Introduction:
Just as most of the fans were on the rebound after the last show of “Dance of the Vampires”, many of us found ourselves back in Seinäjoki. This time because of the May Day Revue with some of the stars from “Dance of the Vampires”.
So, for a few hours, we could embrace the fabulous singers.
Unfortunately, the reunion was short, but luckily they had a few treats for all the fans...
May Day Revue:
The day began as every other day when I am heading to Seinäjoki, namely with a three hour long train trip. Luckily we were three fans travelling together from Jyväskylä and the time went by fast because of a lot of fangirling and discussions. In Seinäjoki we met with two other fans and we headed towards the theatre with many bats (read: butterflies) in our stomaches.
Upon the arrival in the theatre, the first thing to do was to admire the costumes at the exhibition in the foyer, which we did quite intensively. A lot of photos were taken and more than once you could see a fan standing only centimetres from a costume admiring it and uttering things such as “wow” or “aw” (thank you Leena Rintala for designing such wonderful costumes. Sorry if I did not thank you before, because I really do love the work you did!).
Unfortunately, some of the costumes were not at the exhibition because they were used in the concert, but on the other hand, then we got the see the actors/actresses in their costumes again and that is a thing that I am not going to complain about.
Finally, it was time for the concert to start and the audience was more than ready. There were songs from both Chess, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Dance of the Vampires and others...
The performers were:
Anne Vihelä
Leena Rousti
Jouko Enkelnotko
Jyri Lahtinen
Ville Salonen
Sami Vartiainen
The first act started with the overture from Dance of the Vampires and otherwise everyone sang and performed beautifully! Personal highlights in the first act were: Ville singing “Maria” from West Side Story, Leena and Anne singing “I know him so well” from Chess, Jouko singing “Anthem” from Chess (I think it was “Anthem”, but I am not sure anymore. But anyway, it was beautiful) and Sami singing and dancing “I’m singing in the rain”.
Especially, I got very emotional when Leena and Anne performed “I know him so well”. It just hit a nerve somewhere and I had tears in my eyes during most of the song.
Furthermore both of them sang so beautifully! Thank you Leena and Anne, if I have not mentioned it yet, then I adore both of you (and always did, also in Tanssi).
In the end of the first act, the Count himself announced that after the intermission we would take another trip to Transylvania and the fans applauded in excitement and the news made the intermission feel longer than it actually was.
First song of second act was “Totale Finsternis” which Jyri and Anne performed very beautifully! It was nice once more to crawl into the universe of the Finnish Tanssi! After this song, and actually every song from Tanssi, there was spontaneously standing ovations from all the hardcore fans.
Secondly and also my highlight of the second act, was Ville performing “Für Sarah”(those of you who already read my three last entries about this musical already know that I have a soft spot for this song when Ville sings it).
Thirdly, we had a performance of “Wenn Liebe in Dir ist” with the roles of Alfred and Herbert reversed which was really funny and the fans loved it.
Fourthly, at the end of the Tanssi performances, we had a drunk Krolock (yes, you read it right) singing. It was nothing less than hilarious and so well played. I never thought I would see it, but I am so glad that I did. And no, I do not think it was disrespectful at all. It happened at a revue, and there is supposed to be sketches and it was also done with respect for the show.
Lastly, Jyri performed “Sweet transvestite” (in a suitable costume as well), and he was later joined by rest of the performers, also in suitable costumes. It was great and hilarious.
Faster than expected the concert was over and some of us went for something to eat before two from the group had to take the train home to Jyväskylä, while three of us were staying because we were going to see “Täti ja minä” the next day.
“Täti ja minä”:
Kemp is played by Jouko Enkelnotko and the aunt is played by Eija-Irmeli Lahti and they are both fabulous. As I am not fluent in Finnish, I can not give you a very detailed review, and I might understood something wrong because I sometimes did not really understand what was being said, but just looked at what was happening at the stage (body language and tone of the voice)
It is a story about a man who receive a letter from his dying aunt and he travels to her to take care of her until she dies. At first he seems very cold and he just wants her to die, and he even measure her out for her coffin and builds a suicide-device to her (which he suffers from instead, however, without dying).
But time goes by and over a year after his arrival, he is still taking care of his aunt. During this time, some sort of friendship develops between the two and it is very touching to see and experience how Kemp slowly goes from being annoyed by her to actually care for her. It also goes the other way around, as the aunt gets to know Kemp better e.g. through his stories about his rather unhappy childhood, his rambling when doing the chores, or looking out the window and watching the kids play or the old lady across the street who is always sitting in her window and watching him.
When the aunt finally dies, one can not avoid shedding some tears.
Last comments:
I know that I am saying thank you all the time, but really, what else is there to say? Thank you so much for the wonderful times, shows and the concert and thank you to whoever got the idea to the May Day Concert (you deserve a big hug).
My days spent in Seinäjoki on musicals, shows, concerts and time with fellow minded fans has more or less been the cream on the crop concerning my exchange semester in Finland, even though it has been champagne taste on a beer budget (yes, I love to use food idioms...)
