Ronacher

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Ronacher

The Ronacher , formerly the Ronacher establishment , is a theater in Vienna's 1st district, Innere Stadt , between Himmelpfortgasse, Seilerstätte and Schellinggasse. Together with the Raimund Theater and the Theater an der Wien, it forms the venues of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien and is almost 100 percent owned by the City of Vienna through Wien Holding ( Rudolf Klausnitzer holds a minority stake ).

history

The Vienna City Theater shortly after it was built
The theater fire in 1884.
Façade of the Ronacher (2008)
Ronacher logo

It was initially built as a Viennese city theater from 1871 to 1872 by the architects Ferdinand Fellner the Elder and Ferdinand Fellner the Younger for a private company owned by the journalist Max Friedländer and the playwright and theater director Heinrich Laube . The two wanted to build a bourgeois theater that - without censorship - should compete with the imperial court theaters . The house was opened on September 15, 1872 with Schiller's Demetrius in an adaptation of Laubes. Twelve years after it opened, the house burned down on May 16, 1884. Since the building is not free on all four sides, reconstruction as a theater was not permitted according to the fire protection regulations that are now in force. In 1886 Anton Ronacher bought the ruined fire and again let Ferdinand Fellner the Elder. J. (who in the meantime had founded the Fellner & Helmer office ) built a concert and ball house on it from May 1887 to April 1888 . The wall paintings are by Eduard Veith . The main staircase was built with steps made from Kaisersteinbruch . A large ballroom and a hotel were connected to the new variety theater , next to which it could already use electric light, and contained promenades and a winter garden.

The new Ronacher establishment was not a theater, but was furnished with tables and chairs. During the performance it was allowed to drink, eat and smoke. Due to the poor economic situation, Ronacher had to give up the house later. From 1890 on, artists appeared more often, which increasingly attracted suburban populations and drove the aristocracy away. The program was later supplemented by revues, operettas, dance and song performances. The house was rebuilt again and again and adapted to the needs of the modern vaudeville business (1901, 1906 and continuously between 1907 and 1916; each time by Ferdinand Fellner the Younger), especially around 1910 accompanied by the discussion whether to keep up with the times that the house should transform itself into a classic spoken theater. From 1928, the then Austrian radio, RAVAG , was rented in parts of the Ronacher for a few years and broadcast its music programs from there: First, the so-called “Parisien” was converted into a studio that was used along with ancillary rooms and the entire third floor. In 1930 RAVAG rented another one and a half floors and a few single rooms in the building.

After the Anschluss in 1938, the theater was Aryanized from its previous co-owner, Samuel Schöngut, to Bernhard Labriola. Schöngut was deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto on November 2, 1941 and from there to the Auschwitz concentration camp on August 16, 1944 , where he was murdered.

After the Second World War , the Ronacher was an alternative stage for the Burgtheater, which was damaged by bombs, until 1955 . Variety artists then appeared again before Austrian television used the premises for TV productions from 1960 . After ten years of vacancy, an operetta was performed again for the first time in 1986, this time Cagliostro in Vienna by Johann Strauss (son) . In 1987 the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien bought the house and performed the musical Cats and two operas. An architecture competition in 1987 resulted in a “deconstructivist” increase as the winning project. However, the Coop Himmelblau project was the target of fierce public criticism and was shelved in August 1991. In 2003 , 2004 and 2008 the Ronacher hosted the awards gala for the Nestroy Theater Prize .

After a few years as a guest theater for international productions and festive events, the Ronacher was expanded into a musical stage by 46.9 million euros. By mid-2008 the stage technology was modernized and the floor of the stage was lowered by two meters, which improved the view of the stage. The increase in the building by the architect Günther Domenig was carried out despite massive political and cityscape protection concerns.

The Ronacher has around 1000 seats and 40 standing places. The exact number of seats and standing places varies depending on the production. (At Cats currently 994 seats and 30 standing places)

Performances

musical Music and book premiere Dernière Performances / visitors additional information
Cats Andrew Lloyd Webber 1988 September 24, 1990 over 2,000 performances / 2.3 million visitors 1st season in the Theater an der Wien and Ronacher
Since September 20, 2019 open 175 performances +6 previews / 180,000 visitors (as of July 4, 2020) Resumption; Due to COVID-19 , the performances between March 11th and July 26th, 2020 were canceled.
Chicago John Kander , Fred Ebb April 21, 1999 Before that at the Theater an der Wien
Falco - A Cybershow Joshua Sobol and Paulus Manker April 1, 2000 November 26, 2000
The Producers Mel Brooks June 30, 2008 February 22, 2009 German-language premiere
Spring awakening Michael Mayer, Bill T. Jones March 21, 2009 May 30, 2009 German-language premiere
dance of the Vampires Michael Kunze , Jim Steinman September 16, 2009 June 25, 2011 World premiere in 1997 in the Raimund Theater
September 30, 2017 June 27, 2018 240 performances + 2 previews / approx. 252,000 visitors Resumption
Sister Act Alan Menken , Glenn Slater September 15, 2011 December 31, 2012 is based on the film of the same name with Whoopi Goldberg
Naturally blond Laurence O'Keefe , Nell Benjamin February 21, 2013 20th December 2013 is based on the film of the same name with Reese Witherspoon
The visit of the old lady Christian Struppeck , Moritz Schneider 19th February 2014 June 29, 2014 120 performances + 5 previews / approx. 114,000 visitors In-house production / co-production with the Seefestspiele Thun
Mary Poppins Cameron Mackintosh , Disney October 1, 2014 January 31, 2016 371 performances +10 previews / approx. 366,000 visitors German-language premiere
Evita Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice March 9, 2016 December 31, 2016 185 performances + 3 previews / approx. 148,000 visitors
Don Camillo and Peppone Michael Kunze, Dario Farino January 27, 2017 June 25, 2017 117 performances + 2 previews In-house production / co-production with the St. Gallen Theater
Bodyguard Alexander Dinelaris September 27, 2018 June 30, 2019 273 performances + 5 previews / approx. 260,000 visitors based on the film of the same name with Whitney Houston

literature

Web links

Commons : Etablissement Ronacher  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ st – g .:  Small Chronicle. (…) The battle between variety and theater. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 16082/1909, May 30, 1909, p. 15, top center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  2. ^ Stephan Templ , Tina Walzer : Our Vienna. "Aryanization" in Austrian. Construction Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-351-02528-9 . P. 212.
  3. ↑ Eva Offenthaler: A person in his contradiction: the master stemmer, manufacturer and variety owner Bernhard Labriola . Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Modern and Contemporary History Research (INZ), biography of the month August 2015.
  4. ↑ Affidavit by nephew Adolf Glücksmann in the files of the Property Control Sub-Section of the US military government (access after free registration)
  5. ↑ Ronacher with a new interior city hall correspondence from June 27, 2008 (accessed on June 17, 2010).
  6. ↑ Functional renovation Ronacher .

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 19 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 30 ″  E