If anyone had ever told me the first time I would see this show on stage would be in Budapest, I would have thought they were completely nuts. :-) And though the show was in Hungarian, and I didn't understand everything that went on, I was familiar enough with the music and story beforehand that most of it was clear.

It was a very small theatre, with seating for maybe a couple of hundred people (and that might be a generous estimate), so the applause seemed really small. The stage was small too, but they made really good use of it, and the performances were definitely not scaled-down at all!

The actor playing Molina was the highlight of the show for me. He was just excellent - very reminiscent of Brent Carver, which is (of course) a good thing. He did a beautiful "She's a Woman", and the way he mimed Aurora's actions during all of her numbers was very cute. He was very funny in the scenes with Valentin, and then very touching in scenes such as the one with his mother after the morphine tango.

Valentin took a while to grow on me - he was very angry at first, and only angry, but gradually other sides of his character began to show. He had a good voice, perhaps more rock than traditional theatre-style, but very powerful. He completely won me over though during the scene where they bring Molina back to the prison - the panic and genuine fear on his face were perfect.

I have to admit to jumping when they shot Molina - I knew it was coming, but it still happened so fast!

Aurora was lovely! A beautiful woman, with a very nice voice. And all the cute chorus boys dancing around with no shirts on ... no complaints here. ;-)

I thought it was kind of funny that the cell door slid open a bit whenever anybody touched the cell. :-) But generally the sets were really good - it was basically just the small cell that they could spin around for different angles, and then the front of the stage was where the dream/movie sequences happened.

The woman sitting next to me took pictures throughout the whole show...with no flash on, of course, but still, it was disconcerting to me. I am assuming she was involved with the production somehow, but maybe not! :-)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the show overall, and I think it's really well-suited to a small theatre like this. I hope to see it again before too long...and maybe even in English this time! :-)