Column “The Classic” (Episode 17): Berlin vs. Broadway

Broadway, London’s West End and Las Vegas – these are twinkling fixed stars when it comes to live entertainment. And yet these entertainment hotspots cannot claim all superlatives for themselves. The largest show stage in the world, for example, can be found in Berlin. In the Friedrichstadt Palace.

And no commercially operated theater could handle such a lavishly staffed production as Barrie Kosky’s “La Cage aux Folles” at the Komische Oper. Just like the monster revues on Friedrichstrasse, this is only possible with government support.

Full stage, full of fun

When the curtain rises, the stage of the Komische Oper is full, a dozen dancers and 25 extras whirl across the boards, 27 choirs sing, and conductor Koen Schoots lets the Jerry Herman Melodies sparkle.

“No producer on Broadway,” says Kosky, “could ever afford that.” In New York one can be happy when 13 musicians sit in a ditch while a smaller cast acts on stage. Presenting musical classics in the original version, as the composers once dreamed of, is only possible with the German subsidy system.

People in the USA look enviously at Germany

Barrie Kosky is grateful for that. His grandiose interpretations of “Anatevka”, “West Side Story” and “Kiss me, Kate” were hits with audiences, “La Cage aux Folles” is currently sold out – and more shows are to follow.

All musical makers who have to get money from investors for their art look with envy at the situation in Berlin – while German academics continue to turn their noses up at the genre. A snobbery that upsets Barrie Kosky: because what is supposed to be a typical American art form is in fact the natural progression of European operetta, largely influenced by Jewish artists who had to flee Nazi Germany.

Incidentally, in the new “Romeo and Juliet” musical at the Theater des Westens, produced under the conditions of the free market, five musicians are sitting in the orchestra pit – including the conductor.

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