Review: Rudolf in Budapest, 15 January 2009
What with the Vienna premiere of Rudolf approaching, I thought some people might be interested to read my review of the Budapest production. This is a slightly edited and shortened version of what I posted in magyar_musicals last month. I discuss both the musical in general and the Budapest production in particular. These are naturally just my opinions and someone else may feel completely differently (hey, there are people who don't hate I Was Born For You!), and I cannot say how different things will be in the Vienna production. But anyway, I thought it might interest someone. Feel free to ask questions.
I have pretty mixed feelings about Rudolf the musical. I enjoyed the performance a lot because there are some excellent scenes and generally it’s wonderfully directed and staged with a great cast who are themselves a good reason for seeing the musical. But there are major problems in the musical itself I can’t help noticing. It's always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, because I'm aware of its flaws but like it anyway. I'm really interested in the historical Crown Prince Rudolf, but as a historical musical this is definitely not on the level of Elisabeth which is astonishingly accurate in covering one person's life despite introducing characters like the personification of Death as her imaginary lover. Rudolf the musical covers only a short period of Rudolf's life but even then gets astonishingly many things wrong - probably not because its writers didn't know the facts but because they simply decided the facts weren't important or wouldn't work and decided to introduce other elements which they thought were better. I really consider the musical a historical fiction that bears an occasional resemblance to real events, not any sort of a biography musical or a somewhat truthful depiction of historical events. And despite being interested in the historical Rudolf, in the musical I'm more interested in secondary characters - who usually also don't bear much resemblance to the historical people they're based on.
The musical does have some advantages as a portrayal of Rudolf. Even if it focuses much on the love story, it also shows that Rudolf had progressive, liberal ideas ahead of his time but was prevented from fulfilling them, and was depressed and wanted to die already before he met Mary Vetsera, the girl he chose to die with. But ultimately, the musical focuses so much on the Rudolf/Mary relationship and represents it in such an idealised form which bears little relation to their real story, that much of the potential value as a depiction of the Crown Prince is lost when so many events have little to do with what actually happened. A great many plot points are based on pure fiction (everyone's plots to get rid of Mary, her inspiring Rudolf to believe in his political ideals again...), and some others on highly controversial theories (the Hungarian conspiracy stuff, hints about Mary's pregnancy, Rudolf's supposed request to the Pope to have his marriage annulled so he could get married with Mary...). I'm also not sure how this is supposedly based on Frederic Morton's "A Nervous Splendour". There are similarities here and there, but mostly they're not very similar and I wonder what Morton really thinks about this story being sold with his name attached to it. It seems to me more like Wildhorn was inspired by that book to think up his own highly romanticized and mostly fictional version of Rudolf and Mary's story, but really didn't use the book as a source material that much.
As a historical musical, it may have some value as a depiction of late 19th century Vienna and that time period in European history in general, as long as you don't expect it to be anything super-deep or accurate. One of the few similarities with Morton's book is that like in it, the real main character of the musical sometimes seems to be the fin de siècle Vienna. The characters mostly have little to do with the historical people, but they do correspond to certain kinds of people that seem important for the late 19th century (or at least how we view it) as well as to our own age, which is why they work to an extent despite not having much to do with history. Rudolf and Mary represent the young idealism that gets destroyed - Rudolf could be said to represent the political idealism and belief in personal integrity, Mary the idealism of emotion. I don't know if the musical attempts to say it but I feel they are destroyed partly because the world is lined up against idealists but also partly because in both characters, the idealism is not tempered enough by reason or supported by the kind of toughness that actually survives the opposition. Taaffe, the Prime Minister and Rudolf's political enemy, the villain of the piece, represent a pragmatic cynicism and political manipulation and opportunism which honestly believes itself to be the only way to be reasonable and sensible, and does not care about the emotions and goals of the young idealists who in its opinion are foolish and dangerous to themselves and others.
Marie Larisch, Mary's friend and Rudolf's cousin who facilitates their relationship and has a hate/passion relationship with Taaffe, seems to represent the sort of person who has already lost her faith and romanticism but would still like to believe in something. The historical Marie Larisch intrigues me, being such a controversial character but also because she lived and grew up in the old world, knowing Elisabeth and Rudolf and such whose lives and deaths could be seen as harbringers of the end of the old world; and she lived on until the new world that came when this old world died, and saw how much it all changed. So she maybe is the closest character to the modern people as she actually did later belong to the new era. Pfeiffer, the puppet player and semi-narrator/commentator of the musical, is the sort of person to whom everything is a game and a joke because otherwise everything would have to be all too serious and that is just unbearable.
Besides the Vienna-as-central-focus thing, the musical bears only a passing resemblance to Morton's book. The time span comes from it, the character of Pfeiffer does (vaguely, at least), and some of the main events and some sentences and ideas here and there. But much is so different, as so many events in the musical are completely made up, very much from the book is left out, and Mary is very differently characterised and her relationship with Rudolf seen differently. Morton views her as an ambitious little opportunist who got entangled in her own web by falling in love with Rudolf when she had gone after him only to secure a good position for herself in society, and maybe even viewed her own death as simply a way to secure herself everlasting fame, not necessarily something to be done for her own true love. While this view may be a little too cynical, I also don't agree with the musical's idealised, over-romanticized portrayal of Mary as a playful but ultimately sweet and innocent girl who is starry-eyed, selfless and encourages Rudolf and gives him advice about how to be the best man he can be. It's a charming character but definitely not Mary Vetsera. Of course it's how many people prefer to see Mary, but to see her and their relationship that way leaves out much of what really is intriguing in Rudolf and his end. Now they're just a poorly executed Romeo and Juliet number two when the history really is much more dark, twisted and interesting.
One of the problems in the musical is that there's too much dialogue. Way too many important plot points happen in dialogue rather than song. It's unfortunate because Wildhorn's forte is writing intense, emotionally appealing songs, but many events which would require such songs are instead spoken, like Franz-Joseph flattening Rudolf's newly grown self-confidence by telling him off for his idealistic speech, or Mary and Stephanie having a confrontation, even Rudolf finding out that his father knows of his treachery and all is lost. Even with all this dialogue the events are not usually grounded and developed well enough, and so the plot feels melodramatic. There are some really good songs, and some really boring ones. Generally the minor characters (Taaffe, Larisch, Pfeiffer, Stephanie) and the ensemble have the best songs, Mary and Franz-Joseph have the most boring ones, Rudolf's songs are pretty good (except for the duets with Mary; Ez most más is the only one of them I like) but not among the best.
