pupil)
- Horst Duhme (Kliemke, caretaker)
- The Neu-Isenburg dialect ensemble
The music
Wszolek's musical implementation of the material contrasts with the fashion or development of musicals at the beginning of the 21st century. If elements from rock and pop gained more and more importance in musicals like Elisabeth or Jekyll & Hyde , Die Feuerzangenbowle is more in the style of the classics My Fair Lady or Mary Poppins . The melodies are catchy and easy to sing along with. They have no direct relation to the sound of the 30s in which the musical is set. Only the song “Come here, young man” fits into the era as Charleston . The rest of the music sounds like something out of a Walt Disney cartoon.
The aggressive song “Ich will's right now” falls out of the overall composition due to its constant alternation of 3/4 and 5/4 time.
Orchestral line-up
The instrumentation for 25 musicians is reminiscent of Broadway or West End orchestras, as most recently in Crazy For You (1992), Oklahoma (West End and Broadway Revival 1998) or South Pacific (West End Revival 2001) occurred. Today only up to 15 musicians are common due to cost reasons.
Fl / Pic , Ob / EH , Klar / Fl / ASax / BarSax , Klar / BassKlar / Fl / TSax , Fag , Hr (3), Trp (2), Pos / Euphonium , Basspos / Tb , Schl (2), Hf , Key , Vi (5), Va (2), Vc , Kb
A reduced version for tours or smaller venues is available for 15–19 musicians.
The songs
- Prologue / Only in the cinema
- The best time from class
- New world
- Song by Prof. Crey
- Director's song
- De steam machine
- Come here, young man!
- Blueberry wine
- In the dungeon
- Have a nice day
- The shooting festival
- I want it right now
- Entr'Acte
- The shield
- The conference / a mixer
- Put your hands in your pocket
- The watches
- What a charm
- The imitation
- Finale (only in the cinema)
Sound carrier
A complete recording of the work with Wolfgang Völz as director Knauer and Ernst Hilbich as Prof. Bömmel is in planning.
