“Musicals Alive”
This was the title of the program which Ethan, along with fellow colleagues, presented at this Gala Concert on May 20th (Pfingstmontag, a German holiday) in Tecklenburg. On this open air stage Ethan did 15 shows as Pilate in “Jesus Christ Superstar” the year before, and, as he cannot take part in this year’s production, it was a very special pleasure for him and his audience in Tecklenburg, to appear this one night only to bring the Musicals alive. “Alive” should mean that there wasn’t any plan to perform well known, sung-to-death songs like “Memory” and “Don’t Cry for me Argentina”, but to sing the hits from older shows like “My Fair Lady” or “Guys and Dolls”, or to present the showstoppers from the new musicals, like “Tanz der Vampire”. Beside that, there was also swing, rock and pop songs with no relation to Musical Theatre, so there was some music for each fan’s taste.
Though some of Ethan’s fan might have missed mega hits like “This is the Moment”, they were mostly pleasantly suprised to hear some new songs they had perhaps never heard before. Right after the opening “My Fair Lady” medley, Ethan asked for fortune with the “Guys and Dolls” song “Luck be a Lady”. Luck remained a lady during that evening for the sun kept on shining and the artists were highly motivated to show their best.
Kevin Tarte, formerly Ethan’s opponent Gaston in the Viennese “Beauty and the Beast” production, and currently the celebrated lead in Stuttgart’s “Tanz der Vampire” presented his personal “Krolock Medley”, although he suffered from a cold which had stolen his voice. Also Vienna’s former Belle Jana Werner impressed (especially the male audience) with a sexy version of the “Cabaret” title song. Jana Werner was also well known as Duisburg’s Fantine and will be seen as Eliza in Tecklenburg’s My Fair Lady. Remembering her (and Ethan’s) time at Jekyll & Hyde in Bremen, the wonderful Leah delos Santos sang “Once upon a dream”, and Caroline Fortenbacher performed the songs “Children of wings” and “Nobody does it better” A preview of this year’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” production was given by Kristian Vetter, who will be playing Judas.
His Jesus, Tecklenburg’s favourite Sascha Krebs, was hosting the show and entertained the audience with some jokes and also with his voice while singing about “Mack the Knife” from the “Beggars Opera”. He had fun while introducing his colleagues; for example, Ethan with his second song of the night which was Frank Sinatra’s anthem to their hometown “New York, New York”. Some more Sintara was sung by Sascha and Leah with a lovely version of “Something stupid” and finally, the humourous highlight of the evening was when those highly musical trained voices took a try with operatic songs. The whole cast was singing “Studying the women” from the operetta “Die lustige Witwe” (The Merry Widow). That was really funny, but was also sadly the last song that ended a far too short evening. Anyhow, this year’s open air theatre festival was officially opened with big musical fireworks.
When the official programm was done Ethan had a lot of time to please all of his fans. He gave lots of autographes and posed for some pictures before leaving for vacation.
The complete songlist:
Jana, Dean & Sascha sang a Medley from “My Fair Lady”
Ethan- Luck be a Lady
Carolin- Children of Wings
Kevin- Krolock Medley
Kristian- Superstar
Leah- Once upon a Dream
Jana- Cabaret
Sascha- Mack the Knife
Jana- If I can’t have you
Kristian- Don’t you worry
Leah- Wishing you were
Dean- My first, my last…
Carolin- Nobody does it better
Ethan- New York, New York
Sascha/Leah- Something stupid
Kevin- Engelbert Medley
Sascha- Yesterday Man
All Stars- Ja, das Studium der Weiber
Here’s what the artists said:
Sascha Krebs (he’ll be Tecklenburg’s Jesus in JCS again): “That was a really good evening. As always, it was a lot of fun to perform here. Not surprising, because Tecklenburg has simply the best stage I know.”
Ethan Freeman: “There is nothing as beautiful as when 2000 happy faces are looking towards you. It really feels good and it is a lot of fun.”
Leah delos Santos (who will be Mary in JCS this summer): “It was a great and funny evening. I’m really happy and look forward to my work in Tecklenburg this summer.”
Kevin Tarte: “When I woke up this morning my voice was gone. But to cancel the performance in Tecklenburg? No, that wasn’t what I wanted – not to disappoint my audience in Tecklenburg.”
Caroline Fortenbacher: “If the audience is safisfied, I am as well. I always love to return to Tecklenburg and to that true audience and the amazing atmosphere.”
Kristian Vetter: “It was simply amazing to be on this stage. In Tecklenburg everything is wonderfully natural. I like that and I look forward to the rock opera.”
Dean Welterlen: “Tecklenburg is always worth the journey. We had a lot of fun during this event and backstage there was a lot of laughter.”
Photos by Kirsten Dannemann