I've said it before and will say it again, I Was Born For You (Értem születted) is an absolutely horrible and unsuitable song for its purpose, which is to be the duet that Rudolf and Mary sing just before they decide to go to Mayerling to die. While the actors got much more emotion out of it than I would have believed possible and thus somewhat salvaged the scene, it's nothing compared to what might have been with the right kind of song. This sappy, light romantic duet has nothing to do with the moods of two people who have just decided to die together because they find the world doesn't make it possible for them to live together. It doesn't put you at all in the emotional state that these characters will die and it definitely doesn't explain why they choose to die. It's just pure saccharine and soap bubbles, OMG their love is so true!!!11!, nothing even vaguely real or passionate or tragic or fitting the characters. Argh. It's a pretty song on its own, if not the kind I like, but it absolutely doesn't fit this part of the story. I could have done with it as the first act finale or something in the early second act, when Rudolf and Mary are trying to find the meaning of their lives in this love, but it really doesn't fit as their final duet when they are about to die.
It's definitely one of the big reasons why I wasn't one bit moved by their deaths. Rudolf is one of my favourite historical characters, but when this Rudolf dies, I'm just "Oh, they're dead now. Hmm, why do they have the gunshot sound come from the right? Here at the front you can tell it doesn't come from their gun and it gets funny theories going in your head. Anyway, where's Pfeiffer now? Ah, there he is." There was an intense dark song before their deaths - The Fourth Dimension Ball, but it's an ensemble song, and so it doesn't have a similar effect as a song for Rudolf and Mary would have. And a reprise of "Only Love" at their death is like a guaranteed way to kill my interest or my belief in the characters, and it tells what is wrong with Wildhorn's conception of these two characters - their fate really should be a bit more than "Only Hyper-Idealised Sugary Love".
Another reason why I felt so bland about the end is that Rudolf doesn't have any songs between the idealistic "A Holnap hídja" and the saccharine "I Was Born For You". He doesn't have a single song in which he is actually going to die. A song in which he is angsting and going into pieces and falling down and finally hitting the bottom. He has those angsty songs earlier in the musical, but not when he's actually deciding to die. So, we don't feel his death even if it happens. Dammit, the guy is the main character, at least give him a song where we know he's done for! Even Romeo gets that, and Rudolf/Mary is such a Romeo/Juliet ripoff that you might as well have copied that much from the other musical. On the other hand, you have brilliant songs which don't have anything to do with the story or at least don't lead into anything, like my dear favourite "Kétség és ábránd". I still don't know what on earth it does in the story, but it has more flesh and blood and passion in it than all of Rudolf and Mary's songs put together.
The best song in the musical is Taaffe and ensemble's "Mester és a drot" (Master of the Strings) and it also actually fits the story. It's not just exposition showing that Taaffe is a manipulative villain, but it also shows the sort of world and the sort of ideology that Rudolf is up against, and that makes it impossible for him to survive. I like it how he and Taaffe are opposed in this song as it's Rudolf's nightmare, and in it Taaffe subtly manipulates everyone against him. With scenes like this there would have been so much potential in this musical if Rudolf's character arc was properly developed instead of focusing on the sappy, uninteresting romance with Mary. Uninteresting because it's hasn't got anything new compared to hundreds of similar love stories in other musicals and other films or novels, it offers nothing that gives a new angle to anything, nothing that you haven't seen already. Romeo and Juliet, in comparison, may be done to death as a story but it does have a message to tell in the opposition of a society ruled by hatred and two people ruled by love and passion. I may not be a fan of Romeo and Juliet as characters, but I do care about their fate as in that world they're the people who realise there is more to life than hatred and violence and try to get somewhere beyond it. There is no similar thing in this Rudolf/Mary story, nothing at all for me to grasp and feel why I should give a damn about what happens to those two. And there would have been so much potential in Rudolf's story if done right.
I still enjoyed myself a lot, and I like this musical because there are good things about it, good songs and some interesting ideas and characters. But though I like it, I can't love it as a whole, only some parts of it. I'll still see it again while I'm here, once or twice maybe, but it will be for Zsolt's Taaffe and for Larisch and Pfeiffer, and possibly to check out the second cast Rudolf. I'm not sure what I will think of the Vienna production, because here the things I like are Taaffe, Larisch and Pfeiffer, but in Vienna they have no Pfeiffer and Taaffe is played by Uwe Kröger, and as much as I'd like to be fair and give him a chance, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to tolerate him in the role at all after being spoilt by Zsolt's wonderful performance. Uwe just doesn't have the voice for the role at all, and I don't particularly like how he tends to play Taaffe-type roles, so I don't think he'll work for me. So it leaves pretty just Larisch, and I'm not sure she alone can carry the show for me the way those three characters together could here.
Enough about the musical in general - now cast reviews.
Rudolf - Dolhai Attila. I usually like Attila, but I wasn't particularly impressed now. He wasn't bad, but he could have been better. Maybe he's getting tired of playing Rudolf in everything, but somehow he seemed quite uninspired and not getting much out of the character. He sings gorgeously as always, and he's not doing anything wrong but somehow he just is not half as much as he could be. He's not really Rudolf enough. He came across as too strong and not messed up enough, making it feel that Rudolf is just being lazy and not trying, instead of him being unable to do anything because he's going down fast. He angsted well here and there, but it's not enough to keep up the whole piece and to carry one through Rudolf's downfall. The poor structure of the piece and of Rudolf's development doesn't help, and what I know of Attila's acting he's fine in better written roles, so I think the piece itself is a big problem here. More intense acting and more fragility in characterisation could help overcome some of those flaws, though, and at least get the best out of what is there, such as Rudolf's good angsty solos. I didn't feel Attila got the full potential out of those solos - I was left feeling much less for the character than I expected to.
