Rock Me Amadeus - Vienna

I haven't seen it.

There's a gallery of production photos on the theatre's website. Yes, it looks like a pretty elaborate production:

Rock Me Amadeus - musicalvienna.at



(Scroll down, the gallery is a fair way down the page.)

LOL. Falco was absolutely massive in the 80s with several hits in Austria and Germany and considered one of the very first white Europeans to use rap and hip hop. He also caused a scandal when the conservative mainstream media in both countries refused to play his song "Jeanny", claiming it was glorifying violence, so of course it sold even better then. He was also one of the few with brilliant lyrics, often mocking society, in a time when most German-language music was banal crap. To top it all off, his private life was rather lurid and topped it all off by dying (far too) early in a car crash just after his 40th birthday to become a legend rather than a fading has-been.

Here have been musicals about him before, but the VBW's only big hit in the last years was a similar jukebox musical (with Rainhard Fendrich's music), so I can see why they were desperate for a new hit.

Whether it's worth seeing without knowing him? I haven't seen it, but if you can get a decently priced seat I think it's worth it for the music and the man's interesting story, especially since the VBW use English surtitles for their shows, so you can follow along easily.