Gästebuch

Wonderful performance tonight! The audience, including myself, were completely drawn into the story and the music. From start to finish, everything was very professional to the point where we forgot we were watching a performance, forgot to applaud, and instead felt we were sitting in the living room of Roger and Mark. I am especially impressed with the stage presence and charisma I saw onstage. Pia Oberhof as „Joanne“ radiated her character at such a professional, convincing level that the audience identified completely with Joanne even at curtain call! Georg Graefe played a very likeable and emotional Mark; we felt his pain and isolation and sense of injustice, but also patience and care for his friends. Speaking of pain and isolation, the dramatic scenes of loss of both Angel and Mimi (both played to perfection by Christian Fessler and Susanne Müller) left me absolutely in tears, and my emotions were mirrored in the faces of those left behind on stage — the anguish of Stefan Valdés Tittel’s character Roger as Mimi returns only to be lost forever and his rising to the fear of loss and love — palpable! The tragedy and grief of Christian Haag’s Tom Collins as he helplessly cradles Angel in her last hours and days and sings about his lingering committment after her death, and draws hope and inspiration from his own grief because it springs from love — this was written on his face. Show-stealers are of course Christina Szlopp as Maureen and Christian Fessler as Angel, given the nature of their characters, but also the uninhibited embodiment of those characters by the actors. Truly impressive. The band was fantastic, the pacing superb, the singing was dramatically good, the choreography was interesting and sophisticated and fed the story. I could go on and on. Lighting, sound, costumes, staging, set, props, all of it was really top-notch. I drove in specially from Frankfurt for the performance, and I am glad I did — it will stay with me for a very long time! Great job all around. I could feel the passion on stage for the music, the characters, the human emotion behind it all, and the true teamwork that it took to put it together. Bravo!