Attila did perform Rudolf's idealist solo, "A holnap hídja", very beautifully and intensely, it was his best moment in the show. But most of the time I wasn't getting much of a Rudolf vibe out of him. Attila's performance as Rudolf was okay, not bad, but he just did so much better as Mozart or Romeo, and he could have gotten much more out of this role. The next time I will make an attempt to see Mészáros Árpád Zsolt in this role. Based on DVDs he seems to get more out of it emotionally, and after being convinced by his Benvolio when seeing him live, I definitely want to see what I think of his Rudolf. (Note: This is what I wrote in January. Since then, I saw Mészáros Árpád Zsolt as Mozart and was unimpressed, which made me wonder if I'd be that much interested in seeing his Rudolf either. But I suppose I'll try if I get a chance, just to compare.)
Mary - Vágó Bernadett. Like I said, Mary's character doesn't bear much resemblance to the real Mary, but ignoring that, Bernadett's performance was charming. Vágó Zsuzsi, the second cast Mary, might have more of the rough edges I missed in the character, but I did enjoy Bernadett. She felt very fresh, young and emotional and had a sweet charm. Her young idealism was lovely and I like it how anguished she seemed to be when pressured to leave Rudolf. She seemed to actually cry. Her Mary is not a very deep or interesting character, but I don't know if this Mary ever can be. Her singing is just beautiful, and she makes a stunningly pretty picture in Mary's gorgeous dresses. She made me enjoy Mary's songs more than I expected, given that except for her first duet with Rudolf and her duet with Taaffe, I don't like those songs.
Taaffe - Homonnay Zsolt. I liked him. A lot. Like, between his Oberon and this, I've turned into an obsessive Zsolt fan. Although Taaffe in this piece has "villain" written all over him, Zsolt made him an interesting, real character while not compromising the villain aspect. The first thing one notices about Zsolt easily is his impressive, gorgeous and unique voice, but I'm also charmed by his refined acting. He makes the character feel like a complete, real person and puts in lots of details, and his acting feels just as effortless as his gorgeous singing, he doesn't overdo it. His Taaffe is a civilized villain, an intelligent man who is ruthless out of perceived necessity, who believes that cynicism and manipulation are the only ways to run a state effectively and that idealism and liberalism are dangerous. He is yet not without emotion: his passion and even love for the Countess Larisch is tangible and erotic sparks fly between them, but still he doesnt' let those emotions and passions control him though they are there. There's something incredibly sexy about such a character when done right.
Despite the general evilness he also seems to be genuinely sorry that Rudolf is such a disappointment to the Emperor, and in particular he seems to be sorry and sad when he has to inform the Emperor of Rudolf's treachery. And when Rudolf does his idealist speech in A Holnap Hídja, Taaffe looks on with an expression on his face that shows he's annoyed, exasperated and disappointed that Rudolf continues to believe in such foolish ideas and propagate them, and he believes it's downright dangerous. Zsolt's Taaffe is not evil for the sake of being evil but because he believes that what someone else sees as evil is actually the right thing to do. And that's the key: all those people we consider evil, or who simply disagree with us (usually the same thing, though of course sometimes morality is more than a matter of opinion), think and act that way because they think it's right. I loved that Zsolt's Taaffe was so human and still such a great villain/antagonist. He had such a lovely, confident, coolly manipulative and amused air in "Mester és a drot" and got the best out of that awesome scene in every way.
It's funny that although I am politically quite far away from Taaffe and would not realistically approve of his behaviour in the story, he ended up being one of those characters I sympathised the most with. Maybe it was the attraction of a well-constructed villain. Or maybe it's that he's one of the only characters in the musical who both has a brain and uses it, and at least cares about getting things done instead of just his own status or about some starry-eyed ideal of romantic love expressed with sappy songs.
I should gush a bit about his voice. Zsolt has such a unique voice - I suppose he is a tenor but he has a lot more depth and strength in his voice than tenors usually do, many baritone-ish qualities really. And an amazing singing technique, with him you definitely never have to worry if he's going to hit a note or if he can hold it. One of the best singers I know in musical theatre anywhere. He has a great amount of power but never sounds like he shouts. He already sounded amazing and good in the proshot that circulates around, which is from his premiere I think, but now he has become still better. He seems to have found this additional dimension to his voice, something deeper that I can't describe, which got out every now and then especially when he was being particularly evil and sarcastic, and I just loved that. He had some really delicious voice tones in some parts - I can't remember anything particularly, but I simply adored how he sang "Rajta, rajta, bábucskák" in Mester és a drot, it was one of those parts that gave me chills and a happy, wicked grin on my face.
Countess Larisch - Janza Kata. I love the character and how Kata plays her. She doesn't make her too nice and likeable, even if the musical presents her more positively than history books do. Kata's Larisch preserves that complexity and mixture of positive and negative traits so that she can believably feel like that controversial Marie Larisch we know from history. There definitely is this feeling of a woman who makes herself shallow and cynical because this is the way to survive in the world, especially the kind of world she lives in, and this is also the sentiment I get of the historical character. Kata's Larisch is flirty, outwardly confident, strong, capricious, womanly but not in a traditionally fragile way, unromantic but secretly wishing she could believe in something, full of charm and sexiness. There is the sense of a woman who is both comfortable with her own sexuality and in control of it: not a typical "pure woman" who doesn't have anything to do with sex except for her own true love, but also not a victim or a whore. The most interesting, strongest and most complete and real female character in any of Wildhorn's musicals. She could still get deeper treatment in the musical, but anyway she is the only female character in Wildhorn's musicals that I really like and that gets good songs (Lucy in Dracula is my second favourite, I have little use for any others). Kata played the role wonderfully, even if I sometimes got a feeling that she was too much just performing and not enough being the character - but only sometimes. I'd like to also see Peller Anna as Larisch to compare, but Kata was good. She has wonderful chemisteries with both Taaffe and Pfeiffer, and I also liked her as Mary's friend. Her singing wasn't always at its best, but generally it was good. Her sober second-act solo "Csakis az lesz hös" (Only Heroes Dare), where she would like to believe in Rudolf's vision of better tomorrow but knows it's doomed and has prophetic visions of his death, was one of the only moments in the show where I felt close to tears.
