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On Tour With Rock of Ages 2024 (Episode 1 – Bochum, 12th/13th March 2024)

Florian Buechting Trip Reports No Comments

Typically, my trip reports are about one travel. Sometimes, there are one-day stories like the 24 hour train ride through Germany I did in early 2023. Sometimes, it is a longer day-by-day coverage with one posting a day each. For example, my Icelandic Ring Road 2023 trip report kicks off with my wife flying from Germany to Iceland the first day / post. In the last post, we are back at the airport.

 

In this trip report, I want to try out something new. I am super-excited that my favorite musical Rock of Ages is back on tour in Germany. I will be there in several cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – you find all tour stages in my 2024 Rock of Ages international date overview. Just when I drove to Bochum to see my first shows of the tour, I felt that I should do a trip report of this tour. This time, there will be one episode each for each city. Bochum will feature two shows, Vienna and Duisburg only one, Cologne will have the vast number of eight shows. I will post the trip report after I visited the tour stage (not necessarily the day right afterwards, though). There might be a special episode after the first out of five shows I will visit in Munich. Hope you enjoy following me on that trip.

 

Episode 1 – Bochum

Even though I was rather relaxed for quite a while, I was really nervous about my first Rock of Ages show in 2024. Would I still like it? Did they change something to the script and choreography, compared to the 2023 shows? The chances that Sherrie will not finally make it with Drew were rather small, I guess. Starting from Sunday, I was more rarely listening to music I had to review for Flyctory.com, but moved to the good, old Broadway soundtrack of the musical.

 

Getting to Bochum

Bochum is not too far from where I work and live, so that I could have a more or less ordinary day at the office and then head from Cologne to the host city. Germany got a certain favor for all kinds of transportation strikes in 2024 – and you felt that on the road. The drive took a bit longer than I expected – but that also meant that it perfectly fitted one episode of a German audiobook series (Die drei ??? – the German version of The Three Investigators, which is immensely popular here).

The hotel, ibis Bochum Zentrum, exceeded my expectations. Close to the venue, having an own car park, friendly staff and a great room – not too bad for one night with late check-out, so that I could work from there all Wednesday. I did not have too much time to head to the RuhrCongress, a really impressive building, close the major soccer stadium and the Starlight Express theater. The capacity is some 3,000 – I wondered if the rear seats really had any kind of view. Before the show, I of course checked out the stage door. And then heading in, greeting Felix at the merch (they got t-shirts this year! But no size which suits me 🙁 ).

 

The First Show – 12th March 2024

I was rather excited about the show. Not too much changed compared to the 2023 German version. In general I felt that the cast is trying to play a “good” Rock of Ages show rather than having fun. Nothing tells it better than Lonny himself in the second act. I wanted to explore deep and thoughtful theater with complex characters and a challenging plot. Instead I was hired to narrate a show with poop jokes and Whitesnake songs. The show does not need to be perfect, it is not striking with elements which need that. It is obscure, it is about having fun, also together with the audience. I sometimes miss that spirit a bit. Nonetheless, it was a good evening, not even due to the delicious (but cold) intermission pizza

You have to state, though, that the cast suffered a couple of unavailable members as well. I loved Julia Taschler as Sherrie. Her performance was even more remarkable as she also played Sunset Boulevard in Austria the weekend before. I also loved to see Linda Holmgren (Regina / Ragina) on stage. I unfortunately have been around when she hurt her food in Cologne on previous year’s tour. And of course, I enjoyed Lisa Becker, who has become a close contact during the last tour. There were quite some cast members of the adjacent record-breaking show, Starlight Express in the audience. Thus, the stage door was rather crowded and I felt to say hello to some familiar faces another day. A good first day with Rock of Ages, definitely.

 

Day 2 in Bochum

The day had not been overwhelmingly spectacular. I was rather late at breakfast, as I wanted to get some work for Flyctory.com done first. Afterwards, I worked for my professional employee. I felt rather exhausted, so I decided to go for a nap, rather than for a lunch break. At 16:40, I checked out and felt like the Profi-Grill is a good place for “linner” (is there a word for a meal between lunch and dinner?). The place in Bochum’s borough Wattenscheid is rather special. The chef used to work in a Michelin star kitchen, but just did not feel happy there. Thus, he opened a grill in the heart of the Ruhrgebiet. The place is always packed and the quality is extremely good.

After being saturated again, I headed to RuhrCongress. Compared to the day before, I got a really nice (free) parking lot. I used my netbook for some Flyctory.com work (including this posting) and some rest before the show. That day, I felt already much more pumped. Indeed, the Rock of Ages fever is rising. I just could not wait for the show. And the merch table was also more popular than on the day before.

 

The Second Show – 13th March 2024

The second show in Bochum (you could say, I visited all Bochum shows in 2024…). I had the same middle seat in the front row. There might have been more technical issues in this show, compared to the day before, but overall, I liked it more. I really liked Felix Freund as Drew this time, who even showed some charming reaction when his guitar belt broke in the middle of the scene. The cast was still suffering from several actors not being available for the show. More and more, Sascha di Capri, who is doing Stacee Jaxx in the first half of the tour, becomes the favorite of the audience – especially on the female side. He is indeed representing the damn hot rock star rather perfectly.

I was a bit surprised about how tired I have been having Rock of Ages and work somehow in parallel. Thus, I was a bit afraid of the eight show streak ahead in Cologne. Nonetheless, I felt to have at least a short chat after the show before heading back home. Definitely another really nice evening, which had a bit more of this interactive touch I love. And a lot of good memories to stand the next nine days without the musical.

 

All pictures have been taken with my amateur equipment in the finale of the show.

 

On Tour with Rock of Ages 2024 – My Trip Report

Here are the six episodes I am planning to release:

 

 

Rock of Ages (Musical)

Here are all postings related to the musical Rock of Ages:

 

Trip Report Inceptions

Here are the starting postings of each Trip Report I posted in here so far

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