Estrel Stars In Concert

Hi. My name is Joe Passion. For a background update, see “Carol’s Archives” for an article about me. I probably should tell you how I got the gig with Stars in Concert.

I was working for Legends In Concert in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina when I first met Bernhard Kurz, the producer of the Stars in Concert show, and his lifetime partner, Ute Jacobs, manager/director of the Estrel. I was performing as Jerry Lee Lewis, when Tim Stamper and Kenny Barrett, of Blues Brothers fame, introduced me. Bernhard searches for new talent on his frequent trips to the States and has an office in Vegas.

After Bernhard saw my act, we struck up a rapport over dinner, subsequent long-distance phone calls and emails. I’ve got to say, one of the things that impressed me was Bernhard’s use of emails. This was a time when most agents and producers thought computers were for secretaries and web sites were for spiders! It wasn’t really that long ago.

We kept talking and Bernhard remained very positive. A year later, when my schedule opened up, we negotiated a five-month contract. At the time, I was traveling with my wife and three-year-old daughter. Bernhard made accommodations for us and made us feel comfortable when we checked into the Hotel.

Stars in Concert is situated in the Estrel Hotel Berlin. With over 1100 suites the hotel is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Largest Business Hotel in Germany.

The Estrel has four wings which are separate buildings attached into one giant complex by a glass atrium. The Atrium includes four restaurants, an ice cream shop, two bars, a water fountain in center court, trees and sculptures and a convenience shop. It also has tables that can accommodate breakfast service for many hundreds and thousands on special occasions by utilizing additional convention rooms.

The Estrel Convention Center hosts corporate events, boxing matches, concerts and awards shows.

For those of you who have never been to Europe, the flight is nine hours from Toronto and the time difference is six hours. Jet lag is an issue for most of us unless you can sleep on the plane. So, after I arrived, I caught a brief nap and then I saw the show.

Wow! Stars In Concert is a world-class show. My first night I saw Mitch Adams as Elton John, Rachel Hiew as Cher, Paul Langely as Boy George, Coco Fletcher as Whitney Houston, William Hall as Michael Jackson and Rob Prospect as Tom Jones.

There are five amazing dancers choreographed by Katrina McEwen, who is also one of the dancers. The girls are from England, Germany and Australia. I’ll just say right now that Katrina’s choreography is award-show caliber. It’s highly aerobic and artistic with very creative costumes. Since there is a large rotating cast, sometimes changing nightly, the dancers rehearse almost on a daily basis.

There is a great four-piece live band using additional tracks of horns and back-up vocals when necessary. Two spotlight operators work from the rafters, two video screens run background media of the artists during the performance on either side of the stage. A computerized light show with all the bells and whistles of smoke and strobes and rotating lights adds a true concert atmosphere, enhanced further by a great sound system with full monitors sunk in the stage and overhead side fills.

The show is situated in the Estrel Festival Center and seats eight hundred people for drinks and food. The tables are occasionally removed and the room redesigned for larger crowds. There are seven to eight performances a week, with a matinee on Saturdays. There are also many extra shows every month. They include everything from small track shows and promotions to very large corporate events.

When I began working in the show, I discovered there were a few differences, some pleasant and some strange. First of all, the back stage was run very professionally with a stage manager and costume lady always present for every performance.

The dressing rooms were great and had large windows, but were, however, quite a distance from the stage. This requires a three-minute walk through the basement of the hotel and four flights of stairs. We call it the SIC Stairmaster. There’s nothing like knocking yourself out on stage only to be faced with a four-floor climb to the dressing rooms. And these are high ceilings I’m talking about. But you get used to it. Guess what?

Everyone in Europe walks! They really do. They walk everywhere. They live in five- storey apartment blocks with no elevators! They actually stay healthy this way. What a concept!

The other strange situation is that although it is a four-piece band (guitar, bass, drums and keyboards), there are three musicians for each position. Plus they alternate individually, sometimes on a nightly basis. Im told this is due to German law and common for a full-time theater production. But it also keeps the players fresh and allows for a dependable lineup of musicians when there are alternate shows and corporate events.

The show in Berlin actually began as a partnership with John Stuart and Legends In Concert back in 1997. It was originally called Legends In Concert which is probably familiar to many of you. There were some growing pains and the difficulty of communication with Vegas led to problems that eventually resulted in a court case.

Mr. Kurz then broke away independent of Legends and formed Stars In Concert. As you can imagine, this led to harsh feelings back in Vegas, but these blips are common in the industry from time to time. Now, some eight years later, Stars in Concert and Legends in Concert are once again communicating and co-operating on mutual business.

In April 2003, Bernhard opened a second venue in another German city called Essen. Essen is in an area of Germany called the Ruhrgbeat. There are five cities, Cologne (Koln), Düsseldorf, Bonn, Duisberg and Essen, within a sixty-mile radius of each other, with a total population of twelve million people. By the way, the population of Berlin is five million.

Bernhard is a long time Beatle Fan and has also been running a celebrated Beatle show called “Twist and Shout.” The show features Tony Kishman (USA) as Paul McCartney, Jim Owen (USA) as John Lennon, John Brosnan (Britain) as George Harrison and Carmine Grippo (USA) as Ringo Starr. This is a complete theatrical biography in concert production featuring actors, media and live performance. Ian Wood (Britain), who performs as Buddy Holly in SIC, also doubles as Tony Sheridan and Brian Epstein in the show.
After my first five months, Bernhard suggested that I remain in the show and offered me a salaried position as an employee. He does this occasionally with certain acts. Some of the original cast members have actually relocated and now live in Berlin.

In the last four years, I have spent almost three in Germany.

I write screenplays as a sideline, so I’m always typing away in the dressing room. One day, Bernhard asked me if I would be interested in writing a show with him about the group ABBA. I jumped at the chance. We watched videos and read everything, then put it together. The original concept included Uwa Huebner (pronounced Uva Ubner), a German moderator of music video fame.