I have to write specifically about Kétség és ábránd, the Taaffe/Larisch duet. I finally got to read what's going on in the dialogue, and it was funny seeing Taaffe going almost sentimentally "This is where we first met..." and Larisch cutting him off with "Well, what did you call me here for?" Taaffe tries to get Larisch to influence Rudolf with the special relationship she has with him (she supposedly has an affair with him in the early part of the story, even if this is never shown and doesn't have any consequences on anything... it's possible they did have something in reality, I still need to do more reading on that), she says this won't work, and then it somehow moves into the song where she accuses him of just wanting her back, and he denies it, and then they sing of their secret passions and desires and whatever and oooohh, it's hot, even if I don't know what it has to do with the rest of the story. This scene = sex. Zsolt and Kata performed it wonderfully, and even though they seemed to grope each other a bit less than on the proshot, it was full of unreleased sexual tension and passion. It's amazing how erotic the choreography and interaction could be while still being relatively subtle about it (you know, not rolling on the floor or anything). Also, Zsolt has a really wonderful way at taking Larisch's hand and kissing it, which he does both in that scene and in some meeting of theirs earlier. That simple gesture is so full of eroticism when he does it, I cannot describe how hot it was.
Pfeiffer - Szabó P. Szilveszter. Being vaguely based on Johann Pfeiffer "The King of Birds" in Morton's book, who only has a few scattered though intriguing mentions throughout the book, Pfeiffer is a quasi-fictional character - but that doesn't really differ from any other characters in the show, there's just less material with Pfeiffer you can point to and say "It wasn't like that". They've changed birds into puppets, making him a puppet player, but this is understandable as it's much easier to stage. It also nicely complements the puppet playing theme around Taaffe: Pfeiffer may play puppets for a living but in the big picture he, too, is just a piece in a game that men like Taaffe run. Anyway, I like Pfeiffer, especially the way Szilveszter plays him. Amidst all these idealist lovers and scheming political villains Pfeiffer is very refreshing as nothing is really serious to him, he comments on everything and mocks everything. Yet in Szilveszter's Pfeiffer there is always an undertone of sadness and disappointment, and you get the feeling he makes fun of everything because he knows all too well how badly things are, and laughing at it is the only way to survive.
The actual Johann Pfeiffer committed suicide not long after Rudolf did, and Szilveszter's Pfeiffer is someone you could believe doing that: sometimes his laughter is really just about skirting on the edge of madness, trying to keep it away. He develops throughout the piece, being quite a different character in the final reprise of "Ez Bécs" than he was in the beginning. There is such a sense of disappointment and sadness over how nothing could turn better for Rudolf and Mary and everything just gets worse. But mostly Pfeiffer is a funny, entertaining role, and Szilveszter for once gets to fully release all his craziness and comical skills. He really has loads fun with the role and it's such a refreshing thing to see him in, not always the same "king of angst" roles. It's good to do that he can do something completely different and still do it excellently, and still have loads of stage presence and charisma. Once again he is very strongly present whenever on stage, in the role completely all the time and has lots of wonderful details.
Stephanie - Nádasi Veronika. She somehow looked like she couldn't really fit into her dresses, but I think this suits the character of Stephanie, who always seemed like someone who tried too hard to be something without ever succeeding because she wasn't what she tried to be. Stephanie doesn't have a good reputation in most historical sources, but Veronika played her very well, making her seem human and pitiable, even sympathetic in a way, while still showing that she made Rudolf's life much more difficult and they did not fit together. She was very much like I imagine the real Stephanie to be. Her powerful, dramatic voice suited Stephanie's song wonderfully and she performed the song with amazing intensity, making it one of the most striking numbers in the show after "Mester és a drot". She is such an amazing singer, able to project a very strong voice and still sound beautiful without shouting.
Franz-Joseph: Németh Attila. A very unthankful role: Franz-Joseph has the dullest songs and a very flat, unattractive characterisation. He's nothing but the stern emperor who doesn't approve of his son's liberal ways and cares nothing of what happens to him, thinking him useless. He doesn't even refrain from threatening Mary's family when Rudolf refuses to leave her, saying something like "You will do no such thing if you care about the lady and her family". I think this is quite an unfair characterisation of Franz-Joseph, who may have been conservative and unable to get his mind around new ideas, but was not evil, and who did not understand Rudolf but I don't think he was that harsh towards him. At the same time Franz-Joseph here is not an attractive villain like Taaffe but just a dull, annoying negative force. Németh Attila did the best he could with the role, trying to give him personality and emotions that would make the character understandable, but there was only so much he could do with the material he was given. His Franz-Joseph was not very much the historical Franz-Joseph, being quite temperamental and in a way passionate, but at least he did something with the character. His acting skills and voice are perfectly wasted in this role, though.
Other notes of the cast: Sánta László played Count István Károlyi, the leader of the Hungarian conspirators who get Rudolf into trouble. I have no idea what the historical character should be like, but the way László played him he seemed like an eager, idealistic young nobleman who thinks he can change things and do something important if things go right, but is quite worried that they won't and concerned when Rudolf doesn't seem to accept. I suspect Károlyi could easily feel like an annoying and pushy character, but with László he was very sweet and likeable even if his endeavour might be foolish and dangerous. László looked awfully cute in Hungarian nobleman's clothes, danced well in the dancing scenes and sounded good. Károlyi is in much more scenes than I realised: in the Prince of Wales's Ball, in "A nemzet hív", in the brothel scene etc., not just those scenes where he has something to sing. György-Rózsa Sándor seems to be the eternal Andrássy like Attila is the eternal Rudolf: he plays Andrássy in both Elisabeth and Rudolf. He does look quite a bit like him, I guess. He's got an awfully good voice, and though he is younger than Andrássy should be at this point, he managed to act in a way that made the character feel older.
All in all, there are enough good scenes in the musical to enthuse me and make me enjoy it, but there's way too much that doesn't work as it should, and so it frustrates me and I don't think it's as good a musical as it tries to be. If it weren't for Taaffe, Larisch and Pfeiffer, I don't think I would go to see it again, but as they are there, I might see it a couple of times more in Budapest if I get a chance. I do wonder how the Vienna production will manage without Pfeiffer, because his comic scenes provide the necessary counterbalance to the melodrama and overblown romanticism and dramaticness of other characters. This musical will not work if all of it takes itself too seriously. I hope they can find the comedy somewhere else - and not just in the unintended comedy of Uwe trying to be even half as impressive as Zsolt in the role of Taaffe when he has neither the voice nor the grace about his own person and acting. Uh, no offence to Uwe fans but I just don't see him working in the role. At all. He's welcome to surprise me, but well, it'll be a big surprise indeed if he succeeds. I do have great doubts about how the Vienna production will work, but I'm going to wait and see what comes out of it. But well, the Budapest production is very much worth seeing, however I wish that the musical on a whole was better, instead of just having some good individual scenes. I also feel that Wildhorn tries to put way too many different things into one musical and doesn't focus on any of them enough.
