Fack Ju Göhte – Se Mjusicäl – Werk 7, Munich

A scene fromFack ju Göhte – Das Musical at Werk 7, Munich. Picture: BrauerPhotos, Dominik_Beckmann for Stage Entertainment

Fack Ju Göhte – Se Mjusicäl at Werk 7, Munich, Germany.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Rarely has a premiere suffered as much criticism as the musical version of the successful film Fack ju Göhte. But after premiere week, the trade press and online platforms have fallen in love with Stage Entertainment’s latest production.

After all, who can’t relate to the story? You finally get out of jail only to bitterly learn that a hooker, and your best friend, has buried your hard-earned money under a construction site that is now a school gym. So what else to do than to become a janitor at the school and then, through a strange twist of events, the new substitute teacher who has to deal with high school brats during the day while digging a tunnel at night?

The original 2013 movie, followed by two sequels in 2015 and 2017, is now one of the most successful German films ever. Thanks to its legendary slogans and its celebrity cast, with German superstar Elyas M’Barek attracting hordes of teenage girls, Fack ju Göhte (a bad anglicism for Fuck You Goethe!) has ascended to teenage cult status.

Is that why we need a musical version so soon? Definitely not. But due to the fact that there are now all kinds of pop culture items adapted into musicals, we are often told to simply set aside such pesky and snobby reservations and just view anything that makes it to the singing and dancing stage as cultural enrichment, which is what Fack ju Göhte – Se Musical definitely is.

Even if you are not a fan of films – no matter how successful, no matter how old, no matter how fit – becoming stage musicals (true, quick and easy money are often behind these ventures), sometimes the end product can end up just as great with the right team behind it. And Fack ju Göhte has the right team.

After years of speculation, Stage Entertainment has managed to inaugurate a new theatre in Munich, except that you never really feel that you’re really in a show palace when you go there.

Werk 7,  in the east of Munich, is really more like a hall than a musical theatre. It’s located where the Pfanni factory used to be. In recent years, this area has been the headquarters for the so-called Cult Factory, one of the largest party areas in Europe. Since 2016, the new Werksviertel has been found there too. With its many colourful bars, restaurants and space for creative people, it’s more reminiscent of Berlin than Munich.

One can complain that German culture too rarely addresses younger audiences who find more satisfaction in London and New York, mainly in the Off-Broadway or Off-West End scene. Although many smaller production companies and city theatres have now tackled this problem, the reach of a group like Stage Entertainment simply cannot be rivalled here. The main problem for younger audiences was that the company was missing a small theatre with fewer seats.

With Fack ju Göhte, they have certainly made a good start. School day themes are on and off the stage throughout the evening. The complete stage equipment consists of gymnastic equipment, which probably everyone remembers from their own school days and which are cleverly misused again and again. The stage and the auditorium blend seamlessly into each other and you definitely wouldn’t have any misgivings about the actors. During a school theatre performance of Romeo and Juliet two spectators are expelled from their seats by the headmistress because that is her place. And even before the performance, we are hilariously reminded that at school cell phones are banned.

The seven-piece band under the musical direction of Philipp Gras sits above the backstage area in the middle of the hall. Certainly, the small space proves to be an advantage, because the sound is really top notch.

So while Stage Entertainment dares to find new approaches (the ticket prices are also really reasonable), the production of Fack ju Göhte is almost revolutionary in Germany.

In Nico Rebscher, Simon Triebel and Kevin Schröder, we’ve found composers and writers who, except Schröder, previously had little to do with musicals, even if they had already achieved success as musicians and composers both nationally and internationally.

Of course, it can also backfire when successful musicians try to quickly write a musical score. In this case, however, it works extremely well, above all because the team consulted in advance to the right references, like The Book of Mormon and In The Heights.

The result is a fresh score that often reminds one of hits from mainly German artists. There is an ensemble number that reminds us a lot of Culcha Candela, but also the solos that resemble the kind of singles by Johannes Öerding running on the radio.

The song ‘Zeitkapsel’, which was often heard prior to the opening, is especially outstanding. On the one hand, it immediately catches on, and, on the other hand, it communicates between the lines what the film covers over with jokes and slogans: teenagers’ fear of the future. Consequently, the characters are a bit more complex than the ones in the movie. Of course, the play isn’t all that deep and is unlikely to win the Pulitzer Prize, but it’s fun, especially for young crowds.

The vast majority of viewers have most likely already seen the movie but some scenes, like one with a big dissolving pool, may be too long. Nevertheless, we are not bored for a single minute because so much is going on in the room.

Spectators wishing for the impossible – that Elyas M’Barak would turn out to be a fantastic singer – will be disappointed. After M’Barak played it in the movie, the role of Zeki Müller went to Max Hemmersdorfer. I was experiencing a little Dirty Dancing anxiety, you know when well-known lyrics from movies are sung back to back onstage, sounding like bad copies of the originals. However, Hemmersdorfer had me convinced right from the start, without seeming for a moment like a copy of the film’s Müller. He scores with his warm vocals. He really doesn’t need to hide behind Elyas M’Barak.

Johanna Spantzel plays the uptight and lovable Lisi Schnabelstedt. She also easily manages to break away from the original film and do her own thing without changing the role too much.

The performance of headmistress Ms Gerster, aka Elisabeth Ebner, is also very impressive. How she mastered her job as a hard-hitting businesswoman without emotion was worth every second in the film, and not only because of her glue sniffing habit. On stage, thanks to her singing and dancing, she takes the role to a whole new level of wit.

Also, the role of Charlie, played by Jennifer Siemann, was already a highlight in the film. She is only a minor role that, unlike Lisi’s colleague and friend Caro, makes it into the musical, but she nevertheless broadens the show’s emotional range, going far beyond that of a simple supporting role.

The rest of the cast is worth seeing, too, with its fresh faces and great talents. In particular, Robin Cadet is inspiring as the class nerd Jérôme. While he keeps himself in the background most of the time, he almost steals the show in his performance in Romeo and Juliet doing a Michael Jackson version of Tybalt.

Also outstanding, particularly in that same scene, is Lukas Sandmann, as Danger. He has a charming stage presence, good looks and exceptional dancing ability, fully exploited by talented choreographer Fredrik Rydman.

In the end, I had a fantastic evening and really enjoyed Fack ju Göhte, even if at times I felt like I was at a German School of Rock!

Patrick Honoré