The empress Elisabeth has returned from her long journey

I excitedly awaited my visit to the Raimund Theater in Vienna. The bar had been set high, since for me, “Elisabeth” is among the very best musicals – not to mention inextricably linked to Vienna. Will it be a mere copy of the older production? That would be boring. Yet a major change would also not be alright with me. Is it possible to make something great even better?

I’ll get straight to the punch: I was thrilled. The new stage design is modern and fresh. “Elisabeth” fans are pleased with several new scenes and a touch more humor and irony and love and suffer with the empress, just like they did the first time.

I confess to having missed Uwe Kröger for five minutes – yet Mark Seibert as Death captivated me immediately with his first song with the still-young Elisabeth. Incidentally, this is one of the new songs that do not occur in the original version.

Do you still remember the “chessboard” scene? This is still there, as are, of course, all the popular catchy tunes that made the musical “Elisabeth” so famous and popular. All in all, this was a wonderful evening.

The musical “Elisabeth” world tour

Following the world premiere of “Elisabeth” in Vienna in 1992, the musical celebrated worldwide successes. The travel-loving empress made her way all the way to Korea and Japan for which “Elisabeth” was translated into seven languages. I think that would surely have pleased her. How far would she have likely traveled if she hadn’t had to depend on horse-drawn carriages?

Hopefully Empress Elisabeth won’t get the travel bug again – then we’ll be able to see her in the Raimund Theater in Vienna for a long time to come.

It’s best to order tickets for the musical “Elisabeth” right away, which you can do online.