Top 5 Frank Wildhorn Disappointments

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about music theory and I'm sure it shows in this post. Please correct me and educate me if you see me using any wrong terms!

Over the past couple of years, I've turned into a fan of composer Frank Wildhorn.

The weird things is that I do not think any of Wildhorn's musicals are especially brilliant. Quite the contrary, actually. I dislike his dull love triangles and his flat female characters, and I'm not too fond of his tendency to reuse his own melodies either. And yet, despite that, his shows make me happy. A true love-hate relationship here.

But about that melody reusing. Ever since first listening to Jekyll & Hyde and thinking that hey, doesn't this sound like the Dracula song I heard a while ago... Spotting melodies familiar from other Wildhorn musicals has become something of a hobby for me. I feel a pang of both victory and disappointment every time I notice a new instance of repeated melodies. Sure, every other musical composer recycles material. But good ol' Wildhorn has some especially blatant reused moments.

Here is my top five list of the most disappointing times Frank Wildhorn has reused his own tunes in his musicals... so far. 

#5: Someone Like You (1987) / Someone Like You (1990 onwards) – Jekyll & Hyde

Listening to Jekyll & Hyde the musical, it's easy to think of Someone Like You as the defining song for Lucy. It's a soaring song that highlights not only her love towards Jekyll but also her personality and her situation in life – a song about a hopeless dreamer living a nightmare and finally seeing a way out. My heart would take wing and I'd feel so alive / If someone like you loved me...

Or so I used to think, before I found out that on the 1987 concept album, Someone Like You used to be Emma and Jekyll's duet. With almost exactly the same lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, too. This is a different sort of recycling than the rest of this list, but disappointing in its own right anyway. It just doesn't feel right. This was supposed to be Lucy's moment, not something written with Emma and Jekyll in mind!

Oh well. It's a pretty song in any case, got to give it that.

#4: Life After Life (Dracula) / Finish What You Started (Rudolf)

Also listen to this version with an orchestration reminiscent of Dracula.

In and of itself, Rudolf the musical is a huge disappointment. Most Wildhorn shows are bad in a silly, enjoyable way – but this one about Austria-Hungary's ill-fated crown prince is just terrible. Laura puts it well in her review: In short, the musical sucks. It has some nice songs and moments, but overall it sucks. From twisting history to romanticising suicide, it's awful.

To have a tune lifted from a better Wildhorn show slapped in the middle of all that sludge...

Life After Life is Dracula the musical's first act finale. It's a nice tune about Dracula wanting to suck the whole London dry. In Rudolf, a part of Life After Life makes a cameo in a scene where Crown Prince Rudolf discusses revolutionary affairs with his countrymen.

The whole melody is not lifted from one musical to another. The similarities are actually almost subtle enough for these to sounds like two completely different songs – almost. This is something Wildhorn does often, lifting bits and pieces from his previous shows and disguising them as new tunes. Shame he doesn't quite manage to fool the listener here.

#3: His Work and Nothing More (Jekyll & Hyde) / Nosferatu (Dracula)

Jekyll & Hyde the musical and Dracula the musical take place in the same universe and no one can convince me otherwise. Think about it! Gothic tales, both set in 19th century London, Mr. Hyde and Count Dracula terrorising the city together... They're such a good match they even share parts of the same melody.

This is another pair that is not quite the same but still too close for comfort. His Work and Nothing More is a quartet where Jekyll's loved ones worry about him. Nosferatu is a cautionary solo about the dangers of the undead ones. Try singing Utterson's it's like when love dies line on top of Professor van Helsing, the word dies falling on the same beat as the last syllable of the word "Nosferatu" – you'll notice the similarity right away.

This is the first Wildhorn repeat I ever noticed. Figuring out the connection in between these two was such a victorious moment the triumph almost washed away the disappointment, actually.

#2:  Only Love (The Scarlet Pimpernel) / Only Love (Rudolf)

Now we're just being lazy. This is the exact same song popping up in two different musicals.

Only Love is not included in the most recent script edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel anymore. It is, however, recorded on the musical's original Broadway cast recording. I haven't seen it in context, but I assume it's the leading lady Marguerite pining after her estranged husband Percy... So no wonder it was removed, I think there are three other songs like that in the show already. In Rudolf, it's Baroness Mary Vetsera serenading her titular royal lover.

This combo gets extra disappointment points for recycling not only the song's title, but also Nan Knighton's exact same lyrics from The Scarlet Pimpernel's OBC to Rudolf's English demo. The lyrics are so incredibly vague they fit two completely different musicals.

Though, to be honest... Wildhorn's love stories are all practically interchangeable anyway, so maybe it's not too surprising. Don't turn away, it's only love – there's a motto that suits all his romances. Wonder if this will be recycled to a third show sometimes soon.

