The Pyjama Game (Picknick im Pyjama)
Zum 30. und allerletzten Mal!
Comedy Musical
Music and lyrics by Richard Adler und Jerry Ross
Script by George Abbott and Richard Bisell
Based on the novella “7 ½ Cents” by Richard Bissell
Translated into German by Klaus Günter Neumann and Helmut Zander
Revival 04. September. 2011
Thursday, 12.01.2012, 19.30 h
Kleines Haus
Running time 2 hours 40 minutes. One intermission.
After 54 years, the hit musical “The Pajama Game” is returning to the location of its German premiere!
With “The Pajama Game”, the youth-club-theatre group of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden will kick off the season with a swinging production of one of the greatest hit musicals of the 1950s. Magnificent dance numbers, brilliant dialogue, touching love songs and, last but not least, what is probably the most famous tango in the world – “Hernando's Hideaway” – laid the foundation for the triumph of this play's world premiere (New York, 1954). Just two years later, its highly acclaimed German premiere followed at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden; one year after that, it was made into a film starring Doris Day and quickly became a cult hit...
“The Pajama Game” takes place in the sleepwear factory “Sleep Tite” in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Tensions are high among the workers, since their union was able to secure a pay raise of 7½ cents per hour, yet the factory's owner Myron Hasler refuses to honor the deal. The smart new factory superintendent Sid Sorokin is sent in to calm things down, but he ends up falling in love with Babe Williams, a dedicated union advocate on the opposite side of the labor dispute... – Never before have work and wealth faced off with this much sex appeal.
“The Pajama Game” will replace the originally planned production of “Grease”, which will not be featured this season for legal reasons.
Standing ovations, nicht enden wollender Applaus – und ein Intendant, der dem Ensemble seinen Respekt ob dessen ‚hoher Professionalität‘ bekundet. Kann eine Premiere schöner sein?
(…)
In der Regie von Iris Limbarth liefen die Mitglieder des Jugendclub Theaters vor allem im zweiten Akt zur Höchstform auf und heimsten verdienten Zwischenapplaus ein.
Die Darsteller hatten ihren Spaß daran, die Irren und Wirren der Liebe zwischen einer gewerkschaftlich engagierten Mitarbeiterin der Nachtwäschefabrik ‚Sleep Tite‘ und dem Betriebsdirektor eben jenen Unternehmens zu erzählen. Und dieser Spaß sprang auf das Publikum über.
(…)
Und es gelingt dem Ensemble durchweg – den Spagat zwischen Komik und Klamauk zu meistern, Szenen nicht zur Albernheit verkommen zu lassen.
Wiesbadener Kurier/Tagblatt, 07.09.2010
