Thomas Krauth

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Thomas Krauth (born November 8, 1953 in Eberbach ) is a German entrepreneur, art dealer and former musical producer.

Career

Krauth grew up with two brothers in Eberbach, Baden. After graduating from high school, he went to Heidelberg to study law and during this time worked as a freelancer and “girl for everything” for a concert promoter. He gained his first experience at concerts by the Rolling Stones , Rod Stewart & The Faces , Genesis , the British rock band Wishbone Ash and many others. During these years he met Michael Brenner , who later also became a producer in the entertainment industry, and was on friendly terms with him until his death in 2011. Michael Brenner died at the age of 59 as a result of a traffic accident.

In addition to music, Thomas Krauth also dealt intensively with art and culture. He chose this route and dropped out of law school. In 1981 he opened the art auction house Th. Krauth Antiques and Auctions in Düsseldorf , in which the British auction house "Phillips Son & Neale" took part in 1990, which at the time was the third largest auction house in the world. From then on, Thomas Krauth's auction house operated under the name “Phillips Germany”.

At the same time, the entrepreneur organized musicals , concerts and ballet performances in the eighties, especially in Düsseldorf and Cologne . For example Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in the Philipshalle Düsseldorf, the musical Harlem Swing (originally: Five Guys named Moe) with the new metropolitan jazz style "Harlem Jump" in the Philharmonie Cologne and performances by the Russian star ballerina Maja Plissetskaja in the Tonhalle Düsseldorf .

In 1993 Thomas Krauth parted ways with the Phillips auction house and took part in Michael Brenner's concert agency “BB Promotion”. In search of innovative and top-class live entertainment, he bought English-language shows and musicals, mostly produced in the USA, until 1995 and performed them exclusively in German-speaking countries in renowned theaters.

For example, he brought George and Ira Gershwin's musical My One and Only and their opera Porgy & Bess to guest performances lasting several weeks on the major theaters in Berlin , Cologne , Frankfurt , Munich , Hamburg and Vienna . Also the ballet pieces Carmen Flamenco and Bolero by the Spanish dancer and choreographer Rafael Aguilar. The music manager also secured the rights to concerts in German-speaking countries for the Harlem Gospel Singers , which are known worldwide today .

Tour events with world stars such as Shirley McLaine , Diana Ross or the American ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov also took place during this time, as did concerts with Guns N 'Roses and Bryan Adams .

In 1995 the music manager acquired the rights to the musical Grease and from now on concentrated on the subjects of "musicals", "own productions" and "theater". For this reason he got out of the Mannheim concert agency "BB Promotion", but remained in business with his friend Michael Brenner .

In North Rhine-Westphalia, Thomas Krauth acquired a total of three theaters in 1995: the Capitol Theater in his adopted home Düsseldorf (1995), the Musical Dome in Cologne (1998) and the Starlight Express Theater in Bochum (2002). In the musical theaters he realized his corporate philosophy, in which the highest possible customer satisfaction, economic independence and control over the so-called "value chain" played a central role.

The ticket sales in these theaters, the catering and the merchandise remained centrally in one hand. Thomas Krauth's sales company "TKS Ticketservice" has developed into one of the largest concert providers in Germany with its website "kartenkaufen.de" and with over a million tickets sold per year.

With the three large theaters in North Rhine-Westphalia and numerous musical productions that the music manager presented or produced, Thomas Krauth and his group of companies established themselves as a permanent fixture in the music theater landscape.

Musical productions in theaters in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Bochum

After Thomas Krauth and Michael Brenner took over the Capitol Theater in Düsseldorf, they converted it into the first musical theater in the state capital. They opened the house on January 20, 1996 with the great en-suite musical Grease , which with three years of play and around 1.2 million visitors gave Düsseldorf a place in the ranks of renowned musical cities.