#1: Falcon in the Dive (The Scarlet Pimpernel) / Hell to Your Doorstep (The Count of Monte Cristo)

Falcon in the Dive is a memorable showtune. The villain Chauvelin is by far the most fascinating character in The Scarlet Pimpernel, and here, he gets to rage about the titular Pimpernel to his heart's content. No wonder Falcon pops up in musical concerts all over – be it Norm Lewis or a Finnish theatre student singing the song.

So why on earth would you reuse a melody as memorable as this one as the showstopper in another show? Falcon returns as a part of The Count of Monte Cristo's first act finale Hell to Your Doorstep, where the titular character rages about his hatred towards the world in general.

Granted, it's again not the whole tune – rather, it's just the fast-paced bit at the very beginning of the songs. But even so, it's recognisable enough to feel like a slap in the face. Start singing either song's lyrics on top of the other right from the start to test it for yourself. The word "moment" even falls on the exact same place in both songs! Aaargh!

Since Falcon is easily my number one Wildhorn song, this is especially disappointing for me and therefore deserves the number one spot.

To end on a loving note, however... If you ever happen to meet him, say hello to Mr. Wildhorn for me and let him know that despite all this, I truely enjoy his musicals. The musical world would be a lot duller place without him.

Repeated tunes and all.

Meeting Count Dracula

It began, as many good things have, with Turun kaupunginteatteri's Jekyll & Hyde.

What do you do when a musical you love closes and you cannot watch it live again? Wallow in sadness and nostalgia, probably... but maybe also search Youtube for videos from other productions? That's what I and my friend did after seeing our last Jekyll & Hyde last spring. And after watching all manner of disappointing and bizarre bootlegs of Dr. Jekyll's story, we turned our attention to other musicals by Frank Wildhorn.

We watched Dracula, but that was hardly the reason we spent last weekend in Pforzheim, Germany. Instead, The Scarlet Pimpernel's to blame.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is not a good musical. The German production we found on Youtube was, we thought, largely horrendous goo. The mix of humor and drama was imbalanced, half of the cast not to our tastes, the amount of boring love songs almost unbearable, the plot almost incomprehensible. A complete mess, to be honest.

But in the middle of all that awful, there was this awesome-meets-insane revolutionary character who opposed the titular hero in a really sarcastic, determined, energetic manner. During one glorious scene, he even climbed on a table and wrapped himself in the flag of the republic while loudly shouting about his mission.

After suffering through the rest of the musical, we had to find out more about Chris Murray.

It turned out Youtube's full of Murray's performances. After marathoning some videos, it turned out we like him in pretty much everything he's done. And so, in less than two months after finding out the man exists, we booked our tickets to see him live in Theater Pforzheim. As Count Dracula in the Wildhorn musical, no less.

I have a love-hate relationship with Frank Wildhorn's musicals.

I don't really like any of them. They're all full of plot holes, silly lyrics and songs already featured in other shows. No matter which show, half of the songs sound the same. But a good production can sometimes transform the mediocre material, and that's where the love stems from.

Pforzheim's Dracula did something right. The show's still what it is, with its endless love songs and predictable melodrama... But it's also good. I found the direction's balance in between serious and silly perfect, and the characters felt more interesting than I thought was possible. The whole show was better than I expected it could be.

Seeing a solid production of the musical was an additional bonus, though. We were there for one reason.

It was odd seeing someone live I've only seen in videos before. Being a fan of Finnish musicals, this doesn't happen, since there are no bootlegs of Finnish theatre online. Sometimes, you can see Finnish TV or movie actors onstage, but that's hardly the same as seeing someone live whose stage musical performances you have already watched.

Chris Murray was just as amazing live as on recordings.

I didn't have words back in Pforzheim. Now, a week later, I still don't.

He was good.

It was nice really going to a German theatre after being a fan of German musicals for years. It was almost as fun observing the audience as it was watching the show. The applause and especially the curtain call were really enthusiastic, that's something we reserved Finns aren't used to. It was also fun going to the stagedoor after the show to actually meet our favourite performer. That's another rather foreign thing to us reserved Finns...

Maybe I should also say something about the musical itself.

I got the feeling the creative team had read their Dracula the novel. The character of Professor van Helsing, played by Jon Geoffrey Goldsworthy, felt particularily true to the book. What's more, the production made me invested in characters I didn't think I could care for. Hats off to Thomas Christ for a touching portrayal of Jonathan Harker – thanks for making shivers run down my spine during what I used to think was the most boring solo of the whole show.

This was a musical trip to remember. I'm crossing my fingers this wasn't my last time in a German theatre. And I hope it wasn't my last time seeing Chris Murray live, either!

To end this post, here are three of my favourite Chris Murray videos. I went to Pforzheim after watching these. Let me know if they take you on a journey, too.

