The show must go off
The opening of a new Flemish production of Dans der Vampieren (Dance of the Vampires) will not go ahead in December in Antwerp as planned, the producers Musical van Vlaanderen (MvV) announced last week. The group, a non-profit spin-off of the commercial producers Music Hall Group, put the blame for the decision on Studio 100 and Stimuhl.
Studio 100 is the hugely successful multimedia company responsible for a string of children's TV hits, for Kabouter Plop movies and theme parks, for K3 and for the latest Mega Mindy film (Flanders Today, 1 July). Stimuhl is a much smaller organisation, the Foundation for Contemporary Musicals. Both took a case to the Council of State seeking the suspension of a decision by former culture minister Bert Anciaux to give regional subsidies worth €2.45 million over two years to MvV. Stimuhl and Studio 100 claim the subsidy distorts competition in the commercial musical market.
Musical van Vlaanderen is careful to stress its arms-length relationship with Music Hall, and its remit to provide quality musical theatre. Projects like Dans der Vampieren, MvV points out, cost a lot to put on and cannot necessarily count on mass popular success - unlike the shows aimed mainly at children produced by Studio 100. In addition, MvV said, Studio 100 did not even apply for subsidy, so can hardly complain at not receiving any.
Studio 100 in turn argue that they did not apply because they are working in a commercial sector in which the government has no business interfering, yet still they managed to produce a major success with the serious musical Daens!. "If there are two major players in the field of commercial musical productions, and then suddenly out of the blue one of them receives a subsidy, we feel we've been disadvantaged," said Hans Bourlon, one of the founders of Studio 100.
The legal action, MvV went on to say, was putting at risk the employment of a large numbers of theatre workers. The December opening would now be postponed until September 2010, with the possibility the show might not go ahead at all if the Council of State in its final ruling went against the subsidy. Studio 100 pointed out that the production of Dans der Vampieren was not listed in the subsidy application.
Dans der Vampieren is based on a 1967 film directed by Roman Polanski, called The Fearless Vampire Killers. Rights to the show are owned by the Vienna-based Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, and it is in constant production in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe, with shows also in Tokyo and New York.
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