I have pretty mixed feelings about Rudolf the musical. I enjoyed the performance a lot because there are some excellent scenes and generally it’s wonderfully directed and staged with a great cast who are themselves a good reason for seeing the musical. But there are major problems in the musical itself I can’t help noticing. It's always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, because I'm aware of its flaws but like it anyway. I'm really interested in the historical Crown Prince Rudolf, but as a historical musical this is definitely not on the level of Elisabeth which is astonishingly accurate in covering one person's life despite introducing characters like the personification of Death as her imaginary lover. Rudolf the musical covers only a short period of Rudolf's life but even then gets astonishingly many things wrong - probably not because its writers didn't know the facts but because they simply decided the facts weren't important or wouldn't work and decided to introduce other elements which they thought were better. I really consider the musical a historical fiction that bears an occasional resemblance to real events, not any sort of a biography musical or a somewhat truthful depiction of historical events. And despite being interested in the historical Rudolf, in the musical I'm more interested in secondary characters - who usually also don't bear much resemblance to the historical people they're based on.
The musical does have some advantages as a portrayal of Rudolf. Even if it focuses much on the love story, it also shows that Rudolf had progressive, liberal ideas ahead of his time but was prevented from fulfilling them, and was depressed and wanted to die already before he met Mary Vetsera, the girl he chose to die with. But ultimately, the musical focuses so much on the Rudolf/Mary relationship and represents it in such an idealised form which bears little relation to their real story, that much of the potential value as a depiction of the Crown Prince is lost when so many events have little to do with what actually happened. A great many plot points are based on pure fiction (everyone's plots to get rid of Mary, her inspiring Rudolf to believe in his political ideals again...), and some others on highly controversial theories (the Hungarian conspiracy stuff, hints about Mary's pregnancy, Rudolf's supposed request to the Pope to have his marriage annulled so he could get married with Mary...). I'm also not sure how this is supposedly based on Frederic Morton's "A Nervous Splendour". There are similarities here and there, but mostly they're not very similar and I wonder what Morton really thinks about this story being sold with his name attached to it. It seems to me more like Wildhorn was inspired by that book to think up his own highly romanticized and mostly fictional version of Rudolf and Mary's story, but really didn't use the book as a source material that much.
As a historical musical, it may have some value as a depiction of late 19th century Vienna and that time period in European history in general, as long as you don't expect it to be anything super-deep or accurate. One of the few similarities with Morton's book is that like in it, the real main character of the musical sometimes seems to be the fin de siècle Vienna. The characters mostly have little to do with the historical people, but they do correspond to certain kinds of people that seem important for the late 19th century (or at least how we view it) as well as to our own age, which is why they work to an extent despite not having much to do with history. Rudolf and Mary represent the young idealism that gets destroyed - Rudolf could be said to represent the political idealism and belief in personal integrity, Mary the idealism of emotion. I don't know if the musical attempts to say it but I feel they are destroyed partly because the world is lined up against idealists but also partly because in both characters, the idealism is not tempered enough by reason or supported by the kind of toughness that actually survives the opposition. Taaffe, the Prime Minister and Rudolf's political enemy, the villain of the piece, represent a pragmatic cynicism and political manipulation and opportunism which honestly believes itself to be the only way to be reasonable and sensible, and does not care about the emotions and goals of the young idealists who in its opinion are foolish and dangerous to themselves and others.
Marie Larisch, Mary's friend and Rudolf's cousin who facilitates their relationship and has a hate/passion relationship with Taaffe, seems to represent the sort of person who has already lost her faith and romanticism but would still like to believe in something. The historical Marie Larisch intrigues me, being such a controversial character but also because she lived and grew up in the old world, knowing Elisabeth and Rudolf and such whose lives and deaths could be seen as harbringers of the end of the old world; and she lived on until the new world that came when this old world died, and saw how much it all changed. So she maybe is the closest character to the modern people as she actually did later belong to the new era. Pfeiffer, the puppet player and semi-narrator/commentator of the musical, is the sort of person to whom everything is a game and a joke because otherwise everything would have to be all too serious and that is just unbearable.
Besides the Vienna-as-central-focus thing, the musical bears only a passing resemblance to Morton's book. The time span comes from it, the character of Pfeiffer does (vaguely, at least), and some of the main events and some sentences and ideas here and there. But much is so different, as so many events in the musical are completely made up, very much from the book is left out, and Mary is very differently characterised and her relationship with Rudolf seen differently. Morton views her as an ambitious little opportunist who got entangled in her own web by falling in love with Rudolf when she had gone after him only to secure a good position for herself in society, and maybe even viewed her own death as simply a way to secure herself everlasting fame, not necessarily something to be done for her own true love. While this view may be a little too cynical, I also don't agree with the musical's idealised, over-romanticized portrayal of Mary as a playful but ultimately sweet and innocent girl who is starry-eyed, selfless and encourages Rudolf and gives him advice about how to be the best man he can be. It's a charming character but definitely not Mary Vetsera. Of course it's how many people prefer to see Mary, but to see her and their relationship that way leaves out much of what really is intriguing in Rudolf and his end. Now they're just a poorly executed Romeo and Juliet number two when the history really is much more dark, twisted and interesting.
One of the problems in the musical is that there's too much dialogue. Way too many important plot points happen in dialogue rather than song. It's unfortunate because Wildhorn's forte is writing intense, emotionally appealing songs, but many events which would require such songs are instead spoken, like Franz-Joseph flattening Rudolf's newly grown self-confidence by telling him off for his idealistic speech, or Mary and Stephanie having a confrontation, even Rudolf finding out that his father knows of his treachery and all is lost. Even with all this dialogue the events are not usually grounded and developed well enough, and so the plot feels melodramatic. There are some really good songs, and some really boring ones. Generally the minor characters (Taaffe, Larisch, Pfeiffer, Stephanie) and the ensemble have the best songs, Mary and Franz-Joseph have the most boring ones, Rudolf's songs are pretty good (except for the duets with Mary; Ez most más is the only one of them I like) but not among the best.
