Ralph Siegel's “Zeppelin - The Musical” celebrates its world premiere in the Neuschwanstein Festival Hall

Füssen - Numerous celebrities were there when Ralph Siegel's “Zeppelin - The Musical” celebrated its world premiere on Saturday in the “Neuschwanstein” festival theater.

The visitors not only expected the story of the invention of the airship and the crash of the "Hindenburg", but also a bombastic show.

Elaborate costumes, acrobatics and dance performances, live music and powerful musical actors: Ralph Siegel spared no expense or effort for his life's work. He worked on it for five years - and had to deal with numerous setbacks. After producers turned their backs on the play, a theater also went bankrupt. So Siegel went through the matter financially on his own, took out a loan and moved the play to the Festspielhaus in Füssen. But then the corona pandemic thwarted his plans: the world premiere had to be postponed twice. Last Saturday, however, the time had come: “Zeppelin - The Musical” celebrated its world premiere in front of a sold-out house.In over three hours, the musical brings the story of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin and his difficult path to the development of rigid airship construction and the last trip of the Zeppelin LZ 129 “Hindenburg” onto the stage in two parallel narrative strands.

Critical look at history

Her spectacular crash on May 6, 1937 in Lakehurst, USA, when she went up in flames within only about 30 seconds on her approach and lost 36 people, heralded the end of rigid airship travel. Nevertheless, the musical does not leave the audience with a sad feeling. Rather, love and the realization of dreams are at the center of the action. Siegel and musical author Hand Dieter Schreeb also take a critical look at the story. With the song that Ferdinand (Patrick Stanke, Jörg-Tim Wilhelm) sings as an observer of the American Civil War, the musical underlines the futility of wars. Later it was difficult for the count that his airships were also used in the First World War.With the threat of arrest of the Jewish singer Emmy Berg (Tanja Petrasek) in the "Cabaret of Comedians" in Berlin by the Gestapo, the show also addresses the persecution of the Jews by the National Socialists. With the help of Dr. Hugo Eckener (Sigmar Solbach), Graf Zeppelin's successor, got the singer on board the "Hindenburg", where she met a Nazi again with Lutz Grivius (Hannes Staffler).

Real zeppelin hovers over the heads of the audience

In an entertaining way, the musical brings visitors closer to the historical context.

This becomes tangible through the successful stage designs by Barbara Fumian.

A metal construction, for example, symbolizes the Hindenburg.

Their start in Frankfurt am Main is spectacular.

A real zeppelin takes off from the stage and circles over the auditorium.

In the further course of the show, the large revolving stage will also be used, as will the retractable water basin.

It depicts Lake Constance into which Ferdinand crashed with one of his first zeppelins.

Siegel proves his versatility with the 35 songs he composed for the musical - and shows himself from a completely new side.

In addition to major revue and ensemble numbers, the audience can also hear jazz and musical ballads.

A great guest brings this to the stage, among whom are well-known musical actors such as Uwe Kröger, Matthias Edenborn, Kevin Tarte, Alexander Kerbst as well as Stefanie Kock, Stefanie Gröning and Sandy Mölling from the "No Angels".

Benjamin Sahler is the director.

The conductor is Dr.

Konstantinos Kalogeropoulos.

With “Zeppelin - Das Musical” they offer viewers a professional and extremely entertaining show.

List of rubric lists: © Michael Häfner