In 1997 a second, smaller theater hall was created in the Capitol Theater. The “Club”, in which young, committed artists were given the opportunity to present their own projects and realize their artistic ideas, had around 400 seats. In this “creativity room”, productions such as Godspell (1997), Forever Plaid (1997) or Schlaflos in Düsseldorf (1997) were realized - this is where the foundation stone was laid for the long-standing, friendly collaboration with the Viennese director Alex Balga and the musical -Artist Anna Montanaro . Both can look forward to an international career today, but have always remained closely connected to the Capitol Theater and other engagements.

In 1998/99 Krauth also produced the Rocky Horror Show in the "Club" under the direction of Matthias Davids and from 1999 to 2001 the Kander Ebb musical Cabaret under the direction of Alex Balga . Anna Montanaro starred in "Sally Bowles" after she was celebrated on London's West End in Chicago . The production received a broad and positive media response.

Thomas Krauth also produced the one-woman show Anna Montanaro - Live (2002) and the world premiere of the musical Das Mädchen Rosemarie (2004) in the “Club” of the Capitol Theater . The girl Rosemarie tells the story of the noble prostitute Rosemarie Nitribitt . The musical is based on the post-war novel by Erich Kuby and was premiered under the direction of Dirk Witthuhn and with music by Heribert Feckler.

In the large theater hall, which had around 1,200 seats, Grease was followed by the musical Rent (1999), which was produced jointly with Marek Lieberberg and won four Tony Awards . Together with producers Barry and Fran Weissler, Thomas Krauth showed the original Broadway staging of the classic Chicago (2001), the premiere of the dance musical Miami Nights (2002-2004) as a self -production and also presented the original production of Cats in 2004/2005 Capitol Theater .

Together with the star chef Alfons Schuhbeck , Thomas Krauth also designed a musical dinner show. Under the culinary leadership of the well-known chef, musical hits and culinary art came together in an entertaining show from 2004 onwards under the titles Tonight , Last Christmas or That's Life . 

In addition to music theater productions, the Düsseldorf producer also established the lecture series “Düsseldorfer Speeches zu Kultur & Wirtschaft” (1998–2001) with selected representatives from culture, business and politics. The forum, which took place under the patronage of the then Prime Minister Wolfgang Clement , was held in the Capitol Theater in Düsseldorf.

In 1998 the theater maker acquired the Musical Dome in Cologne. Here he and Michael Brenner, in collaboration with the original producer Robert Stigwood, produced the dance musical Saturday Night Fever as a large en-suite production - and as a German premiere. Krauth and Brenner had already worked as co-producers for the world premiere in London in 1998. In around three years, from September 11, 1999 to June 30, 2002, over a million visitors saw the stage version of the Bee Gees musical in Cologne.

Other highlights were the musical producer Frank Wildhorns Jekyll & Hyde (2003/2004), the Queen musical We Will Rock You (2004-2008) produced by Michael Brenner and the German premiere of the musical Spamalot (2009) by the British comedian Group Monty Python on stage in the Cologne Musical Dome .

In 2002 Thomas Krauth and his business partner Andrea Friedrichs took over the roller-skating musical Starlight Express in Bochum and helped it to grow in success with artistic innovations and creative marketing measures. In 2008 Starlight Express celebrated its 20th birthday and is considered the most successful musical in the world, which is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records . At that time, over 12 million visitors had attended the unique stage show - today there are more than 16 million.

In 2005, the Starlight Express producer and the artists received a special award. For 400,000 live albums sold in 17 years, the successful musical received a platinum CD from Universal Music .

Also in 2005, Thomas Krauth received the honorary award of the “Bochumer Marketing Club” in his capacity as Starlight Express producer. He was honored for his commitment to the “unique musical theater” and the associated commitment to the Bochum region.

One of these creative marketing ideas was implemented in 2004, for example: The car company Ford brought a limited edition special model “Starlight Express” onto the market. Scenes from the musical were also integrated into the corresponding commercials. In 2008 there was another special feature: In the ZDF program “ Musical-Showstar ”, actors were wanted for the two Starlight Express leading roles “Rusty” and “Pearl”. The multi-part casting show was moderated by Thomas Gottschalk .