I've said it before and will say it again, I Was Born For You (Értem születted) is an absolutely horrible and unsuitable song for its purpose, which is to be the duet that Rudolf and Mary sing just before they decide to go to Mayerling to die. While the actors got much more emotion out of it than I would have believed possible and thus somewhat salvaged the scene, it's nothing compared to what might have been with the right kind of song. This sappy, light romantic duet has nothing to do with the moods of two people who have just decided to die together because they find the world doesn't make it possible for them to live together. It doesn't put you at all in the emotional state that these characters will die and it definitely doesn't explain why they choose to die. It's just pure saccharine and soap bubbles, OMG their love is so true!!!11!, nothing even vaguely real or passionate or tragic or fitting the characters. Argh. It's a pretty song on its own, if not the kind I like, but it absolutely doesn't fit this part of the story. I could have done with it as the first act finale or something in the early second act, when Rudolf and Mary are trying to find the meaning of their lives in this love, but it really doesn't fit as their final duet when they are about to die.
It's definitely one of the big reasons why I wasn't one bit moved by their deaths. Rudolf is one of my favourite historical characters, but when this Rudolf dies, I'm just "Oh, they're dead now. Hmm, why do they have the gunshot sound come from the right? Here at the front you can tell it doesn't come from their gun and it gets funny theories going in your head. Anyway, where's Pfeiffer now? Ah, there he is." There was an intense dark song before their deaths - The Fourth Dimension Ball, but it's an ensemble song, and so it doesn't have a similar effect as a song for Rudolf and Mary would have. And a reprise of "Only Love" at their death is like a guaranteed way to kill my interest or my belief in the characters, and it tells what is wrong with Wildhorn's conception of these two characters - their fate really should be a bit more than "Only Hyper-Idealised Sugary Love".
Another reason why I felt so bland about the end is that Rudolf doesn't have any songs between the idealistic "A Holnap hídja" and the saccharine "I Was Born For You". He doesn't have a single song in which he is actually going to die. A song in which he is angsting and going into pieces and falling down and finally hitting the bottom. He has those angsty songs earlier in the musical, but not when he's actually deciding to die. So, we don't feel his death even if it happens. Dammit, the guy is the main character, at least give him a song where we know he's done for! Even Romeo gets that, and Rudolf/Mary is such a Romeo/Juliet ripoff that you might as well have copied that much from the other musical. On the other hand, you have brilliant songs which don't have anything to do with the story or at least don't lead into anything, like my dear favourite "Kétség és ábránd". I still don't know what on earth it does in the story, but it has more flesh and blood and passion in it than all of Rudolf and Mary's songs put together.
The best song in the musical is Taaffe and ensemble's "Mester és a drot" (Master of the Strings) and it also actually fits the story. It's not just exposition showing that Taaffe is a manipulative villain, but it also shows the sort of world and the sort of ideology that Rudolf is up against, and that makes it impossible for him to survive. I like it how he and Taaffe are opposed in this song as it's Rudolf's nightmare, and in it Taaffe subtly manipulates everyone against him. With scenes like this there would have been so much potential in this musical if Rudolf's character arc was properly developed instead of focusing on the sappy, uninteresting romance with Mary. Uninteresting because it's hasn't got anything new compared to hundreds of similar love stories in other musicals and other films or novels, it offers nothing that gives a new angle to anything, nothing that you haven't seen already. Romeo and Juliet, in comparison, may be done to death as a story but it does have a message to tell in the opposition of a society ruled by hatred and two people ruled by love and passion. I may not be a fan of Romeo and Juliet as characters, but I do care about their fate as in that world they're the people who realise there is more to life than hatred and violence and try to get somewhere beyond it. There is no similar thing in this Rudolf/Mary story, nothing at all for me to grasp and feel why I should give a damn about what happens to those two. And there would have been so much potential in Rudolf's story if done right.
I still enjoyed myself a lot, and I like this musical because there are good things about it, good songs and some interesting ideas and characters. But though I like it, I can't love it as a whole, only some parts of it. I'll still see it again while I'm here, once or twice maybe, but it will be for Zsolt's Taaffe and for Larisch and Pfeiffer, and possibly to check out the second cast Rudolf. I'm not sure what I will think of the Vienna production, because here the things I like are Taaffe, Larisch and Pfeiffer, but in Vienna they have no Pfeiffer and Taaffe is played by Uwe Kröger, and as much as I'd like to be fair and give him a chance, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to tolerate him in the role at all after being spoilt by Zsolt's wonderful performance. Uwe just doesn't have the voice for the role at all, and I don't particularly like how he tends to play Taaffe-type roles, so I don't think he'll work for me. So it leaves pretty just Larisch, and I'm not sure she alone can carry the show for me the way those three characters together could here.
Enough about the musical in general - now cast reviews.
Rudolf - Dolhai Attila. I usually like Attila, but I wasn't particularly impressed now. He wasn't bad, but he could have been better. Maybe he's getting tired of playing Rudolf in everything, but somehow he seemed quite uninspired and not getting much out of the character. He sings gorgeously as always, and he's not doing anything wrong but somehow he just is not half as much as he could be. He's not really Rudolf enough. He came across as too strong and not messed up enough, making it feel that Rudolf is just being lazy and not trying, instead of him being unable to do anything because he's going down fast. He angsted well here and there, but it's not enough to keep up the whole piece and to carry one through Rudolf's downfall. The poor structure of the piece and of Rudolf's development doesn't help, and what I know of Attila's acting he's fine in better written roles, so I think the piece itself is a big problem here. More intense acting and more fragility in characterisation could help overcome some of those flaws, though, and at least get the best out of what is there, such as Rudolf's good angsty solos. I didn't feel Attila got the full potential out of those solos - I was left feeling much less for the character than I expected to.
Attila did perform Rudolf's idealist solo, "A holnap hídja", very beautifully and intensely, it was his best moment in the show. But most of the time I wasn't getting much of a Rudolf vibe out of him. Attila's performance as Rudolf was okay, not bad, but he just did so much better as Mozart or Romeo, and he could have gotten much more out of this role. The next time I will make an attempt to see Mészáros Árpád Zsolt in this role. Based on DVDs he seems to get more out of it emotionally, and after being convinced by his Benvolio when seeing him live, I definitely want to see what I think of his Rudolf. (Note: This is what I wrote in January. Since then, I saw Mészáros Árpád Zsolt as Mozart and was unimpressed, which made me wonder if I'd be that much interested in seeing his Rudolf either. But I suppose I'll try if I get a chance, just to compare.)
