Estrel Stars In Concert

The original production of “ABBA - Thank You For the Music” was also a biography in concert. It took me to southern Germany for my first summer. We performed the show on a floating stage facing 1800 bleacher seats on Lake Chiemsee. Chiemsee is half way between Munich (Munchen) and Salzburg, the city of Mozart, and “The Sound Of Music.”

The ABBA show cast included members of the touring company of the world famous ABBA group “Bjorn Again.” It also included Annie McEwan as Olivia Newton John. Olivia’s and ABBA’S careers crossed as well. Back in 1974, she was the favorite for the Eurovision Contest that ABBA won with the song “Waterloo.” Years later, ABBA performed on Olivia’s concert for Unicef, one of the first global via Satellite events.

The show also included me as Jerry Lee. “What?” you say! Bernhard saw a video of Benny, ABBA’s keyboardist/songwriter, playing in one of his first bands called the Hepstars. He was singing and playing “Whole Lotta Shaking Going On” by Jerry Lee. So Bernhard put me in the show. What more can I say... it wasn’t my idea, but it worked in a kind of weird way.

I spent six weeks that summer with my wife and daughter sampling Bavarian beer and cuisine. As we had three days off a week, it really was a working holiday. I’ve got to say the life experiences of staying in a German Gasthaus (Bed and Breakfast) and traveling to Salzberg and Innsbruck in Austria; Luzern (Lucerne), Switzerland; and Bolzano, Italy were priceless.

Bernhard eventually auditioned and developed his own cast with the aid of Rick Benton (Benny). There are now two line-ups of cast for this production and they perform throughout Europe. The cast includes Rachel Hiew and/or Sharon Benton as Agnetha, Teresa Pitt and/or Corie Townsend as AnnaFrid, Rick Benton and/or Ian Wood as Benny and Heiko Pagels and/or Adrian Muckley as Björn. ABBA is a very big deal over here. They’re bigger than the Beatles.

With the success of these two independent shows, Bernhard went on to develop an “Elvis Show” with Paul Casey, the official Elvis of Las Vegas, who was performing in the show at that time. The show included the real Sonny West -- Elvis’ bodyguard, Ed Bonja --Elvis Photographer, and the Sweet Inspirations. Germany has some truly loyal Elvis fans.

This show has since changed and evolved into more of a full concert band with horns and backup singers, featuring Grahame Patrick as Elvis. Grahame is well known and spent years as “The Elvis” from the Legends In Concert show in Vegas. His voice, look, natural charm and spontaneous attitude bring the essence of Elvis to Elvis in Concert.

Bernhard’s latest production is the “I’m a Soulman” Blues Brothers Show. The characters of John Belushi and Dan Akroyd are performed by Geoff and Chris Dahl, from London, Ontario. The Dahl brothers bring their own roots and comedy timing to the production along with a big blues band, Monica Schmidt as Aretha Franklin, and Frank Chiarelli, as Ray Charles.

Recently Bernhard has been expanding SIC with limited productions in other countries in Europe. Stars In Concert has performed in Prague, Athens, Zurich and is soon to be going to Istanbul and . . .

You may be wondering how does he do it?

During our time together, I found out that before he got involved with theater, Bernhard he was an athlete and a member of the Olympic German Bob Sled team. After some victories, he went on to become a sports manager and then a trainer of managers. One of the managers he trained is now the head coach of the champion German soccer team.

Mr. Kurz originally got into theater by helping his brother Friedrich. Productions followed such as the premiere of of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats” in 1986, “Starlight Express” in 1988, and “Phantom of the Opera” in 1990 in Hamburg. “Shakespeare and Rock And Roll” followed in 1993 in Berlin.

This eventually led to the creation of Stars In Concert in 1997. It’s obvious in the way his shows run that Bernhard has a knack for recognizing talent, developing a great support team, promoting the event and winning the game.

LIFE IN BERLIN

Berlin is a big city with a lot of variety of Entertainment.

Because of its history of occupation and destruction, Berlin actually has several downtown areas.

The Estrel Hotel is situated on the edge of the metro area near convenient transportation.

There are many surface and underground trains that can take you anywhere in the city. The food has fewer preservatives and a shorter shelf life, so consequently people shop daily and the food tastes better as a result.

Smoking is still allowed almost everywhere and they smoke a lot here. I’m talking cigarettes. But they have less heart disease! It’s probably a combination of no food additives and more walking.

Sunday is a DAY OFF for most people. Sunday shopping is limited to the main train stations. Consequently, only restaurants, bars and some shows are open from mid- afternoon Saturday till Monday morning.

It’s quite easy to get by in the Hotel with just English, but if you venture out, it’s good to know or try to speak German. Most of the younger people have English skills from school, but you can’t count on this everywhere. There is also a large Turkish population in the area around the hotel and the chance of English there is lower.

I feel very fortunate to have come here to experience European life and I have enjoyed working with many of the top acts in the industry.

Following are some of the acts that have worked in the show.

The Girls -- all from USA unless otherwise indicated

Coco Fletcher – Whitney Houston & Tina Turner www.dorothealorene.com

Rachel Hiew (England, but living in Berlin) – Cher & Jennifer Lopez & Agnetha from ABBA

Melissa Totten – Madonna

Sheri Rae – Bette Midler

Kathy Thompson – Bette Midler www.kathythompsononline.com

Monica Schmitt(living in Berlin) – Aretha Franklin

Anna Bolk (German) - Edith Piaff www.connexberlin.de/anna_bolk.html

Sharon Owens - Barbra Streisand www.atributetobarbara.com

Cindy Harrelson – Barbra Streisand

Teresa Pitt (Canada, but living in Hamburg) – AnnaFrid ABBA show & Celine Dion.

Sharon Benton (England) Agnetha in ABBA show.

Corie Townsend – AnnaFrid in the ABBA show.

The Guys -- all from USA unless otherwise indicated.

Grahame Patrick Doyle (Ireland & Canada) – Elvis

Paul Casey – Elvis www.paulcasyproductions.com

Matt Lewis – Elvis www.thekingonline.com

Greg Miller - Elvis Tim Stamper and Kenny Barrett - The Blues Brothers

Chris and Geoff Dahl (Canada)– The Blues Brothers

Paul Langley (England, living in Hamburg) – Boy George

Ian Wood (England, living in Berlin)– Buddy Holly & Tony Sheridan in the Beatle Show, Benny in the ABBA show.

Rob Prospect – Tom Jones

M L Jordon – Louis ‘Sachmo’ Armstrong

Mitch Adams – Elton John

Garry Moore (Hawaii)– Little Richard

Andy Krumkuhler (German) – Sting www.mrpolice.de

Rob Hawthorn (Scotland, living in Berlin) – Rod Stewart

Marco Schiefer (Luxemburg) – Joe Cocker

William Hall – Michael Jackson

Lothar Stadtfeldt (German) – Billy Joel

Louie Austen (Austria) – Frank Sinatra www.louie-austen.com

Tony Kishman – Paul McCartney www.twistshout.com

Frank Chiarelli (Canada) – Ray Charles

The Four Tops – Charles McCaleb

Joe Passion (Canada) Jerry Lee Lewis
http://www.joepassion.net

Interview with LLM’s Carol Hunter at:

http://ladyluckmusic.com/radio/hunter/joepassion/

For Stars In Concert contact,
http://www.stars-in-concert.de

/www.joepassion.net