The best Falcon in the Dive ever.

My favourite Confrontation. (Watch the full show for the ultimate experience.)

Okay, this is an audio recording, but nevertheless – my favourite song from Dracula.

Photos from Theater Pforzheim's Facebook.
Also check out: another review of the production.

Countdown to Dracula

I'm going to see Dracula the musical in Germany next weekend.

I'm not a Dracula fan. As I mentioned a while ago, I didn't even finish the book. I don't really adore the musical, either – it's nice, but not on my favourites list. Instead, it's the man playing the Count who made me want to book the flights... but more about that later.

In any case, I've been trying to get into the right mindset before the vampire trip. My bedtime stories have consisted fully of Dracula during the past few weeks. Now, I'm going to share the two gems I've read with you!

Major, major spoilers ahead.

The first book I read was Dracula's "official sequel", Dracula the Un-Dead by the original author's great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker and screenwriter Ian Holt.

This book is incredible. It's the very worst book I've ever read in my life.

Some books are bad because they're boring. But not Dracula the Un-Dead! It has a fast tempo and many, many exciting events – it hits a new, unbelievable low every five pages. My friends who saw me reading it can attest that during some of the twists and turns, facepalming with both hands wasn't enough. Every now and then, I had to rest my head on the table for a moment to calm down.

The book is set 25 years after the events of Dracula. It shows what has happened to the characters from the classic novel, and also introduces a couple of new faces. Like Mina and Jonathan's son Quincey Harker, the serial killers Elizabeth Báthory and Jack the Ripper, a Romanian actor called Basarab who's totally not a vampire count at all...

Dracula the Un-Dead is a wild ride that takes every chance to insult the reader's intelligence.

We find out that Mina has stayed young all these years because, having drunk Dracula's blood that one time, she now has immortality coursing through her veins. She's also still in love with her "Dark Prince".

And indeed, she has every reason to adore Dracula. Did you know that the Count was good all along? He only drinks blood from criminals and proclaims himself as a warrior of God. How about his fear of holy symbols? Nah, Bram Stoker just got that wrong in his book. Yes, good ol' Bram appears as a character in Dracula the Un-Dead. It is revealed he didn't come up with the plot of his famous novel himself at all. Instead, he got it from some drunk he met at a bar.

The drunk later turns out to be Professor van Helsing. Who then turns into a vampire, and enjoys the feeling of being undead.

In the grand finale of the story, we have Dracula telling "I am your father" to Mina's son. After this totally unpredictable revelation, the remaining handful of the novel's cast fall of a cliff. Heck, the bodycount simply wasn't high enough already! People were trampled, staked, decapitated, burned or bitten only once per every ten pages. The only character to survive is Dracula Junior.

As an epilogue, the son of Dracula wants to start a new life in the United States – and boards the RMS Titanic to travel across the Atlantic.

The authors' notes at the end make it clear this is not a parody.

Official sequel indeed. If the co-author was anyone else but Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, I'm certain this book would have never hit the shelves. I'm kind of glad it did, though, because you rarely get to read a real printed book as crazy as this one.

To rinse the official sequel out of my brain, I returned to an old favourite. When I was younger, I loved Angela Sommer-Bodenburg's Anton und der kleine Vampir: Die Reise zu Graf Dracula, or The Little Vampire Meets Count Dracula.

The Little Vampire series is about Anton, whose best friend Rüdiger is a vampire. This installment focuses on Anton and his family's trip to Transylvania. Rüdiger has just moved to the land of his ancestors, and Anton wishes their paths will cross during the vacation. The friends indeed meet each other again, and Anton gets invited to a vampire party – a party the famous Count Dracula will also attend.

I wasn't a vampire enthusiast as a kid, but rereading this book, I now understad why I enjoyed it so much. Anton and his family's trip to Romania strongly reminds me of my own family's trips around Europe when I was younger! Endless car rides, sleeping my way through the countryside, seeing sights and staying in hotels and the feeling of being away from home... It's all here.

Reading this ten years ago, I didn't pay attention to the way the novel describes Romania. Now, it feels so dated it's almost funny. I suppose things were different in 1993 when the book was released. But the way the writing heavily underlines the sad state of Romanian plumbing, awful cuisine and hideous poverty of the people... I'd say the novel is a product of its time.

It's more than a travel journal, though. The central conflict of the story is actually about Anton being a human while is friends are immortal. 

Our young hero is deeply fascinated by vampires, but he's determined not to become one. His best friend Rüdiger and Rüdiger's little sister Anna were both bitten at a young age. Anton could choose to stay a child forever and spend an eternity with his best friends (and his vampire friends do remind him of this possibility). But no. Anton has decided to grow up, to live his human life. To embrace his mortality.

