Michael Kunze (writer)
Encyclopedia
Michael Kunze is a German musical theater lyricist and librettist.
He is best known for the hit musicals Elisabeth
(1992), Dance of the Vampires (1996), Mozart! (musical)
(1999), and Rebecca (musical)
(2006).
He has also written the lyrics for a number of hit songs, including the number one Billboard hit "Fly, Robin, Fly" (1976) and was one of the top 1970s record producers, including songs for musical acts Silver Convention, Penny McLean, and Sister Sledge. Kunze has won a Grammy Award
, ECHO Lifetime Award and holds 79 Gold and Platinum Records.
, Kunze is the son of actress Dita Roesler and Walter Kunze, a writer, cartoonist and journalist, who worked for the German language
newspaper
Prager Tagblatt
. He grew up in Southern Germany and attended Klenze Oberrealschule in Munich
. He studied law, philosophy and history at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.
sixties. The Hamburg folklore group, City Preachers, recorded an LP with some
of those early songs. The record was anything but a commercial success, but it
made the music business aware of Michael Kunze. The first song Kunze
produced with Peter Maffay
, a 17-year-old newcomer, was called "Du" (English Translation: "You"). It topped the German charts in the summer of 1970 and went gold.
His recordings dominated the 1970s music charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. When
he produced his first international act, he hit both the top of the Billboard
and Cashbox charts in the U.S. with the song, "Fly, Robin, Fly".
His group, Silver Convention
, represented by composer Sylvester Levay
and Michael Kunze
himself, influenced disco music and was the first German aggregation ever to
win the coveted Grammy Award
. Based on his success in the U.S. - after "Fly,
Robin, Fly" came such hits as "Lady Bump" and "Get up and Boogie" - Michael
produced albums with a vast and varied array of internationally known
performers, including Julio Iglesias
, Nana Mouskouri
, Herbie Mann
, Lulu
,
Gilbert Bécaud
, Sister Sledge
and Caterina Valente
.
In 1981, Kunze stopped working as a producer but continued to write lyrics for top artists. Taking a temporary hiatus from show business, he wrote the book Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft (German Title: Strasse ins Feuer). It was translated into several languages; The New York Times
called it "a vivid story of a witch." He wrote a second book, Give Way To Freedom (German Title: Der Freiheit eine Gasse) on the 1848 democratic revolution in Southern Germany.
Kunze's activities. First, he adapted Andrew Lloyd Webber
's musical Evita, which was the beginning of his collaboration and friendship with the legendary Broadway director, Harold Prince. The success of his adaptation opened the
doors of the German-speaking market for the modern Anglo-American musical
and made him the preferred translator for international hit shows. His German
version of Cats ran for seven years in Vienna, making it one of the greatest hits
of all times in that city. The numerous other musicals Kunze has translated
include The Phantom of the Opera
, A Chorus Line
, Song and Dance
, Into the Woods
, Follies
, Assassins, Side by Side
by Sondheim, Dorian Gray
, Little Shop of Horrors, Aspects Of Love
, Sunset Boulevard
, Kiss Of The Spider Woman
, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
, The Lion King
, Mamma Mia!
and Elton John's Aida
.
Kunze also started working for television. He conceived and wrote several, 90-minute shows for the major German and Austrian networks (Liebe ist .../ZDF, Sport Gala/ARD, Weil wir leben wollen /ZDF) and developed the ARD Series Showgeschichten. In 1991, he conceived the international Peter Ustinov Gala in Paris, celebrating Sir Peter Ustinov´s 70th birthday, starring Sir Yehudin Menuhin, Klaus Maria Brandauer
, Petula Clark
, Tony Curtis
and Monserrat Caballe.
With the annual Bambi Award
Gala, he created the German counterpart to the American Academy Award presentation. His once-a-year special, Die Peter-Alexander-Show, starring Germany's top musical entertainer, Peter Alexander, and, among others, Richard Chamberlain
, Joan Collins
and Liza Minelli (ORF) reached cult status in the 1990s. He also conceived Der Goldene Löwe, the German counterpart to the American Emmy
Awards Show. Over the years, he has also written a number of articles for German magazines and newspapers (Stern, Frankfurter Allgemeine, ZEITMagazin, Playboy, Süddeutsche Zeitung), exploring his views on the function of entertainment in society and current media issues.