Mary - Vágó Bernadett. Like I said, Mary's character doesn't bear much resemblance to the real Mary, but ignoring that, Bernadett's performance was charming. Vágó Zsuzsi, the second cast Mary, might have more of the rough edges I missed in the character, but I did enjoy Bernadett. She felt very fresh, young and emotional and had a sweet charm. Her young idealism was lovely and I like it how anguished she seemed to be when pressured to leave Rudolf. She seemed to actually cry. Her Mary is not a very deep or interesting character, but I don't know if this Mary ever can be. Her singing is just beautiful, and she makes a stunningly pretty picture in Mary's gorgeous dresses. She made me enjoy Mary's songs more than I expected, given that except for her first duet with Rudolf and her duet with Taaffe, I don't like those songs.
Taaffe - Homonnay Zsolt. I liked him. A lot. Like, between his Oberon and this, I've turned into an obsessive Zsolt fan. Although Taaffe in this piece has "villain" written all over him, Zsolt made him an interesting, real character while not compromising the villain aspect. The first thing one notices about Zsolt easily is his impressive, gorgeous and unique voice, but I'm also charmed by his refined acting. He makes the character feel like a complete, real person and puts in lots of details, and his acting feels just as effortless as his gorgeous singing, he doesn't overdo it. His Taaffe is a civilized villain, an intelligent man who is ruthless out of perceived necessity, who believes that cynicism and manipulation are the only ways to run a state effectively and that idealism and liberalism are dangerous. He is yet not without emotion: his passion and even love for the Countess Larisch is tangible and erotic sparks fly between them, but still he doesnt' let those emotions and passions control him though they are there. There's something incredibly sexy about such a character when done right.
Despite the general evilness he also seems to be genuinely sorry that Rudolf is such a disappointment to the Emperor, and in particular he seems to be sorry and sad when he has to inform the Emperor of Rudolf's treachery. And when Rudolf does his idealist speech in A Holnap Hídja, Taaffe looks on with an expression on his face that shows he's annoyed, exasperated and disappointed that Rudolf continues to believe in such foolish ideas and propagate them, and he believes it's downright dangerous. Zsolt's Taaffe is not evil for the sake of being evil but because he believes that what someone else sees as evil is actually the right thing to do. And that's the key: all those people we consider evil, or who simply disagree with us (usually the same thing, though of course sometimes morality is more than a matter of opinion), think and act that way because they think it's right. I loved that Zsolt's Taaffe was so human and still such a great villain/antagonist. He had such a lovely, confident, coolly manipulative and amused air in "Mester és a drot" and got the best out of that awesome scene in every way.
It's funny that although I am politically quite far away from Taaffe and would not realistically approve of his behaviour in the story, he ended up being one of those characters I sympathised the most with. Maybe it was the attraction of a well-constructed villain. Or maybe it's that he's one of the only characters in the musical who both has a brain and uses it, and at least cares about getting things done instead of just his own status or about some starry-eyed ideal of romantic love expressed with sappy songs.
I should gush a bit about his voice. Zsolt has such a unique voice - I suppose he is a tenor but he has a lot more depth and strength in his voice than tenors usually do, many baritone-ish qualities really. And an amazing singing technique, with him you definitely never have to worry if he's going to hit a note or if he can hold it. One of the best singers I know in musical theatre anywhere. He has a great amount of power but never sounds like he shouts. He already sounded amazing and good in the proshot that circulates around, which is from his premiere I think, but now he has become still better. He seems to have found this additional dimension to his voice, something deeper that I can't describe, which got out every now and then especially when he was being particularly evil and sarcastic, and I just loved that. He had some really delicious voice tones in some parts - I can't remember anything particularly, but I simply adored how he sang "Rajta, rajta, bábucskák" in Mester és a drot, it was one of those parts that gave me chills and a happy, wicked grin on my face.
Countess Larisch - Janza Kata. I love the character and how Kata plays her. She doesn't make her too nice and likeable, even if the musical presents her more positively than history books do. Kata's Larisch preserves that complexity and mixture of positive and negative traits so that she can believably feel like that controversial Marie Larisch we know from history. There definitely is this feeling of a woman who makes herself shallow and cynical because this is the way to survive in the world, especially the kind of world she lives in, and this is also the sentiment I get of the historical character. Kata's Larisch is flirty, outwardly confident, strong, capricious, womanly but not in a traditionally fragile way, unromantic but secretly wishing she could believe in something, full of charm and sexiness. There is the sense of a woman who is both comfortable with her own sexuality and in control of it: not a typical "pure woman" who doesn't have anything to do with sex except for her own true love, but also not a victim or a whore. The most interesting, strongest and most complete and real female character in any of Wildhorn's musicals. She could still get deeper treatment in the musical, but anyway she is the only female character in Wildhorn's musicals that I really like and that gets good songs (Lucy in Dracula is my second favourite, I have little use for any others). Kata played the role wonderfully, even if I sometimes got a feeling that she was too much just performing and not enough being the character - but only sometimes. I'd like to also see Peller Anna as Larisch to compare, but Kata was good. She has wonderful chemisteries with both Taaffe and Pfeiffer, and I also liked her as Mary's friend. Her singing wasn't always at its best, but generally it was good. Her sober second-act solo "Csakis az lesz hös" (Only Heroes Dare), where she would like to believe in Rudolf's vision of better tomorrow but knows it's doomed and has prophetic visions of his death, was one of the only moments in the show where I felt close to tears.
I have to write specifically about Kétség és ábránd, the Taaffe/Larisch duet. I finally got to read what's going on in the dialogue, and it was funny seeing Taaffe going almost sentimentally "This is where we first met..." and Larisch cutting him off with "Well, what did you call me here for?" Taaffe tries to get Larisch to influence Rudolf with the special relationship she has with him (she supposedly has an affair with him in the early part of the story, even if this is never shown and doesn't have any consequences on anything... it's possible they did have something in reality, I still need to do more reading on that), she says this won't work, and then it somehow moves into the song where she accuses him of just wanting her back, and he denies it, and then they sing of their secret passions and desires and whatever and oooohh, it's hot, even if I don't know what it has to do with the rest of the story. This scene = sex. Zsolt and Kata performed it wonderfully, and even though they seemed to grope each other a bit less than on the proshot, it was full of unreleased sexual tension and passion. It's amazing how erotic the choreography and interaction could be while still being relatively subtle about it (you know, not rolling on the floor or anything). Also, Zsolt has a really wonderful way at taking Larisch's hand and kissing it, which he does both in that scene and in some meeting of theirs earlier. That simple gesture is so full of eroticism when he does it, I cannot describe how hot it was.