Tour productions and guest performances in other cities

Following the multi-year en-suite seasons in his own theaters, Thomas Krauth produced tour productions of both Saturday Night Fever and the 1980s musical Miami Nights , as guest performances of several weeks at the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Deutsches Theater in Munich , in the Ronacher Vienna , in the Musical Theater Basel and in the Admiralspalast Berlin . The musical entrepreneur also brought another production of Grease on stage, which played from September to December 1998 in front of a sold-out house in the Theater des Westens in Berlin.

His Düsseldorf cabaret production with Anna Montanaro in the leading role was invited to a guest performance at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg in 2000 and played there for three weeks.

In 2009 Thomas Krauth handed over the musical company and the associated ticketing to producer Maik Klokow , but remained the owner of the Capitol Theater and until 2011 managing director of Starlight Express . Since 2009, Maik Klokow and his group of companies “ Mehr! Entertainment “the Capitol Theater , the Musical Dome and Starlight Express - together with other theaters.

Today Thomas Krauth is a world traveler and loves to play golf. He lives in Phuket (Thailand) and in Düsseldorf . His private interests are still in art and music.

CD publications

Under the label “Heartbeat Records”, Thomas Krauth published through his company “Th. Krauth GmbH “several CDs, among others on Saturday Night Fever , Miami Nights , Das Mädchen Rosemarie and Tonight .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf (ed.): Hundred Düsseldorf heads . ISBN 3-7700-1193-7 .
  2. ↑ Birgit Wanninger: Thomas Krauth: The musical maker. In: Rheinische Post. January 19, 2006, accessed March 29, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Sebastian Feldmann: Puppets with Pep. Masteroffs, Kanders and Ebbs Musical "Cabaret" in the Capitol Theater Düsseldorf . In: Rheinische Post . December 10, 1999.
  4. ↑ Andreas Rossmann: shadow bloom. The chamber musical "Cabaret" in Düsseldorf . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 10, 2000.
  5. ↑ Ilse Brusis (Minister for Economy, Culture and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia): “Culture and Economy. The redefinition of a tense relationship. ” In: Capitol Theater Düsseldorf (Ed.): Düsseldorfer speeches on culture & economy . tape 1 , 1998.
  6. ↑ Georg Weishaupt: Bookkeeper of dreams. Thomas Krauth is a musical producer. The new piece “Jekyll & Hyde” starts on Sunday. In: Handelsblatt, Düsseldorf . March 14, 2003.
  7. ^ Rolf Hartmann: Starlight license for Krauth: Musical future in Bochum is considered secure . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . July 13, 2002.
  8. ↑ Record musical: Starlight Express in the Guiness Book of Records. In: Ruhr news. Retrieved March 29, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Rita Utzenrath, Yvonne Quadt: On roller skates to global success: 20 years of Starlight Express live in Bochum. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8375-0001-1 .
  10. ↑ Starlight Express website. Retrieved March 29, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Platinum for the Starlight Express. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . December 17, 2005.
  12. ↑ Marketing Prize to Thomas Krauth . In: Welt am Sonntag . November 20, 2005.
  13. ↑ Marion Meyer: “You have to take every risk artistically”. Thomas Krauth has been running the Capitol Theater for ten years. The musicals from "Grease" to "Saturday Night Fever" have seen three million viewers so far. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung . January 19, 2006.
  14. ↑ Volker Albers: 165 centimeters Diva from Gifhorn. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . June 24, 2000.
  15. ↑ Klokow becomes managing director at Krauth. In: musicalzentrale.de. March 29, 2008. Retrieved March 29, 2017 .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Krauth, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, art dealer and musical producer
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Eberbach , Baden-Wuerttemberg