Review: Vampyyrien tanssi

I saw Helsinki City Theatre’s Dance of the Vampire at the premiere on 3 February.

Dance of the Vampires is based on Roman Polanski’s film The Fearless Vampire Killers. After the film’s popularity had lasted for 30 years, the idea of a musical arose. At the end of the 1990s, Dance of the Vampires was born.

In the musical, Professor Abronsius (Antti Timonen/Tuukka Leppänen) and his assistant Alfred (Petrus Kähkönen/Miiko Toivainen) go to Transylvania to search for and study vampires. Alfred falls in love with Sarah (Raili Raitala/Anna Victoria Erikson), the daughter of Chagal (Risto Kaskilahti/Kari Mattila), the owner of the inn, who has also caught the eye of Count von Krolock (Mikko Vihma/Jonas Saari). Eager for adventure, Sarah goes to the Count’s castle for the midnight ball, where Alfred and Abronsius go to rescue the young maiden.

Even though the musical has risen to cult status and has been praised all over the place, I didn’t really know what to expect, as I didn’t get to know the story before the premiere. I eagerly read through the script before the performance, but the biggest responsibility for my vampire education was left to the musical.

I was glad I didn’t know anything about the story beforehand, because now I didn’t compare it to anything and enjoyed the whole show to the fullest. What lights (William Iles), what costumes (Elina Kolehmainen), what choreographies (Markku Nenonen)! Great job! All the vampires looked terribly good and the castle landscape was transformed into an inn and a cemetery in a clever and beautiful way. The controls work, you won’t get bored for a moment. There are wonderful and dark scenes on stage, but also a lot of fast-paced and funny moments. The songs work and the music is powerful and great. I was very surprised when the first chords of the Total Eclipse of the Heart song echoed, I didn’t know that it was also in this musical.

What cloak-handling, gentlemen vampires! Count von Krolock is definitely my favorite character, and Mikko Vihma, what a voice and stage charisma! Wow! All facial expressions and gestures fit the count like a nose to the head (or teeth to the carotid artery). Samuel Harjanne as Count Herbert’s son is a dashing and boisterous, but also stylish young gentleman, finely acted and sung. Petrus Kähkönen is a brilliant, wow what a song, lovely Alfred. Antti Timonen’s Abronsius is passionate about his research, but he is also a sensible gentleman. Raili Raitala sings beautifully, and Sarah is wonderfully playful and adventurous. I also have to highlight Laura Alajääski’s Magda, I liked this character a lot. The rest of the crew does a great job, the songs and dances work and the vampires and other things look great.

Sometimes there is a little too much going on on stage, and you don’t know what to follow. However, this is only a small evil, and at least it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the theatre. There was probably a bit of premiere stiffness in the performance, at least I thought I noticed something like that, but it was still brilliant.

Dance of the Vampires offers handsome and beautiful vampires, canines and blood-curdling tunes. It’s worth heading to the midnight party, it’s worth it!