Unlike the other works I've reviewed so far, Elisabeth isn't a series, book or manga. It's a stage musical, and this version is a filmed stage performance that was released on DVD.
So, what is Elisabeth? It's a German musical, the most successful German musical ever made actually, and it's about Empress Elisabeth of Austria (aka Sisi/Sissi). It's a very fictionalised account of her life, involving an invented romance with Death himself, narrated by the man who murdered her.
(Yes, it's weird.)
You probably won't recognise any of the actors unless you're a fan of European theatre, so I won't bother listing them.
Now, onto the story itself. Elisabeth is a sung-through musical like Les Misérables, so it's impossible to talk about the plot without mentioning the songs. Some of the songs; listing of all them would take too long.
Spoilers ahead, but if you know Austrian history then you already know the biggest spoilers.
The show starts with Luigi Lucheni, Elisabeth's murderer, posthumously trying to defend his actions in what appears to be a sort of Purgatory. He summons the ghosts of people who knew Elisabeth, and then Death himself appears.
Lucheni
The ghosts
Der Tod/Death (What was the costume designer thinking? Other productions have Death in much less comical costumes than that... frilly... thing.)
It should be obvious that this show has a rather... unusual personification of Death. He isn't a skeleton, he doesn't wear a cape, and he doesn't have a scythe. Instead he kills people by kissing them.
Elisabeth herself appears for the first time in the second song. (For some reason she's nowhere to be seen in the prologue. Strange, since it's all about her.)
Elisabeth
Her father is about to leave to avoid a family gathering, and Elisabeth wants to go with him. At said family gathering, Elisabeth's mother announces that her sister Hélène is going to marry Emperor Franz Joseph. (Is that spelt "Joseph" or "Josef"? I've seen both spellings used, even in biographies, so who knows 🤷) Elisabeth interrupts by performing a circus trick, that goes horribly wrong and leads to her falling to her death.
No points for guessing who turns up.
Why is the stage so incredibly poorly-lit half the time? I know, atmosphere and all that. But for heaven's sake can't it be brighter and atmospheric at the same time?
Elisabeth and Death, in better lighting.
Death arrives to take Elisabeth's soul. Then they fall in love at first sight, so he changes his mind and lets her live.
Two scenes after this, Elisabeth meets Franz Joseph and falls in love at first sight with him. It's obvious from the start that this is a terrible idea. The necklace he gives her looks like a noose. Their wedding music sounds like a funeral march. The guests and in-laws talk about how Elisabeth isn't suited for life in Vienna. Death gate-crashing the wedding is just the icing on the cake.
Der letzte Tanz (The Last Dance)
Every musical has at least one song that stands out. Elisabeth has several of them, and this is the first one. It's the song Death sings during the aforementioned gate-crashing, and it's all about how Elisabeth is going to hate married life and how she'll be his in the end, set to a tune that'll stay in your head for weeks.
This version of "Der letzte Tanz" isn't my favourite. It's weird, because the song is one of my favourites in the show, and Máté Kamarás is one of my favourite actors to play Death, but... I just don't like his version of "Der letzte Tanz".
Anyway, moving on. Elisabeth's mother-in-law Sophie sets out to make Elisabeth's life hell. Franz Joseph, mummy's boy that he is, runs away when his wife asks for help.
Ich gehör nur mir (I Belong Only to Myself)
Elisabeth is Not Impressed by Franz Joseph, so she sings a (really, really awesome) song about how she belongs to herself.
Poor lighting strikes again! Why are the characters (sometimes) brightly-lit when the stage around them is almost completely dark?
It took me several months and about twenty different productions to realise that this song is a bit like "Let It Go" from Frozen. Thematically, but also because both songs end up being contradicted by events later in the musical. Elsa can't let go of the past because of the consequences of her actions. Elisabeth doesn't belong to herself in the end; she dies and belongs to Death.
I'd better stop that line of thought right there before we get completely sidetracked.
Things don't go well for Elisabeth after this, as Lucheni is delighted to tell us. She has two children, but Sophie takes both of them away. Elisabeth gets Franz Joseph to intervene, and then one of her children dies. Naturally, Death takes this opportunity to gloat and insist Elisabeth loves him more than her husband.
Death is a creep (a creep who kills children!), Franz Joseph is a coward (when his mother's involved, at least)... Really, Elisabeth would be better off without either of them.
Things don't get better after Rudolf's birth. Sophie is still determined to interfere, when she refuses to let Rudolf visit Elisabeth.
Rudolf and Sophie
Elisabeth finds out about this and gives Franz Joseph an ultimatum. Guess who sees this as the perfect time to visit?
