The original as you say is a mixture of comedy and drama but there is A LOT of comedy -, you have a man carrying another frozen man on his back, villagers singing about garlic and then the dude arriving with the frozen guy and everybody reacting like it’s conpleteny normally and that’s just the first five minutes. The broadway production is bad, it missed the mark but if the original production had been presented as it was in Germany in would’ve died a death on broadway because that style of comedy (like in many other German/Russian/French) musicals is awkward in English. What it needed was an adaptation where the creative team understood the original intent and tweaked and cajoled the original into something more palatable for broadway. However that takes skill. It takes skill to look at a song like the villagers garlic number and say ‘what is funny about this in German and why?’ Then create a set of lyrics that are not a direct translation but honour the original intent. That’s what tHis needed. But the problem with doing that is the interpretation of the Count. Playing a role completely straight amidst a sea of comedy seems to work in foreign language movies, plays, musicals - it’s a cultural thing. It just doesn’t sit well in an English translation. Mixing high drama and comedy in English always just ends up looking silly or completely uneven. I can understand why Michael Crawford panicked during the lead up to Broadway and why the tone of the show needed to be more even. He isn’t wrong, for it to work on a commercial level with English speaking audiences the tone needs to be more even. However they absolutely screwed up and the tone is just as uneven as beguile expect now we have straight faced Vampire dance sequences and then parody

maribelka65 agree. The German production was legendary

Anastasia Cooper It's from Austria

In all honesty, I feel it might have meant to be a parody.

@@schnitzel_linski there is also a German translation version

TRUE! I'd have died to see him play a vampire regardless if how bad it was! And I'm sure if I knew German, I could enjoy the original. So right NOW, I'm watching Michael, here, for the first time in DOTV. Just gotta hear his voice despite all else. 😍💘💘💋💋💋

The original is a comedy, you have a man carrying another frozen man on his back, villagers singing about garlic and then the dude arriving with the frozen guy and everybody reacting like it’s conpleteny normally and that’s just the first five minutes. The broadway production is bad, it missed the mark but if the original production had been presented as it was in Germany in would’ve died a death on broadway because that style of comedy (like in many other German/Russian/French) musicals is awkward in English. What it needed was an adaptation where the creative team understood the original intent and tweaked and cajoled the original into something more palatable for broadway. However that takes skill. It takes skill to look at a song like the villagers garlic number and say ‘what is funny about this in German and why?’ Then create a set of lyrics that are not a direct translation but honour the original intent. That’s what tHis needed.

Gottseidank gab es erst die deutschsprachige Version....dieses "Verbrechen" an dem Musical war gottseidank erst viel später...

I hate to say it but this debacle is largely Michael's fault. I read somewhere that they were going to do the show as a replica of the German production but Michael didn't want to play another "Phantom"-like character (mysterious, sensual, conflicted, etc) so soon after Phantom and made them change the show. Star power like that must be nice to have...

Crawford did not get that his previous phantom character was perfect for the Krolock character. So much lost potential. I wish Steve would have done it.

I suspected but wasn't sure, thank you! 😂

not really he could not come back to th states cause of some court case

@@lowtiershadowyt9008 Jim Steinman is the Composer ... The guy with the legal issues is the director/writer of the Film and Musical Roman Polanski

Please do your self a favor and watch the original austrian version its way better🤣

@@mseb3909 nawww i did

yes I see ... I heard Steve Barton portrayed this character in that version and he was brilliant . It's like Raoul was more interesting than the phantom this time 😂 love them both

@Anjelica Snorcket 👌🏻❤

Nobody’s perfect. 😂😂😂

So?

A lot of the fault with the failure of DOTV is because of Michael Crawford. The producers wanted a HUGE name above the title and Michael wouldn't do it as written in Tanz because the character was too much like the Phantom. He wanted it to be a comedy and wanted that ridiculous Italian accent.

Gene Elliott WELL HE SHOULD HAVE WENT BACK TO PHANTOM 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway sucked. The earlier version is much better. And, the Dance of the Vampires (Tanz der Vampire) franchise has been tremendously more successful than anything Frank Wildhorn has done.

To be fair quite a few Krolock actors that were very popular overseas have played Phantom in their productions.

To be fair quite a few Krolock actors that were very popular overseas have played Phantom in their productions.

Oh ja,ist traurig sowas tolles umzuändern

he fucked up one og the most popular musicals in history

You can't really steal something when you are the one who wrote. Jim Steinmein wrote the song and used a lot of his songs in this musical.

Heehee, yyyeaahhhhh, right after I posted the comment I looked up more info, My bad. :D

The original is a mixture of comedy and drama but there is A LOT of comedy -, you have a man carrying another frozen man on his back, villagers singing about garlic and then the dude arriving with the frozen guy and everybody reacting like it’s conpleteny normally and that’s just the first five minutes. The broadway production is bad, it missed the mark but if the original production had been presented as it was in Germany in would’ve died a death on broadway because that style of comedy (like in many other German/Russian/French) musicals is awkward in English. What it needed was an adaptation where the creative team understood the original intent and tweaked and cajoled the original into something more palatable for broadway. However that takes skill. It takes skill to look at a song like the villagers garlic number and say ‘what is funny about this in German and why?’ Then create a set of lyrics that are not a direct translation but honour the original intent. That’s what tHis needed. But the problem with doing that is the interpretation of the Count. Playing a role completely straight amidst a sea of comedy seems to work in foreign language movies, plays, musicals - it’s a cultural thing. It just doesn’t sit well in an English translation. Mixing high drama and comedy in English always just ends up looking silly or completely uneven. I can understand why Michael Crawford panicked during the lead up to Broadway and why the tone of the show needed to be more even. He isn’t wrong, for it to work on a commercial level with English speaking audiences the tone needs to be more even. However they absolutely screwed up and the tone is just as uneven as beguile expect now we have straight faced Vampire dance sequences and then parody

even after this i am still a fan! its michael freakin crawford!