Music Thomas Zaufke | ||
Grimm! is a musical written in German language by Peter Lund (lyrics), with music by Thomas Zaufke and choreography by Neva Howard and is subtitled Die wirklich wahre Geschichte von Rotkäppchen und ihrem Wolf (The really true story of Little Red Riding Hood and her wolf). The musical was premiered on December 7, 2014 in Graz on children and youth theater Next Liberty. Close in time the German premiere took place as a co-production with the Berlin University of the Arts at the Neuköllner Oper in Berlin on March 19, 2015.
Contents
Synopsis
The Little Red Riding Hood, a 14-year-old girl who is tired of her nickname and wants to be called Dorothea, lives in a village community that is cobbled together from various fairy-tale characters. However, one thing unites the villagers: The fear of the forest and the wolf. Next to the Little Red Riding Hood there lives mother goat and her children, the three little pigs and also the old farm dog Sultan with his son Rex. Everybody in the village already has had bad experiences with wolves - or at least do that. The Wolf lives in the forest, and the forest pulls the Little Red Riding Hood towards magical, despite or even because of all these horror stories. There will come a day when the curiosity prevailed, and the young girl goes - against all warnings - in the woods, where she met Grimm, the wolf. He appears to her but not as bad as him have described all the villagers.
Grimm is a hermit, and Little Red Riding Hood is fascinated by his freedom-loving nature and he is extremely attractive to her - what is mutual. The wolf had only contact with pig Wild, a wild boar, and granny owl. Pig Wild is initially convinced by the idea that wolf and man can not have a friendship or even relationship. However, she is in love with a pig from the village itself, which is also a sow. Only granny owl is equally open to forest and villagers because she knows the life here and there. Granny owl has maternal feelings for Little Red Riding Hood, and the girl decides under her influence to take Grimm to the village in order to put an end to all the rumors. She not suspect, what happens, because the village turns out to be conniving bunch.
They live in democratic structures and care about the village idyll, so they go into defense mode. The old yard dog Sultan, the mayor of the village wants preserve some dark secrets. The clever Pig would also like to be the mayor, and when he realizes that by and by all the villagers begin to give up their prejudices against Grimm, he starting an intrigue against the wolf; he would kill him best. False accusations of him almost lead to a disaster.
World premiere
Grimm! was premiered at the Children's Theatre of Opera Graz (Next Liberty) on 7 December 2014. The German premiere took place at the Neuköllner Oper in Berlin on March 19, 2015.
Ensemble in Graz
December 7th 2014 to April 27th 2015
Cast
Actors
Musicians
Ensemble in Berlin
March 19th to April 14th 2015 with students of Universität der Künste, Berlin
Cast
Actors
(in alphabetical order)
Musicians
Songs
Awards and nominations
In August 2015 the performance in Graz was nominated in four categories for the German Musical Theatre Award by the German Musical Academy. On October 26, 2015 Peter Lund was awarded in the category Best Book, and Christof Messner was honored as Best Actor.
Reviews
"Lund and Zaufke have created an interesting new family musical which, despite some difficulties, works quite well. The score is wonderful, packed with some great moments, with all sorts of musical influences.“ (Grimm! – Oper Graz, Ludovico Lucchesi Palli, musicaltheatrereview.com, February 2nd 2015))