On Tour With Rock of Ages 2024 (Episode 4 - Duisburg, 1st May 2024)

After I had a one show stay in Vienna, it was already some three weeks since I had seen Rock of Ages. On 1st May 2024, the musical took me to a place which is rather close to my residence. That Wednesday is a public holiday in Germany and major parts of Europe. I saw the last show of their residence in Duisburg. I expected this show to be a special one – not only because it was the last one show trip on my 2024 calendar. Enjoy the fourth episode of my trip report.

Episode 4 – Duisburg

My fourth tour stage lead me to the Theater am Marientor, Duisburgs premium theater and musical location. Opened in 1999, the rather centrally located stage already saw major musicals like Les Misarables. That one has even been the first play they showed there at all. The 1,500 people capacity venue had been named to me by Rock of Ages cast members as one of the most beautiful ones. Another reason that I was looking forward to this show . Apart from musical and theater production, the Theater am Marientor is also used for concerts and TV shows.

The Trip To Duisburg

Duisburg is quite close to my residence Leverkusen. My trip in fact kicked off in Wolfsburg. The Volkswagen city hosted the German version of the musical Urinetown (German title: Pinkelstadt) the day before. After I saw the show in the West End a bunch of years ago, I just had to go for it again. Quite a nice experience – even though the better experience likely has been the the breakfast at the Inside by Melia I stayed in. A very nicely located hotel, by the way, from which I just had to take a few steps across the road to enter the ICE high speed train. The area around the train station, right next to the Volkswagen factory and facilities, is a really beautiful one. The train ride was overall a very nice one. It got a bit more crowded in Hanover, but more or less, I arrived in time in Duisburg.

I had a bit of time to hang out in Duisburg. The train arrived some 2:30 hrs before the show. Finally, I won’t share too many impressions of Duisburg Main Station. It is not the absolute beauty of German rail architecture. I had a bite in the local fast food franchise and worked on Flyctory.com postings in parallel. Then, I locked my luggage before heading to the Theater am Marientor. A short bus trip to the venue, which is actually really nicely located. As always, I checked out where the stage door is before entering to the show and waiting for my fourth tour stage in 2024.

The Show – 1st May 2024, 14:30

The show came with two covers in the main roles, Kim Unger as Sherrie Christian and Martijn Noort as Drew Boley. They did a really nice job. Definitely, there were some bumpy scenes. However, all of them had been handled in style and lead to additional entertainment to the audience. The so reliable and amazing Timothy Roller (Lonny Barnett) dropped the microphone right before Drew‘s audition to support Arsenal‘s last gig in the Bourbon Room. That was indeed really funny and lead to a lot of laughs. However, my highlight of the show was being re-united with Adrian, the legendary Rock of Ages fan from England. After so many shows we shared in the United Kingdom, it was absolutely great to see him again. Our first time to do so on my home soil.

Great Atmosphere and a Farewell for almost Four Weeks

I was a bit of scared after the rather bad end-of-show experience in Vienna , There, I stood up at the end cheering for the cast and partying to Don’t stop believin’. However, I had been the only person in the audience for more than a minute doing so. Duisburg was very different. When Adrian and I stood up (at the point at which the original versions showed you to do so), I turned around as always. The rows behind us were already in party mode and dancing in front of their chairs. This illustrates the really good atmosphere in the beautiful theater. it was an easy choice for me thereafter putting it on my list for the 2025 tour. By the way, I put you a link to the 2024 international date posting below. It now also includes a preview to the 2025 German and Austrian dates already announced.

Unfortunately, I could not introduce Adrian to some of the cast members after the show, but it was still great to see these people again. Some of them are deep in my heart nowadays and they deserved some admiration (and a chat on a friendship level) after this great performance. A new cast member was by the way Antonio Calanna, who is doing the Stacee Jaxx in the second part of the German-Austrian-Swiss tour 2025. Even though I felt absolutely exhausted, I was really happy to have that one-show stage in Duisburg (there will be three shows for me in 2025). Time to count down the days again – 27 days until my small Munich stream, which will also include a very special show for me.

Going Home

As said, this 1st May 2024 is a public holiday in Germany. I was waiting for the bus for some ten to fifteen minutes until I realized that there won’t be a connection for quite a while (I checked out the Monday to Friday schedule before). Nonetheless, the subway brought me to Duisburg Main Station, from where I had a rather short (but very packed ride) to my residence. Some heavy rain and being physically and mentally exhausted to the trip lead to some financial support to a local taxi driver bringing me home more efficiently.