We Will Rock You / Köln
Have you seen WWRY before your audition?
I've seen the previews of the original cast, because I knew a guy inside. I loved it,
it was amazing. I love the Killerqueen with Brigitte Oelke and it was fabulous, I
really liked to watch the musical, it's like a rock-concert, anyway. But I never
thought I would have done the show, actually there was nothing for me in there. I
just liked to watch it. I still was in the ballet-company then.
Was it difficult to catch up the 2 weeks you missed of the rehearsals?
Musically-wise like for the choir it was a bit hard. The first week were just the
phonetics, that's why they said "It doesn't matter, you've stayed in Germany for 7
years and I'm sure you're fine for the ensemble." And then the 2nd week was for
the musical rehearsal, like song-wise, doing the words, the harmonies, they
learned especially the "Bohemian Rhapsody" which took the most time for me to
learn. So yeah, it was a bit hard to catch up. But after a while it was fine. We had
like private lessons for tenors, they helped me a lot, I asked a couple of things to
colleagues. They did 6 weeks of rehearsals, I did 4. Choreography-wise we started
when I arrived, so it was okay.
Did the show have any new challenges?
Oh yeah, the whole show was a challenge for me! Because dancing-style-wise it
was something I never did before. You know I come from ballet, classical dancing,
jazz, tap, whatever. And the show is sort of a mix between aerobic and kind of
Fosse-style. Not really Fosse-style but that kind of jazz-style for Killerqueen that
mostly was like a sort of a mix between aerobic and HipHop, something like that.
Not my world, so completely another island. So yes, it was a big challenge for me
especially every time when we had to improvise, to be sexy and to go on the
floor... Killerqueen and all the stuff with the people, everything is improvisation.
Of course as firstcast you fix a lot of things, but as soon as a swing was on it was a
completely different show, so you had to improvise. And in the rehearsals I was
immediately going on the floor as a cat, it took me a lot of time. And they were
looking at me "Tststs, wrong show, wrong show, take the cat off your body!" It was
really hard, you know, being sexy you have to be like this… […] but I immediately
became a cat… it was fun. So actually the whole show was a big challenge for me.
Also because they told me I looked too classical. They were right in the beginning,
but with the time I got more the style and everything, and in the end I think it was
fine. I never got any complains, so it's okay. Not many notes from the dance-
captain, she was very nice to me.
Did you like your costumes?
It depended… some days yes, some days no. The Gaga-costume… I liked it when I
was a little bit thinner. But every other day I hated it. I hated in fact that the shirt
was so short, it was always under my armpit or something. But I loved the
comfortable shoes and the pants of Gaga. I also liked the Gaga-wig. The 2nd one,
the first one was horrible. In the beginning I had a different wig, it was awful, I
looked chinese, but the second wig was really nice.
I liked the "magic Killerqueen-outfit", the one of "Play the Game" with the plastic-
wigs and the glasses. Not materially-wise, but I liked the model very much. The
material was horrible, very hot and very uncomfortable to dance in. The shoes
were great, but also very uncomfortable to dance in. They were not meant to
dance in, they were street shoes, oh no, actually I think they were flamenco-
shoes.
As a Bohemian I liked the wig, it was fine, and the make-up. I liked the jacket and
the jeans, I hated the shoes. I don't like flat shoes, completely flat shoes anyway,
because I'm small.
The Secret-Policeman was an uncomfortable outfit. Pure plastic plus this big
armature like I don't know how to call it, this big thing, then we had plastic
helmets, it was horrible. But it really made you feel real powerful as policeman.
Which was your favourite scene (involved or off stage), which didn't you like?
The favourites… "I want to break free", "Bohemian Rhapsody", definitely. And I did
like Gaga actually, it was fun, and I loved the song, anyway. I loved "A Kind of
Magic", the song as well, but I hated the scene, it was just so boring. But the
whole package was kind of nice, you know. "Break free" is a wonderful song, I
really liked that!
Which I didn't like… Actually "I want it all". I liked to watch it, but doing it
backstage was like… […] "Headlong" as well… No, I like it, but at the end of a day…
some days it was a bit… you know. It depends, you have to be in the mood for it.