I guess he gets points for persistence, if nothing else...
Death nearly gets Elisabeth to give in (read: die), but she snaps out of it in time and tells him to get out.
Elisabeth becomes obsessed with the only part of her life she can control: her appearance. She begins a bizarre beauty regime that involves excessive dieting and things like steaks being placed on her cheeks(!). The weirdest thing about this is that apparently it's all true.
Franz Joseph decides to let her raise Rudolf (and their other children, but the musical seems to have forgotten they had any other children). Elisabeth appears, wearing (a version of) her famous Sternenkleid (Star-dress). And of course, Death appears too.
This scene would be more impressive if the stage was better-lit. (Yes, I am still annoyed about that!) What genius decided that Franz Joseph should get more light than Elisabeth? And Death might as well be a floating head. Most annoying.
Act 2 begins with Elisabeth and Franz Joseph being crowned King and Queen of Hungary. Lucheni takes this chance to ham it up more than usual, the Hungarian people are delighted with their new queen, and of course Death invites himself along.
Wenn ich tanzen will (When I Want to Dance)
The real love story of this musical is the composer/catchy songs. Almost every single song in the show is ridiculously memorable, and will come back to you at the worst possible moment. (Case in point: I caught myself humming "Kitsch" while waiting for a job interview.) "Wenn ich tanzen will" is one of the most memorable. Which is ironic, because (as far as I can tell from bootlegs) it was only added to the show in 2001.
For once Elisabeth gets to gloat at Death: she's victorious and he had nothing to do with it. He tries to regain control over her, but she evades him and leaves triumphantly.
Mama, wo bist du? (Mama, Where Are You?)
Now Death gets to be especially creepy. Elisabeth and Franz Joseph are more or less ignoring Rudolf. The poor kid is all alone and wondering where his mother is. Death visits and convinces Rudolf that he's his friend. What's weirdest is that it's actually... sort of adorable. In a scary way.
Aww... Whoops, I mean get away from him, Rudolf!
In this scene Rudolf also says that he killed a cat. Every time I hear this I nearly lose all sympathy for him. "This little brat kills cats? You can have him, Death! You're welcome to him!" Neglectful parents and a hellish grandmother are not an excuse for animal cruelty, Rudolf.
Elisabeth's life becomes worse and worse, culminating in Sophie sending Franz Joseph to a brothel to break Elisabeth's influence over him. (This is a scene I always skip, for the same reasons that I always skip "Lovely Ladies" in Les Misérables.)
In the next scene Elisabeth collapses. Death, disguised as a doctor, tells her that her husband's adultery has given her an STD. This is the death knell (pun intended) of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph's marriage. She leaves Vienna and spends years travelling.
Die Schatten werden länger (The Shadows Grow Longer)
Rudolf is now a depressed, unhappy adult who disagrees with the way Franz Joseph rules but can't do anything about it. Death visits and offers a solution: suicide. Rudolf breaks free from his influence at the end of the song. But if you know history, you already know how this will end...
"Die Schatten werden länger" is probably the main Villain Song of Elisabeth. It's awesome, it's (very) memorable, and it's terrifying. Rudolf sees Death as his friend, and Death wants to kill him. That's scary enough on its own. But take away the supernatural aspect, and you get someone who doesn't care for their "friend" at all and is just using them. How many times does that happen in real life? *shudders*
After this Rudolf has a confrontation with Franz Joseph, which for some reason involves Franz Joseph standing in a... giant crown? (This is a perfect example of why the Vienna stagings aren't my favourite versions of the show. They take symbolism so far that it stops being symbolism and becomes a confusing distraction.)
And the lighting is still terrible. Did someone forget to pay the electricity bill?
This is followed by "Hass" ("Hate"), another song I always skip. It's several minutes of Nazis (alright, so they weren't called that then, but that's what they are) marching around the stage, attacking Jews and complaining about Elisabeth and Rudolf.
Rudolf begs Elisabeth for help. She turns him away. And this is the part I always dread. Death appears (dressed as a woman, for reasons I never understood until I realised it's symbolism again) and gives Rudolf a gun. And Rudolf kills himself. Noooooo 😭😭
Rudolf, wo bist du? (Rudolf, Where Are You?)
One of the fun (read: heartbreaking) things about Elisabeth is that it reprises songs in the worst possible ways. "Mama, wo bist du?"/"Rudolf, wo bist du?" is possibly the best (read: most agonising) example.
Elisabeth finally realises how she neglected and abandoned her son, and begs Death to take her. And then Death, who has spent the entire show trying to convince Elisabeth to die, rejects her and says he doesn't want her. Why the sudden change of heart, Death?