, about the life of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, opened at Vienna's Theater an der Wien
(music by Sylvester Levay
). The show ran in Vienna for more than six years and was immediately regarded as the re-birth of the contemporary continental musical theater in Europe. It was soon exported to other countries, such as Japan, Hungary, Sweden, Holland and Germany.
Collaborating with Roman Polanski
(director) and Jim Steinman
(composer),
Kunze wrote his first English libretto and lyrics for the musical, Dance of the Vampires. In October 1997, a German version opened at the Viennese Raimund Theater. On March 3, 2000, the show was transferred to Stuttgart, Germany. In December 2003, it opened in Hamburg, where it ran for another three years before opening in Berlin. The show also reached Broadway, where, despite Kunze's protests, an unauthorized version ran, for three months. It is currently running in Warsaw, Stuttgart, Vienna, Budapest and Tokyo.
Kunze’s Mozart! (musical)
(music: Sylvester Levay; director: Harry Kupfer), dramatizing the famous composer's life, premiered in October 1999 in Vienna (Theater an der Wien). It continues to play and run in Hamburg, Germany; Karlstad, Sweden; Tokyo, Japan; and Budapest, Hungary.
In 2006, two new Michael Kunze musicals opened. While Rebecca (musical)
, based on Daphne Du Maurier's famous novel, premiering on September 28 at Vienna's Raimund Theater, became another hit, Marie Antoinette disappointed. The latter show, dramatizing the events of the French Revolution, opened first in Tokyo and then in 2008, in Bremen, Germany. Both productions, though praised by critics, were financial failures.
In September 2009, Kunze gave the keynote speech at Second European Conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance International, “A Tale of Two Cities”, in Hamburg, Germany.
His musicals are considered the foundation of a new genre in contemporary musical theater, called the Drama Musical. Its dramatic structure integrates elements of the film structure into the classic two-act drama form.
He is best known for the hit musicals Elisabeth
Elisabeth (musical)
Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...
(1992), Dance of the Vampires (1996), Mozart! (musical)
Mozart!
Mozart! is an Austrian musical, originally written in German. The original book and lyrics were written by Michael Kunze and the music and arrangements were composed by Sylvester Levay. The show is a new imagining of the struggles of the famous composer....
(1999), and Rebecca (musical)
Rebecca (musical)
Rebecca is a German-language musical based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It was written by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay , the authors of the musicals Elisabeth, Mozart! and Marie Antoinette. The plot, which adheres closely to the original novel, revolves around Maxim...
(2006).
He has also written the lyrics for a number of hit songs, including the number one Billboard hit "Fly, Robin, Fly" (1976) and was one of the top 1970s record producers, including songs for musical acts Silver Convention, Penny McLean, and Sister Sledge. Kunze has won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, ECHO Lifetime Award and holds 79 Gold and Platinum Records.
Early life
Born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Kunze is the son of actress Dita Roesler and Walter Kunze, a writer, cartoonist and journalist, who worked for the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Prager Tagblatt
Prager Tagblatt
The Prager Tagblatt was a German language newspaper published in Prague from 1876 to 1939. It was considered to be the most influential liberal-democratic German newspaper in Bohemia. It stopped publication after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia...
. He grew up in Southern Germany and attended Klenze Oberrealschule in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. He studied law, philosophy and history at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.
Early career
Kunze started writing music and lyrics during his high school years in the earlysixties. The Hamburg folklore group, City Preachers, recorded an LP with some
of those early songs. The record was anything but a commercial success, but it
made the music business aware of Michael Kunze. The first song Kunze
produced with Peter Maffay
Peter Maffay
Peter Alexander Makkay better known as Peter Maffay is a German musician.- Biography :Born in Brasov, Romania, the son of a German , he was 14 when his family relocated to his parents' Germany in 1963. In the same year, he started his first band, The Dukes...
, a 17-year-old newcomer, was called "Du" (English Translation: "You"). It topped the German charts in the summer of 1970 and went gold.
His recordings dominated the 1970s music charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. When
he produced his first international act, he hit both the top of the Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
and Cashbox charts in the U.S. with the song, "Fly, Robin, Fly".
His group, Silver Convention
Silver Convention
Silver Convention was a German euro disco recording act of the 1970s. The group was originally named Silver Bird Convention, or Silver Bird.-Career:...