At the end of the book, the vampire siblings leave for a journey with their new mentor, Count Dracula. They don't know when they'll return, or if they'll ever come back to Germany where Anton lives. It might take years before the friends meet again. Who knows if Anton will be old when they next see each other – old, while his childhood friends are still and forever young?

The characters actually point this out. At one point, Anna is worried that Anton is changing because he's growing up. I admit I felt genuinely sad while reading this.

When comparing the two sequels I've read, The Little Vampire Meets Count Dracula is by far the more adult and profound story, that's what I'm trying to say.

Also that Dracula the Un-Dead is crap.

Musical Autumn of 2014

The new theatrical season is almost here! I'll start my musical autumn next week, so it's about time to take a look at the upcoming Finnish (and international) musicals.

I have to admit the Finnish ones don't really make me jump with joy.

Taking performance photos was, curiously, not allowed
in TTT's press info. So here's a logo instead.

Good things first: a musical I love is returning to Finland. Out of all the upcoming premieres, I'm the most excited about Tampereen Työväen Teatteri's Evita. It'll be the first time I see a professional Finnish production of one of my all-time favourites.

In TTT's season opening event on Thursday, they performed Buenos Aires. I could already spot a couple of details I loved and some choices that made me a bit wary. I'm sure the finished show will be interesting to watch. To be honest, I'm rather picky about Evita – I have many ideas about how the show should be done, and I doubt any production will ever be exactly as I imagine. But I can't wait to see how this cast and crew will interpret the musical.

Helsingin kaupunginteatteri's upcoming production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (or Miten menestyä vaivatta liike-elämässä, as the confusing title goes in Finnish) looks really cute and stars the amazing Anna Victoria Eriksson. I'm curious and happy to have the chance to see this, yet not overly enthusiastic. Comedy's simply not my favourite genre of musical theatre. No matter how fun the jokes, I still tend to prefer the shows with lots of misery and death!

Lahden kaupunginteatteri's upcoming Chicago also interests me. I have slightly complicated relationship with the theatre. The 2007–2008 Lahti production of Cats was my first Finnish musical love, but ever since, I've mostly felt disappointed by their musicals. But Chicago? At best, it's lots of dark fun, so I can't help hoping. Maybe the Cats magic will finally be back? Even if it isn't, though, it saddens me to know this might be the theatre's last big musical production. A must-see in any case.

Beyond that... My jukebox musical quota for the year is full already, and I'm not usually very into relationship stories (ones without murder and/or supernatural elements, that is), so that pretty much wipes out the rest of southern Finland's repertoire from my list of musicals to look forward to. Sure, I'm going to see more than what I've listed here. But I'm not really counting days to the premieres.

Pictured: my type of a musical.

So. What does a musical fan do if their own country doesn't have shows that interest them? I don't know about you, but for me, it's time for a little European tour. Here's my selection of shows outside the Finnish borders I'm going to see this autumn:

First, The Phantom of the Opera in Estonia. Non-replica productions of Phantom are few and far between, but this new one directed by Georg Malvius will be just a short boat trip away. It'll be very interesting to finally see the story of Phantom from another point of view instead of the original direction. And with new visuals by Ellen Cairns!

Then, a little trip to Pforzheim, Germany. That doesn't really sound like your standard destination for a vacation, but I'm nevertheless going to see the musical Dracula there this November.

I have two reasons. Firstly, ever since falling in love with Jekyll & Hyde, I've been watching a lot of Frank Wildhorn's work. Partially, my love is ironic (see: the part about The Scarlet Pimpernel in my Bucket List post), but even if I often watch Wildhorn shows for the silly parts, I still enjoy them. So it's going to be fun seeing Dracula live.

I'm taking the bingo cards with me.

The bigger reason, however, is that a newfound favourite actor is starring as the lead. I first encountered Chris Murray when I watched that hilarious bootleg of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but since, he has claimed a place on my list of favourite actors. I've never been much of a bootleg person, though. There are plenty of Murray videos online, and they're great, but if all it takes to see him perform live is a weekend trip to Germany... I can't wait to see him as the Count.

And finally, Chicago in Stockholms stadsteater. There's that production coming up in Finland, sure – but the Finnish one doesn't have Chris Killik cast as Mary Sunshine. I've mentioned it before that I and a friend are big fans, so I guess this is reason enough for us to do a little trip to Stockholm again.

It's going to be an exciting autumn after all.

Evita logo by Kari Sunnari.
Dracula photo from Theater Pforzheim's website.

Related: why I'm not that interested in Svenska Teatern's upcoming production of Mamma Mia!
Kurkkaa myös: Being Alive -blogin syksyinen musikaalikatsaus, teatraalista-blogin HKT:n kaudenavajaiskuvat.