Grand Hotel | 9th - 12th March 2011

Grand Hotel is a musical with music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with additional music by Maury Yeston and Wally Harper, additional lyrics by Yeston, and a book by Luther Davis. The original production opened at Broadway's Martin Beck Theatre on November 12, 1989 and closed on April 25, 1992 after playing 1017 performances.

The original production was directed by Tommy Tune and starred Karen Akers, David Carroll, Michael Jeter, Jane Krakowski, Liliane Montevecchi, and John Wylie. Early into the run, however, Carroll died and was replaced by Brent Barrett, who can be heard on the original cast recording.


Synopsis

The roaring '20s are still in high gear, and Berlin is the center of high life. Everyone tries to convince fading prima ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya that she still can and must dance, especially her confidante and dresser, who would have to come up with a lot of money if the dancer failed to show up for her engagements. She does not recapture her former glory, but she falls in love with the Baron. Jewish bookkeeper Otto Kringelein, who is fatally ill, wants to spend his final days living in the lap of luxury, and Baron Felix Von Gaigern, young, good-looking and destitute, uses his charisma to help him secure a room while stiffing a tough gangster pretending to be a chauffeur.

Meanwhile, Hermann Preysing, the general manager of a failing textile mill, hears that the merger with a Boston company is off, spelling financial ruin, but tries not to lie to his stockholders. However, he presses his secretary, Flaemmchen, for sex. She dreams of Hollywood stardom and fears she might be pregnant, but flirts with the Baron. The Baron tries to steal from Elizaveta Grushinskaya in order to pay back the gangster but when instead falls in love with her when she comes into her room.

Two African-American entertainers sing at the bar, while assistant concierge Erik, who is about to become a father, tries in vain to get off work so that he can join his wife at the hospital. Preysing and the Baron get into a fight when the Baron was in his room trying to steal his wallet, but heard the struggles of Flaemmchen and walks into her room to defend her while still holding Preysing's wallet, Preysing sees the Baron holding the wallet and realizes that the Baron was going to steal it. After a struggle Preysing kills the Baron with the gangster's gun. Preysing is arrested.

Grushinskaya's heart is broken when the Baron never shows up at the train station(they were going to run off and get married). Flaemmchen falls in love with Otto Kringelein and he with her. Cynical Doctor Otternschlag, a morphine addict still suffering from World War I wounds, notes “Grand Hotel, Berlin. Always the same – people come, people go – One life ends while another begins – one heart breaks while another beats faster – one man goes to jail while another goes to Paris – always the same.... I’ll stay – one more day.”