Pfeiffer - Szabó P. Szilveszter. Being vaguely based on Johann Pfeiffer "The King of Birds" in Morton's book, who only has a few scattered though intriguing mentions throughout the book, Pfeiffer is a quasi-fictional character - but that doesn't really differ from any other characters in the show, there's just less material with Pfeiffer you can point to and say "It wasn't like that". They've changed birds into puppets, making him a puppet player, but this is understandable as it's much easier to stage. It also nicely complements the puppet playing theme around Taaffe: Pfeiffer may play puppets for a living but in the big picture he, too, is just a piece in a game that men like Taaffe run. Anyway, I like Pfeiffer, especially the way Szilveszter plays him. Amidst all these idealist lovers and scheming political villains Pfeiffer is very refreshing as nothing is really serious to him, he comments on everything and mocks everything. Yet in Szilveszter's Pfeiffer there is always an undertone of sadness and disappointment, and you get the feeling he makes fun of everything because he knows all too well how badly things are, and laughing at it is the only way to survive.
The actual Johann Pfeiffer committed suicide not long after Rudolf did, and Szilveszter's Pfeiffer is someone you could believe doing that: sometimes his laughter is really just about skirting on the edge of madness, trying to keep it away. He develops throughout the piece, being quite a different character in the final reprise of "Ez Bécs" than he was in the beginning. There is such a sense of disappointment and sadness over how nothing could turn better for Rudolf and Mary and everything just gets worse. But mostly Pfeiffer is a funny, entertaining role, and Szilveszter for once gets to fully release all his craziness and comical skills. He really has loads fun with the role and it's such a refreshing thing to see him in, not always the same "king of angst" roles. It's good to do that he can do something completely different and still do it excellently, and still have loads of stage presence and charisma. Once again he is very strongly present whenever on stage, in the role completely all the time and has lots of wonderful details.
Stephanie - Nádasi Veronika. She somehow looked like she couldn't really fit into her dresses, but I think this suits the character of Stephanie, who always seemed like someone who tried too hard to be something without ever succeeding because she wasn't what she tried to be. Stephanie doesn't have a good reputation in most historical sources, but Veronika played her very well, making her seem human and pitiable, even sympathetic in a way, while still showing that she made Rudolf's life much more difficult and they did not fit together. She was very much like I imagine the real Stephanie to be. Her powerful, dramatic voice suited Stephanie's song wonderfully and she performed the song with amazing intensity, making it one of the most striking numbers in the show after "Mester és a drot". She is such an amazing singer, able to project a very strong voice and still sound beautiful without shouting.
Franz-Joseph: Németh Attila. A very unthankful role: Franz-Joseph has the dullest songs and a very flat, unattractive characterisation. He's nothing but the stern emperor who doesn't approve of his son's liberal ways and cares nothing of what happens to him, thinking him useless. He doesn't even refrain from threatening Mary's family when Rudolf refuses to leave her, saying something like "You will do no such thing if you care about the lady and her family". I think this is quite an unfair characterisation of Franz-Joseph, who may have been conservative and unable to get his mind around new ideas, but was not evil, and who did not understand Rudolf but I don't think he was that harsh towards him. At the same time Franz-Joseph here is not an attractive villain like Taaffe but just a dull, annoying negative force. Németh Attila did the best he could with the role, trying to give him personality and emotions that would make the character understandable, but there was only so much he could do with the material he was given. His Franz-Joseph was not very much the historical Franz-Joseph, being quite temperamental and in a way passionate, but at least he did something with the character. His acting skills and voice are perfectly wasted in this role, though.
Other notes of the cast: Sánta László played Count István Károlyi, the leader of the Hungarian conspirators who get Rudolf into trouble. I have no idea what the historical character should be like, but the way László played him he seemed like an eager, idealistic young nobleman who thinks he can change things and do something important if things go right, but is quite worried that they won't and concerned when Rudolf doesn't seem to accept. I suspect Károlyi could easily feel like an annoying and pushy character, but with László he was very sweet and likeable even if his endeavour might be foolish and dangerous. László looked awfully cute in Hungarian nobleman's clothes, danced well in the dancing scenes and sounded good. Károlyi is in much more scenes than I realised: in the Prince of Wales's Ball, in "A nemzet hív", in the brothel scene etc., not just those scenes where he has something to sing. György-Rózsa Sándor seems to be the eternal Andrássy like Attila is the eternal Rudolf: he plays Andrássy in both Elisabeth and Rudolf. He does look quite a bit like him, I guess. He's got an awfully good voice, and though he is younger than Andrássy should be at this point, he managed to act in a way that made the character feel older.
All in all, there are enough good scenes in the musical to enthuse me and make me enjoy it, but there's way too much that doesn't work as it should, and so it frustrates me and I don't think it's as good a musical as it tries to be. If it weren't for Taaffe, Larisch and Pfeiffer, I don't think I would go to see it again, but as they are there, I might see it a couple of times more in Budapest if I get a chance. I do wonder how the Vienna production will manage without Pfeiffer, because his comic scenes provide the necessary counterbalance to the melodrama and overblown romanticism and dramaticness of other characters. This musical will not work if all of it takes itself too seriously. I hope they can find the comedy somewhere else - and not just in the unintended comedy of Uwe trying to be even half as impressive as Zsolt in the role of Taaffe when he has neither the voice nor the grace about his own person and acting. Uh, no offence to Uwe fans but I just don't see him working in the role. At all. He's welcome to surprise me, but well, it'll be a big surprise indeed if he succeeds. I do have great doubts about how the Vienna production will work, but I'm going to wait and see what comes out of it. But well, the Budapest production is very much worth seeing, however I wish that the musical on a whole was better, instead of just having some good individual scenes. I also feel that Wildhorn tries to put way too many different things into one musical and doesn't focus on any of them enough.