, represented by composer Sylvester Levay
Sylvester Levay
Sylvester Levay is a Hungarian composer. He was born 16 May 1945 in Subotica , in the North Bačka District of Vojvodina, Yugoslavia ; his name is pronounced in English similarly to "lave-ah-ee."...
and Michael Kunze
himself, influenced disco music and was the first German aggregation ever to
win the coveted Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. Based on his success in the U.S. - after "Fly,
Robin, Fly" came such hits as "Lady Bump" and "Get up and Boogie" - Michael
produced albums with a vast and varied array of internationally known
performers, including Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
, Nana Mouskouri
Nana Mouskouri
Nana Mouskouri , born Ioánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer who has sold about 300 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was known as Nána to her friends and...
, Herbie Mann
Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
, Lulu
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
,
Gilbert Bécaud
Gilbert Bécaud
Gilbert Bécaud was a French singer, composer and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are "Nathalie" and "Et Maintenant", a 1961 release that became an English language hit as "What Now My Love"...
, Sister Sledge
Sister Sledge
Sister Sledge is an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1972 and consisting of four sisters: Kim Sledge Debbie Sledge , Joni Sledge , and Kathy Sledge . They are granddaughters of the former opera singer Viola Williams. The sisters used to perform under the name of "Mrs...
and Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown...
.
In 1981, Kunze stopped working as a producer but continued to write lyrics for top artists. Taking a temporary hiatus from show business, he wrote the book Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft (German Title: Strasse ins Feuer). It was translated into several languages; The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it "a vivid story of a witch." He wrote a second book, Give Way To Freedom (German Title: Der Freiheit eine Gasse) on the 1848 democratic revolution in Southern Germany.
Later career
In the 1980s, the musical began making its way into the center of MichaelKunze's activities. First, he adapted Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's musical Evita, which was the beginning of his collaboration and friendship with the legendary Broadway director, Harold Prince. The success of his adaptation opened the
doors of the German-speaking market for the modern Anglo-American musical
and made him the preferred translator for international hit shows. His German
version of Cats ran for seven years in Vienna, making it one of the greatest hits
of all times in that city. The numerous other musicals Kunze has translated
include The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
, A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....
, Song and Dance
Song and Dance
Song and Dance is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a love story.The first part is Tell Me On A Sunday, with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, about a young British woman's romantic misadventures in New York...
, Into the Woods
Into the Woods
Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim...
, Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
, Assassins, Side by Side
Side By Side By Sondheim
Side by Side by Sondheim is a musical revue featuring the songs of Broadway and film composer Stephen Sondheim. Its title is derived from the song "Side by Side by Side" from Company.-History:...
by Sondheim, Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray is the main character of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.It may also refer to:* Dorian Gray , an Italian film starring Helmut Berger...
, Little Shop of Horrors, Aspects Of Love
Aspects of Love
Aspects of Love is a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything."...
, Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
, Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Kiss of the Spider Woman (musical)
Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb, with the book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the Manuel Puig novel El Beso de la Mujer Araña...
, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
, The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
, Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. Although the title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia", the plot is fictional, not...
and Elton John's Aida
Aida (musical)
Aida is a musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang, and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical....
.
Kunze also started working for television. He conceived and wrote several, 90-minute shows for the major German and Austrian networks (Liebe ist .../ZDF, Sport Gala/ARD, Weil wir leben wollen /ZDF) and developed the ARD Series Showgeschichten. In 1991, he conceived the international Peter Ustinov Gala in Paris, celebrating Sir Peter Ustinov´s 70th birthday, starring Sir Yehudin Menuhin, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...
, Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
and Monserrat Caballe.
With the annual Bambi Award
Bambi (prize)
The Bambi - Deutschlands Wichtigster Medienpreis, often simply called Bambi Awards and stylized as BAMBI, are presented annually by Hubert Burda Media to recognize excellence in international media and television "with vision and creativity who affected and inspired the German public that year",...
Gala, he created the German counterpart to the American Academy Award presentation. His once-a-year special, Die Peter-Alexander-Show, starring Germany's top musical entertainer, Peter Alexander, and, among others, Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
and Liza Minelli (ORF) reached cult status in the 1990s. He also conceived Der Goldene Löwe, the German counterpart to the American Emmy
Awards Show. Over the years, he has also written a number of articles for German magazines and newspapers (Stern, Frankfurter Allgemeine, ZEITMagazin, Playboy, Süddeutsche Zeitung), exploring his views on the function of entertainment in society and current media issues.
Current career
Since the 1990s, Kunze is creating original musicals in his own style. In September 1992, his musical ElisabethElisabeth (musical)
Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...