The Takarazuka productions explain it as Death wanting Elisabeth to join him because she loves him, not because she's given up. I'm not sure if I agree with that interpretation or not. The German-language productions don't give any explanation at all, and it's up to the viewer to guess if Death has lost interest in Elisabeth, or if he never cared for her at all, or if there's some other reason.
Franz Joseph and Elisabeth have a final meeting, and Elisabeth tells him they were never meant to be together. True, but it's surprisingly sad to watch. Death and Franz Joseph meet in a nightmare sequence. Death insists that he loves Elisabeth and will set her free... by giving Lucheni a murder weapon. That is not how you show love, Death!
Lucheni stabs Elisabeth. This time Elisabeth accepts Death. It's surprisingly sweet, considering how deeply messed up both of them are.
No. #1 on my list of "Things That Shouldn't be Adorable but Totally Are"
But then Death ruins everything (is anyone surprised by this point?) and apparently kills Elisabeth with his kiss. And then hands her body to his backup dancers (okay, so their official name is "Todesengel"/"Death's Angels", but I always think of them as "Death's Backup Dancers") to carry off to her coffin.
This is not my favourite version of the ending. It looks like Death cared nothing for Elisabeth after all, when his love for her motivates his actions in the musical.
Anyway, my overall opinion of both the musical and this version.
The musical is awesome no matter what version you watch. But some are more awesome than others. The Vienna productions in my opinion are among the less awesome versions. They're so full of symbolism and general weirdness that they end up distracting from the actual story.
I'm also not a fan of the scene order in the Vienna versions. It makes very little sense, plot-wise, for "Nichts, nichts, gar nichts" to take place immediately after "Mama, wo bist du?". "Nichts" makes more sense placed after "Die rastlosen Jahre", when Elisabeth has a definite reason to be miserable. Same goes for "Streit Vater und Sohn" being placed after "Die Schatten werden länger"; Rudolf's desperation makes much more sense when we've seen Franz Joseph dismiss him. And then there's the staging of the ending, and the terrible lighting.
(That last one seems to be just a problem with the DVD, though. The 1992 Vienna version had much better lighting, even though it made everything blue for some reason, and bootlegs of other shows from the Vienna revival also have better lighting. Apparently the DVD makes the lighting look worse than it was. Weird.)
But enough about the musical and the Vienna stagings in general. Now to talk about this version. Specifically, the actors in this version.
(Be prepared for a very long, rambling essay on this subject.)
I've already said that Máté Kamarás is one of my favourite Deaths. His version of the character is so dramatic and energetic and over-the-top that it's impossible not to like him. And unlike some Deaths (*cough*Mark Seibert*cough*) he genuinely seems to love Elisabeth. A very obsessive, unhealthy sort of love, but probably the closest Death can get to loving anyone.
Serkan Kaya is unquestionably my favourite Lucheni. He's sarcastic, bitter, funny -- everything a Lucheni should be. But he isn't just the snarky narrator; there are moments when he shows a deeper side to his character, and acts as if he almost regrets murdering Elisabeth.
Fritz Schmid is a pretty good Rudolf, though I wouldn't say he's my favourite Rudolf. His hair always makes me giggle when he first appears. (Which is a problem, because of when he first appears...) Seriously, what is that hairstyle? The historical Rudolf didn't have curly hair, judging by the pictures I've seen of him, and neither do the musical's Rudolfs... except this one. Strange.
Sophie is a character who's incredibly hard to like, but if I had to chose a favourite actress to play her, I'd probably pick Else Ludwig. She manages to perfectly portray Sophie's strictness and certainty that she's always right and Elisabeth is always wrong.
There's nothing wrong with Maya Hakvoort's portrayal of Elisabeth, but I've never been able to warm to her version of the character. I don't know why. Maybe it's because she's obviously too old to be convincing as young!Elisabeth, or maybe it's just because she's not Pia Douwes (...but neither is Mari Hanafusa, and I love her Elisabeth 🤷).
Nothing against André Bauer, but Franz Joseph is one of those characters whose every action annoys me. I haven't found a single actor who's made the character less irritating.
The rest of the cast are just there in the background, if that makes any sense. None of them stand out, but none of them are terrible either.
So, what's my overall opinion? The musical is great, and while this isn't my favourite version of it, there are far worse productions out there. *side-eyes that bizarre Thun production* Next to the 1992 Vienna version, this is probably the best-known and most-watched production of Elisabeth. So it's definitely worth watching!
Is it available online?: Yes, here is a version with (not always great) English subtitles. You can also find versions without English subtitles, if you speak German or already know the plot.
Rating: The musical itself gets 9/10. This version gets 7/10.
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