The Raimund Theater is a theatre in the

Mariahilf Mariahilf (; ; "Mary's help") is the 6th municipal district of Vienna, Austria (). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850. Mariahilf is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings. Wien.gv.a ...

district of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Named after the Austrian dramatist Ferdinand Raimund, the theatre was built by an association of Viennese citizens and opened on 28 November 1893 with Raimund's play ''Die gefesselte Phantasie''. It can seat around 1,200 people. The theater is currently owned by

Vereinigte Bühnen Wien Vereinigte Bühnen Wien (VBW), or United Stages Vienna, is a musical production company based in Vienna, Austria which produced several own musicals that were very successful. It also owns and/or operates four theaters: the Theater an der Wien, R ...

(VBW) along with the

Theater an der Wien The is a historic theatre in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district. Completed in 1801, the theatre has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music. Since 2006, it has served prim ...

and the Ronacher. Its current main use is for major musical productions.

History

Early history

The theater is named after the Austrian dramatist Ferdinand Raimund, it was built by an association of 500 residents of the municipality of Mariahilf. It is designed by Franz Roth and opened on 28 November 1893, fully lit by electricity. Raimund's play ''Die gefesselte Phantasie'' opened at the theater (Though its first performance was on 27 November 1893). The theatre mainly presented German folk dramas and plays. In 1908 it turned to

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

, with Johann Strauss' ''

The Gypsy Baron ''The Gypsy Baron'' () is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II which premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885. Its German libretto by Ignaz Schnitzer is based on the unpublished 1883 story ''Saffi'' by Mór Jókai. Jokai ...

''. Other premieres included

Robert Stolz Robert Elisabeth Stolz (25 August 188027 June 1975) was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music.Stanley Sadie Ed. (2002) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Oxford University Press Biography ...

's '' Das Glücksmädel'' and '' Dreimäderlhaus'', set to various pieces of music by

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

; this was performed more than 1200 times between 1916 and 1927. As the theatre was spared bombing damage during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the theatre re-opened promptly on 25 April 1945 with ''Dreimäderlhaus''. In 1948, Rudolf Marik took over as director for almost 30 years, transforming it into an internationally recognised theatre of the German-speaking world exclusively staging operettas with stars such as

Johannes Heesters Johan Marius Nicolaas Heesters (5 December 1903 – 24 December 2011), known professionally as Johannes Heesters, was a Dutch-German actor of stage, television and film, as well as a vocalist of numerous recordings and performer on the conce ...

, Marika Rökk, and others. Many well-known actors started their careers at the Raimund Theatre, including Hansi Niese, Paula Wessely, Attila Hörbiger, and Karl Skraup. After 1976 the theatre was occasionally used for

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

s, such as

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

's '' Lady in the Dark''.

Renovation

In 1985 the theatre was renovated, re-opening with the gala '' Seinerzeit''; since March 1987 it has formed part of the

. ''

A Chorus Line ''A Chorus Line'' is a 1975 musical conceived by Michael Bennett with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante. Set on the bare stage of a Broadway theater, the musical is cent ...

'' was followed by ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'' in 1988 and '' Phantom of the Opera'' in 1990, which transferred from the

. In 1993, on the anniversary of its opening, the German-language version of '' Kiss of the Spider Woman'' was premiered. This was followed by the Austrian premiere of Grease in 1994 and the European premiere of Disney's ''Beauty and the Beast'' in 1995. Autumn 1997 saw the world premiere of '' Dance of the Vampires'' in

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

's production. After ''

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' is a sung-through musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice ...

'' and a new production of ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

'' in September 2002, ''Wake Up'' was premiered, being the first musical by Rainhard Fendrich and

Harold Faltermeyer Hans Hugo Harold Faltermeyer (born 5 October 1952) is a German musician, composer and record producer. Faltermeyer is best known for composing the " Axel F" theme for the feature film '' Beverly Hills Cop'', an influential synth-pop hit in the ...

. On 11 March 2004 Dave Stewart's rock musical '' Barbarella'' had its world premiere. This was followed in 2005 by the German-language version of '' Romeo & Julia,'' a musical by Gérard Presgurvic based on Shakespeare. In September 2006, the new musical ''Rebecca'', by

Michael Kunze Michael Rolf Kunze (born 9 November 1943, in Prague) is a foremost German musical theater lyricist and librettist. He is best known for the hit musicals ''Elisabeth (musical), Elisabeth'' (1992), ''Tanz der Vampire'' (1996), ''Mozart!'' (1999), ...

and

Sylvester Levay Sylvester Levay (originally Lévay Szilveszter, Serbian language, Serbian: Силвестер Леваи, ''Silvester Levai'') is a Hungarian people, Hungarian recording artist and composer, born in Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Life and career Levay ...

, premiered at the theatre. On 24 January 2008 the musical ''

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1977 album '' News of the World'', written by guitarist Brian May. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA it p ...

'' featuring the music of

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

opened at the Raimund with its largest ever advance ticket sale of 90,000. Original Queen members Roger Taylor and

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

joined the cast on stage for the finale. After "We will rock You", The Musical "Rebecca" came back for a short season from September until the end of December 2008. On 26 February 2009, the theatre opened with a new production of the "VBW", the musical "Rudolf - Affaire Mayerling". This production was a "Try-out" at Budapest and then it moved to Vienna. In March 2010 a musical with songs by Udo Jürgens, an Austrian songwriter and entertainer, called "Ich war noch niemals in New York" opened and is going to stay until the end of June 2012. In September 2012 the musical '' Elisabeth'' will return for the third time to Vienna, but for the first time at Raimund Theatre. From 1992 until 1998 and from 2003 until 2005 the musical took place at the famous

References

External links

Raimund Theatre's English-language Web page
{{Authority control Theatres completed in 1893 Cultural venues in Vienna Opera houses in Vienna Buildings and structures in Mariahilf