, about the life of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, opened at Vienna's Theater an der Wien
Theater an der Wien
The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
(music by Sylvester Levay
Sylvester Levay
Sylvester Levay is a Hungarian composer. He was born 16 May 1945 in Subotica , in the North Bačka District of Vojvodina, Yugoslavia ; his name is pronounced in English similarly to "lave-ah-ee."...
). The show ran in Vienna for more than six years and was immediately regarded as the re-birth of the contemporary continental musical theater in Europe. It was soon exported to other countries, such as Japan, Hungary, Sweden, Holland and Germany.
Collaborating with Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
(director) and Jim Steinman
Jim Steinman
James Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...
(composer),
Kunze wrote his first English libretto and lyrics for the musical, Dance of the Vampires. In October 1997, a German version opened at the Viennese Raimund Theater. On March 3, 2000, the show was transferred to Stuttgart, Germany. In December 2003, it opened in Hamburg, where it ran for another three years before opening in Berlin. The show also reached Broadway, where, despite Kunze's protests, an unauthorized version ran, for three months. It is currently running in Warsaw, Stuttgart, Vienna, Budapest and Tokyo.
Kunze’s Mozart! (musical)
Mozart!
Mozart! is an Austrian musical, originally written in German. The original book and lyrics were written by Michael Kunze and the music and arrangements were composed by Sylvester Levay. The show is a new imagining of the struggles of the famous composer....
(music: Sylvester Levay; director: Harry Kupfer), dramatizing the famous composer's life, premiered in October 1999 in Vienna (Theater an der Wien). It continues to play and run in Hamburg, Germany; Karlstad, Sweden; Tokyo, Japan; and Budapest, Hungary.
In 2006, two new Michael Kunze musicals opened. While Rebecca (musical)
Rebecca (musical)
Rebecca is a German-language musical based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It was written by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay , the authors of the musicals Elisabeth, Mozart! and Marie Antoinette. The plot, which adheres closely to the original novel, revolves around Maxim...
, based on Daphne Du Maurier's famous novel, premiering on September 28 at Vienna's Raimund Theater, became another hit, Marie Antoinette disappointed. The latter show, dramatizing the events of the French Revolution, opened first in Tokyo and then in 2008, in Bremen, Germany. Both productions, though praised by critics, were financial failures.
In September 2009, Kunze gave the keynote speech at Second European Conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance International, “A Tale of Two Cities”, in Hamburg, Germany.
His musicals are considered the foundation of a new genre in contemporary musical theater, called the Drama Musical. Its dramatic structure integrates elements of the film structure into the classic two-act drama form.
Awards
- 56 gold records
- 23 platinum records
- Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Fly, Robin, Fly, music by Sylvester LevaySylvester LevaySylvester Levay is a Hungarian composer. He was born 16 May 1945 in Subotica , in the North Bačka District of Vojvodina, Yugoslavia ; his name is pronounced in English similarly to "lave-ah-ee."...
(1975) - Paul-Lincke-Ring (1989)
- Goldene Feder des Deutschen Textdichter-Verbandes (1991)
- Heinz-Bolten-Baeckers-Preis of the GEMA-Stiftung (1993)
- Musical of the Year Award for Mozart! (musical)Mozart!Mozart! is an Austrian musical, originally written in German. The original book and lyrics were written by Michael Kunze and the music and arrangements were composed by Sylvester Levay. The show is a new imagining of the struggles of the famous composer....
(2000) - Musical of the Year Award for ElisabethElisabeth (musical)Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...
(2001) - ECHO Lifetime Award (2005)
- Musical of the Year Award for Rebecca (musical)Rebecca (musical)Rebecca is a German-language musical based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It was written by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay , the authors of the musicals Elisabeth, Mozart! and Marie Antoinette. The plot, which adheres closely to the original novel, revolves around Maxim...
(2007) - German Music Authors' Awards (2010)
Adaptations
- 1980 – "I Love My WifeI Love My WifeI Love My Wife is a musical with a book and lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, based on a play by Luis Rego.A satire of the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the musical takes place on Christmas Eve in suburban Trenton, New Jersey, where two married couples who have been close friends...
" German version (Theater Oberhausen) - 1981 – "Evita" German version (Theater an der Wien)
- 1983 – "Cats" German version (Theater an der Wien)
- 1985 – "Le CochonLe CochonLe Cochon is a fifty-minute featurette co-directed by Jean Eustache and Jean-Michel Barjol in 1970. Shot in a cinema verité style, it documents the traditional killing of a plump pig in a French rural village...