And I can't hear "We will rock you" anymore… "We are the Champions" was nice,
but I didn't like so much to do it because we had to keep our arms up for about… 5
hours. And you think "Please, can I get my arms down!"
Who was your favourite character?
I don't know… actually it depends on who is playing it. Galileo is a wonderful
character, so is Scaramouche, so is DMJ playing J.B., I think he was great on the
stage. Well, I guess my favourite character is Killerqueen, yeah, definitely, she's
fabulous! I think every guy dreams to be a drag and doing Killerqueen… "Wachs
ab!!!"
If you could have played every role in this show, which one would it have been?
Why?
I think there was nothing for me really… Ozzy! I would have loved to sing the song
["No-one but you"]. As Galileo I would have liked to sing "Break free", but it's a very
hard role to sing, and it's not really my voice.
How much did the atmosphere in the audience influence the cast on stage?
About 50%! When the show started and the curtain went up and the theatre was
like empty, we were like "Where's the audience?!" But when the curtain goes up
and the people are like "Ooooh" , or clapping their hands it was fantastic! In fact I
think that's the best start of the show. When the curtain goes up and you see this
white staircase and all the shadows and the little computer blinking, it was
amazing.
Any comment to the emotional castchange-show?
It was wonderful. It was very, very emotional, because everything you do in the
show is the last time you're doing it. So every time you're doing "Wir sind Dein
Licht mit Dankbarkeit", I will never say that sentence again, never, never do the
movements again. There'll never be the same excitement when the curtain goes up
like it did for so many times. And it was very emotional because we had a very
good cast, we were really a big group. And it was really sad that it was the last
time we'd see eachother. The last show was very special to me, the whole year
was full of emotions of any kind.
Which is the best memory you keep from WWRY?
Actually from the last show when we did "Champions" and Alex Melcher had this
amazing speech. I was like bawling my eyes off, watching Grace Boguzas next to
me, and I was looking at the people. Especially the few people who were left
behind, like Lee Greenaway, have been sad. I think it was probably harder for
them. Lee p.e. was crying so much because he knew, the next time he'd gonna be
on stage it would be with a completely different cast. It was very emotional, and
very hard to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" after that.
Berlin 23.06.2007 (c) Sabine
I've seen the previews of the original cast, because I knew a guy inside. I loved it,
it was amazing. I love the Killerqueen with Brigitte Oelke and it was fabulous, I
really liked to watch the musical, it's like a rock-concert, anyway. But I never
thought I would have done the show, actually there was nothing for me in there. I
just liked to watch it. I still was in the ballet-company then.
Was it difficult to catch up the 2 weeks you missed of the rehearsals?
Musically-wise like for the choir it was a bit hard. The first week were just the
phonetics, that's why they said "It doesn't matter, you've stayed in Germany for 7
years and I'm sure you're fine for the ensemble." And then the 2nd week was for
the musical rehearsal, like song-wise, doing the words, the harmonies, they
learned especially the "Bohemian Rhapsody" which took the most time for me to
learn. So yeah, it was a bit hard to catch up. But after a while it was fine. We had
like private lessons for tenors, they helped me a lot, I asked a couple of things to
colleagues. They did 6 weeks of rehearsals, I did 4. Choreography-wise we started
when I arrived, so it was okay.
Did the show have any new challenges?
Oh yeah, the whole show was a challenge for me! Because dancing-style-wise it
was something I never did before. You know I come from ballet, classical dancing,
jazz, tap, whatever. And the show is sort of a mix between aerobic and kind of
Fosse-style. Not really Fosse-style but that kind of jazz-style for Killerqueen that
mostly was like a sort of a mix between aerobic and HipHop, something like that.
Not my world, so completely another island. So yes, it was a big challenge for me
especially every time when we had to improvise, to be sexy and to go on the
floor... Killerqueen and all the stuff with the people, everything is improvisation.
Of course as firstcast you fix a lot of things, but as soon as a swing was on it was a
completely different show, so you had to improvise. And in the rehearsals I was
immediately going on the floor as a cat, it took me a lot of time. And they were
looking at me "Tststs, wrong show, wrong show, take the cat off your body!" It was
really hard, you know, being sexy you have to be like this… […] but I immediately
became a cat… it was fun. So actually the whole show was a big challenge for me.
