Dance Of The Vampires: English Demos (2002)

There are about three entertainment announcements I can remember vividly in my life. The first one was Andrew Lloyd Webber at his Royal Albert Hall birthday concert (available on DVD) hinting at a sequel for "The Phantom of the Opera". This was followed by a book published in 1999 called "The Phantom of Manhattan" written by Frederick Forsyth.

Another one was Pink Floyd announcing 2014's "The Endless River", drawing on material from a projected instrumentals album from the 90s, as well as paying tribute to band member Rick Wright. God rest his soul. Since I mentioned the Floyd, I have to add their appearance at Live8 in 2005. David, Roger, Rick and Nick onstage again for the first time in more than twenty years, well it just defied description at that point. What a way to bring attention to a good cause!

A third one was that Michael Crawford—you may recognize him as Frank Spencer in the classic sitcom "Some Mothers Do 'ave 'em" or the leading role in "The Phantom of the Opera"—would play Count von Krolock in the American production of "Dance of the Vampires". "Tanz der Vampire", that hit monster musical from the magical pens of Jim Steinman and Michael Kunze, directed originally by Roman Polanski and based on his 1967 film "The Fearless Vampire Killers". To be specific: the film was first released as "Dance of the Vampires" and then became "The Fearless Vampire Killers" in its American release, which I believe is rather difficult to track down now.

OK. You are talking to someone who grew up with the albums "Bat out of Hell" and "Back into Hell" and became a massive Steinman fan. And this was going to be his first musical on Broadway. That is, if you didn't include "Footloose" from 1998 which featured "Holding out for a Hero". And if you knew anything about the original productions in Vienna and Stuttgart, and anything about Jim's music, at all, you knew this stood a good chance of becoming a phenomenon.

You are also talking to someone who grew up watching "Some Mothers Do 'ave 'em" and pestered his cousin to do Frank Spencer impressions because she would sound exactly like him. Then I heard the cast recording for "Phantom" and was stunned by the electrifying performance of Michael Crawford. It never fails to surprise me, the contrast between the two different characters: bumbling Frank and the Opera Ghost. Suddenly, here was this announcement that Crawford, Phantom of the Spencer, "Some Operas Do 'ave 'em" was seriously going to play the lead in a Jim Steinman musical, not to mention "Tanz der Vampire".

21 years later, and this was before the tragic events of September 11, and I can still remember that press announcement almost as if it was last year. The question was: what would happen next? Many others have comprehensively covered the story of what happened to "Dance of the Vampires" and I have no real interest in adding to that here. I probably wouldn't be able to do it justice anyway. Hats off to those folks, really!

OK. There *is* one thing I want to mention. After the reviews, actor Rene Auberjonois—God rest his soul—came backstage and started singing Krolock’s number “A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely” as a way of breaking the ice. (There’s another performance I always loved by the way, Rene Auberjonois in Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre as the King in both “The Tale of the Frog Prince” and “Sleeping Beauty”.)

Anyway, what I *am* going to mention is the pre-production demos of "Dance of the Vampires". You can download eleven of these at the Jim Steinman Dream Pollution site on an archived version of the "Dance of the Vampires" website. They're all there, featuring such talent as Kyle "Scarpia" Gordon, Steve Barton, Elaine Caswell, Annie Skates, Karine Hannah, Aris Sas, Marcus Lovett, Barry Keating, and even Jim himself at one point.

Before I get into this, I had to point out two very important facts: 1) this year is the twenty year anniversary of "Dance of the Vampires" on Broadway and 2) it's been twenty-one years since we lost Steve Barton. I was introduced to this extraordinary talent through "The Phantom of the Opera" cast recording, but it was "Tanz der Vampire" that made me a fan. His performance in both the Vienna production and the English demos (and those lucky souls who saw the April 2001 reading in New York) is truly one of the mountainous, most majestic performances I've ever encountered. My words don't do it justice.

So what do we have here? Let's look at these songs in their order on the website. Note: this order does not reflect that of the actual show, in either the Viennese or American versions.

"Overture/Carpe Noctem"---that's Jim himself at the start there. And we have begun. It's the Overture from the cast album. Most of these versions are using the instrumental tracks from the OCR and I totally love it. It makes you wish there was an English version of the OCR.

Suddenly Kyle Gordon comes in with "Seize the Night" and you are just totally pulled into this world. It's immersive theatre! Jim Steinman music tends to do that a lot.

"Vampires in Love (Total Eclipse of the Heart)"---Steve Barton and Elaine Caswell create a version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" that exists as a serious contender to the Bonnie Tyler and Rory Dodd original. This also gives you a glimpse, in my perspective anyway, of what a Meat Loaf duet version would be like. Steve at the end on that reprise of "Original Sin" will freeze your blood.

"Angels Arise"---for years I didn’t know who this singer was. Her identity, revealed by the musical arranger Michael Reed, is Annie Skates. I think I've heard of two people who played this song at their wedding. And I love that it's taken on that life. I've wanted to hear Sarah Brightman record it since 2008.

"Braver than we are"---this is the Karine Hannah version, and for years now I have felt that this song with Karine singing it deserved to be a Number 1 in 2001. This is like the lost Jim Steinman classic, for now anyway. Imagine this being like the end credits Elton John "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" version.

"Original Sin"---Steve delivers this English version of a song called "God Is Dead" in Vienna. I can see why they would have felt that some audiences would have struggled with this, hence the title change, but I think "Original Sin" makes a worthy alternative. Anyway, the music came from a song called "Original Sin" in the first place.

"Act One Finale Excerpt"---Steve takes us out of Act One with this. It's only brief, but this is like one of the great examples of something being short but oh so sweet.

"For Sarah"---Aris Sas was the first Alfred and he’s back to perform the song in English. Were it not for Steve, this would be one of the highpoints of the recording. In fact, I’m pretty sure this was one of the redemptive moments of the Broadway production, where it was sung by Max Von Essen.

"God has Left the Building"---the opening dance scene. This along with "Angels Arise" and "Original Sin" formed the basis of a new English prologue. This was the entrance scene of the Vampires, dancing through an ancient graveyard in Transylvania, before Count von Krolock would burst out of the ground in a levitating coffin. Maybe a tribute to the cover art of "Bat out of Hell"!

Out of context, I think "God has Left the Building" would have been perfect for "Bat III". Imagine the Neverland Express blasting this one out on the inevitable "Three Bats Tour" and then Meat Loaf comes out at the end, a towering King Kong presence looming over the audience.

"Eternity (Performed in German)"---this is just the song from the OCR but I would never skip this.

"Confession of a Vampire (The Insatiable Appetite)"---just the part where Steve's voice reverberates when he sings "Longing for the things I can't have" is hair-raising, bone-chilling and blood-blazing. It will remain inspirational for the rest of my existence. I truly believe had he performed this on stage at the Minskoff Theatre, it would have sealed the deal for him and scored him a Tony Award.

"Finale Act Two (The Dance of the Vampires)"---this track is quite different, in that it doesn't reuse the cast album version. This is the track from "Streets of Fire", from that song! "TONIGHT IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE YOUNG"! In effect, you are hearing an alternate mix with an almost completely different lyric and context. That's pretty special.

And so, that brings me to the conclusion of my "Dance of the Vampires" post. If you haven’t heard these, scoot on over to the website already and do check them out. If you're someone in need of inspiration, you will feel like you've been bitten by a spider and turned into Spider-Man.

Thank you for reading,

Ryan.