In the musical, Lucheni is our narrator who throughout the show tries to convince us Elisabeth is a horrible person (think Che from Evita), and all the while Death (yes, literally, DEATH), or "Der Tod" is personified as a dark magical man who is Elisabeth's lover (think Jareth the Goblin King).
And my thoughts?
First, lets look at the Actors. Maya H. is on the borderline of okay to fantastic as the title role. Her Elisabeth is complex and even dark, with a lust for life, despite its pain. She can flexibly portray the age range of 15 to 60. But she's not my favorite. She tends to get a tad too intense with both her singing and acting. I adored Serkan Kaya as Lucheni. He is a blast to watch and his belt is a wonder to the eardrums. For a matter of time, he convinced me that Elisabeth deserved what she got! After watching him and comparing him to some other Luchenis, I could not imagine anyone else playing him! I enjoyed Mate Kamaras as the passionate , manipulative, and sometimes even charming Der Tod. His performance of "Der Letze Tanz" is one of the funnest villain songs I think I've ever heard. Andre Baures made a sweet, loving Franz Josef. He made me believe that if he was not born into royalty, his marriage with Elisabeth could have worked! Else Ludwig's performance as Sophie, Franz's mother, makes you want to crush her guts, but Sophie is supposed to be just as sympathetic and complex as Elisabeth. Ludwig only showed us the evil in-law.
The Songs and Dances? The music. kicks. TAIL. There are heavy ballads (Ich Gehor nur Mir), epic chorus numbers (the "Prolog"), light-hearted diddy's ("Wie Du"), and that's just to name a few. My favorite song is probably "Die Schatten Werden Langer" The darkness and intensity in the song's execution...is...for lack of a better word, epic. The choreography of quick, mechanical movements seem really weird at first, but I realized it symbolized the puppetry and routine of court life and it grew on me.
The Sets and Staging...well, lets just say money is spent extravagantly and it shows. The coolest is the bridge that is lowered down throughout the show. Although a lot of numbers consist of conversations and flashes of events of years going by, the use of moving stage, and scrim, make it pleasant to watch. Although the horses used in "Wie oder sie" were awkward and dorky. If it was supposed to be like a chessboard, why not make them actual chess pieces?
The only problem I have is that in the book, Elisabeth falls in love with Der Tod only after he just catches her and carries her to bed. Its the superficial "love at first sight" cliche we have seen a number of times already.But not only does she love him, but she jumps to the conclusion that he is the only one who understands her (even though its unclear if they even talked before) just because she felt free in his arms. If it was implied more that she knew him her whole life since she was a child (like Rudolf), it would have worked better. But, to be fair, the relationship is supposed to be more metaphorical than real.
Overall, I loved Elisabeth. Its sometimes pretty cheesy, but the cheese never really bothered me as much as other musicals and even movies have. I am a sucker for darker, bigger musicals, and this was no exception. It has the same sort of grand scale as an Andrew Lloyd Weber show, so if this is the kind of musical you enjoy, then you should definitely check it out. Elisabeth Das Musical is just as tragic, beautiful,and proud as the Empress herself.