" (Le Cochon qui voulait maigrir) German version (Burgtheater Vienna) - 1985 – "Song and DanceSong and DanceSong and Dance is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a love story.The first part is Tell Me On A Sunday, with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, about a young British woman's romantic misadventures in New York...
" German version (Deutsches Theater, Munich) - 1986 – "A Chorus LineA Chorus LineA Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....
" German version (Raimundtheater) - 1986 – "Little Shop of Horrors" German version (Szene Wien)
- 1987 – "Wodka-Cola" (Leave it to Me) German version (Staatstheater Stuttgart)
- 1988 – "The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the OperaLe Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
" German version (Theater an der Wien) - 1988 – "Avos!" German version (Stadttheater, Grosses Haus, Freiburg)
- 1989 – "CzechowCzechówCzechów is placename of:* Czechów, Lubusz Voivodeship* Czechów, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship* Czechów Kąt- See also :* Czechow * Chekhov * Czechowicz...
" German version (Theaterfestival Konstanz) - 1990 – "Into the WoodsInto the WoodsInto the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim...
" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn) - 1991 – "FolliesFolliesFollies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
" German version (Theater des Westens, Berlin) - 1992 – "Dorian GrayDorian GrayDorian Gray is the main character of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.It may also refer to:* Dorian Gray , an Italian film starring Helmut Berger...
" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn) - 1993 – "Assassins" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn)
- 1993 – "Kiss of the Spider WomanKiss of the Spider Woman (musical)Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb, with the book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the Manuel Puig novel El Beso de la Mujer Araña...
" German version (Raimundtheater) - 1995 – "City of AngelsCity of Angels (musical)City of Angels is a musical comedy with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, and book by Larry Gelbart. The musical weaves together two plots, the "real" world of a writer trying to turn his book into a screenplay, and the "reel" world of the fictional film.-Productions:City of Angels...
" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn) - 1995 – "Sunset BoulevardSunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
" German version (Rhein-Main-Theater, Niedernhausen) - 1996 – "Aspects of LoveAspects of LoveAspects of Love is a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything."...
" German version (Staatsoperette, Dresden) - 1999 – "The Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
" German version (Musicaltheater Berlin) - 2001 – "The Lion KingThe Lion KingThe Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
" German version (Hafentheater Hamburg) - 2002 – "Mamma Mia!Mamma Mia!Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. Although the title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia", the plot is fictional, not...
" German version (Operettenhaus Hamburg) - 2003 – "WickedWicked (musical)Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
" German version (Palladiumtheater Stuttgart)
Original Musicals
- 1991 – "Hexen Hexen" (Sylvester Levay) Deutschhof, Heilbronn, 15 June
- 1992 – ElisabethElisabeth (musical)Elisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...
(Levay) Theater an der Wien, 3 September - 1997 – Dance of the Vampires (Jim Steinman) Raimund Theater, 4 October
- 1999 – Mozart! (musical)Mozart!Mozart! is an Austrian musical, originally written in German. The original book and lyrics were written by Michael Kunze and the music and arrangements were composed by Sylvester Levay. The show is a new imagining of the struggles of the famous composer....
(Levay) Theater an der Wien, 2 October - 2006 – Marie Antoinette (Levay) Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, 7 January
- 2006 – Rebecca (musical)Rebecca (musical)Rebecca is a German-language musical based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It was written by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay , the authors of the musicals Elisabeth, Mozart! and Marie Antoinette. The plot, which adheres closely to the original novel, revolves around Maxim...
'(Levay) Raimund Theater, Vienna, 3 September
External links
- michaelkunze.info Official Site
- storyarchitekt.com Official Site
- Michael Kunze's blog
- Michael Kunze's Drama Musicals
- International Broadway Database (IBDB), Michael Kunze
- Broadway World West End Interview: Writer And Interpreter Michael Kunze
- Broadway World West End: "German Music Authors' Awards to Honor Lyricist Michael Kunze"
- Broadway World West End:"REBECCA: Author, Lyricist And Translator Michael Kunze Opens Website To Questions"
- Playbill.com Celebrity Buzz: Michael Kunze
- The Playwrights Database, Michael Kunze
- Official website
- Official fan portal
- Offizieller Rebecca Fanclub