Gabor Szilagyi

It comes as no surprise for anyone to hear that Sister Act with its partly disco, partly R&B inspired score by multi-award winning Alan Menken is far from that of the all-time greatest musicals. But it is always pleasing to notice when a skillful crew such as the competent one of the Operetta Theatre in Budapest treats the material as if it would be the eighth wonder of the musical theatre world.

Seefestbuehne Moerbisch, situated next to the Austrian-Hungarian border in Niederoesterreich by the Lake Neusiedl is an exquisite venue to watch and listen to operetta. The enormous open-air theatre with its mighty stage has been a host to beautifully conceived classic operetta performances since 1957. The core repertoire covers the most popular works of Franz Lehar, Johann Strauss and Emmerich Kalman alongside with the occasional visit of musicals such as The Fiddler on the Roof and My Fair Lady.

If you are a musical theatre aficionado and know all the notes of Kander's and Ebb's masterpiece by heart or if you want to hear better voices than Ute Lemper's or Ruthie Henshall's on the stage - then this is definitely not your kind of Chicago. But if you want to be entertained by media criticism, the extensive use of slang dictionary or scaled down, larger than life characters who can actually be your neighbors in suburban Chicago or even in Budapest - then go for it!

Budapest Operetta Theatre is one of the most important venues in Budapest when it comes to musical theatre. Its huge repertoire ranges from classic operetta (The Merry Widow or The Riviera Girl aka Die Csardasfurstin) to modern musicals (mostly Sylvester Levay pop-musicals along with some classical show tunes). Two of the brand-new musical productions from the theatre deals with the ever-lasting questions of good and bad, or to rephrase it, which is the more important, the outer appearance or the inner good?

Three and a half hour long without a single dull moment, that's quite an achievement in itself. But this new production of Richard III at Radnoti Theatre, the fancy art theatre venue in Budapest offers much more: polished reading of a classical tale with some twists, superb acting and boldly imaginative staging by world-class director, Andrei Serban.