Adam Benzwi
When were you first enchanted by (musical) theatre in your life? And how?
I grew up in San Diego, two hours south of Los Angeles. We drove to LA to see the tour of A Chorus Line. It was exciting and thrilling! Then I did children's theatre and was lucky enough to have a really great acting teacher. She was a student of Michael Shurtleff and taught me the fundamentals of acting when I was only eight years old. Because I was already good at the piano, I was only allowed to play two or three roles there, and I was then assigned to be the musical director of the musicals there. So I accompanied the performances on the piano.
Why do people sing and why don't they speak?
Words alone are not enough.
What role can/should musical theatre play in today's society?
Musical theatre should give the audience something good. It should inspire the audience to think and act. Musical theatre is like a vitamin injection that awakens emotions: things that otherwise lie dormant or are suppressed in our conformist everyday lives, such as anger, tenderness, love, eroticism, courage, solidarity, faith and fighting spirit. By experiencing these feelings together in the theatre – especially through music – they suddenly come alive again in the audience. But musical theatre should also entertain and inspire. Ultimately, good musical theatre brings the audience together. It is a pleasure to laugh together in a full theatre, to be moved, to recognise something, to be intoxicated by the music. One of the greatest joys in my life is when the audience laughs at a punchline in the middle of a song. Then I know that we have done a good job, that the audience is following the lyrics closely and is interested in them. It is a precious moment of connection between the audience, the singers/actors, the musicians in the pit and me.
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Born in
San Diego, California (USA) as the son of a Ukrainian Jew and an American Polish Catholic.
Education
Columbia University in New York (2 years) and Stanford University in Berlin (1982–1985): dropped out without completing his degree in order to stay in Berlin and pursue a career in music.
Important Engagements
2023: Chicago, Komische Oper Berlin
2023: Fremder als der Mond, Berliner Ensemble
2023: Ich hab die Nacht geträumet, Berliner Ensemble
2022: Barrie Kosky’s All-Singing, All-Danicing Yiddish Revue, Komische Oper Berlin
2021: Die Dreigroschenoper, Berliner Ensemble
2019/20: Zanaida, Staatstheater Mainz
2019: Die Prinzessin von Trapezunt, Theater for Niedersachsen Hildesheim
2017: Märchen im Grand Hotel, Komische Oper Berlin
2016: Die Perlen der Cleopatra, Komische Oper Berlin
2015: Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will!, Komische Oper Berlin
2013: Ball im Savoy, Komische Oper Berlin
2008: My Fair Lady, Admiralspalast Berlin/Deutsches Theater München
Formative collaboration with the following artists
Barrie Kosky, Andrea Breth, Oliver Reese, Axel Ranisch, Anne Sofie von Otter, Gisela May, Dagmar Manzel, Max Hopp, Ruth Brauer, Katharine Mehrling, Johanna Wokalek
Debut an der Volksoper Wien
Musical Director Ein bisschen trallalala (Season 2023/24)
Other
1987–2022: Professor at Berlin University of the Arts: Musical Director of the Musical Theatre programme
2000–2020: Member of the expert committee for the German National Singing Competition
Website
* Use of the photograph (© Jan Windszus) solely for the purpose of current reporting on the Vienna Volksoper.