Also because they told me I looked too classical. They were right in the beginning,
but with the time I got more the style and everything, and in the end I think it was
fine. I never got any complains, so it's okay. Not many notes from the dance-
captain, she was very nice to me.
Did you like your costumes?
It depended… some days yes, some days no. The Gaga-costume… I liked it when I
was a little bit thinner. But every other day I hated it. I hated in fact that the shirt
was so short, it was always under my armpit or something. But I loved the
comfortable shoes and the pants of Gaga. I also liked the Gaga-wig. The 2nd one,
the first one was horrible. In the beginning I had a different wig, it was awful, I
looked chinese, but the second wig was really nice.
I liked the "magic Killerqueen-outfit", the one of "Play the Game" with the plastic-
wigs and the glasses. Not materially-wise, but I liked the model very much. The
material was horrible, very hot and very uncomfortable to dance in. The shoes
were great, but also very uncomfortable to dance in. They were not meant to
dance in, they were street shoes, oh no, actually I think they were flamenco-
shoes.
As a Bohemian I liked the wig, it was fine, and the make-up. I liked the jacket and
the jeans, I hated the shoes. I don't like flat shoes, completely flat shoes anyway,
because I'm small.
The Secret-Policeman was an uncomfortable outfit. Pure plastic plus this big
armature like I don't know how to call it, this big thing, then we had plastic
helmets, it was horrible. But it really made you feel real powerful as policeman.
Which was your favourite scene (involved or off stage), which didn't you like?
The favourites… "I want to break free", "Bohemian Rhapsody", definitely. And I did
like Gaga actually, it was fun, and I loved the song, anyway. I loved "A Kind of
Magic", the song as well, but I hated the scene, it was just so boring. But the
whole package was kind of nice, you know. "Break free" is a wonderful song, I
really liked that!
Which I didn't like… Actually "I want it all". I liked to watch it, but doing it
backstage was like… […] "Headlong" as well… No, I like it, but at the end of a day…
some days it was a bit… you know. It depends, you have to be in the mood for it.
And I can't hear "We will rock you" anymore… "We are the Champions" was nice,
but I didn't like so much to do it because we had to keep our arms up for about… 5
hours. And you think "Please, can I get my arms down!"
Who was your favourite character?
I don't know… actually it depends on who is playing it. Galileo is a wonderful
character, so is Scaramouche, so is DMJ playing J.B., I think he was great on the
stage. Well, I guess my favourite character is Killerqueen, yeah, definitely, she's
fabulous! I think every guy dreams to be a drag and doing Killerqueen… "Wachs
ab!!!"
If you could have played every role in this show, which one would it have been?
Why?
I think there was nothing for me really… Ozzy! I would have loved to sing the song
["No-one but you"]. As Galileo I would have liked to sing "Break free", but it's a very
hard role to sing, and it's not really my voice.
How much did the atmosphere in the audience influence the cast on stage?
About 50%! When the show started and the curtain went up and the theatre was
like empty, we were like "Where's the audience?!" But when the curtain goes up
and the people are like "Ooooh" , or clapping their hands it was fantastic! In fact I
think that's the best start of the show. When the curtain goes up and you see this
white staircase and all the shadows and the little computer blinking, it was
amazing.
Any comment to the emotional castchange-show?
It was wonderful. It was very, very emotional, because everything you do in the
show is the last time you're doing it. So every time you're doing "Wir sind Dein
Licht mit Dankbarkeit", I will never say that sentence again, never, never do the
movements again. There'll never be the same excitement when the curtain goes up
like it did for so many times. And it was very emotional because we had a very
good cast, we were really a big group. And it was really sad that it was the last
time we'd see eachother. The last show was very special to me, the whole year
was full of emotions of any kind.
Which is the best memory you keep from WWRY?
Actually from the last show when we did "Champions" and Alex Melcher had this
amazing speech. I was like bawling my eyes off, watching Grace Boguzas next to
me, and I was looking at the people. Especially the few people who were left
behind, like Lee Greenaway, have been sad. I think it was probably harder for
them. Lee p.e. was crying so much because he knew, the next time he'd gonna be
on stage it would be with a completely different cast. It was very emotional, and
very hard to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" after that.
Berlin 23.06.2007 (c) Sabine