Musikantenstadl

Servus, Grüezi und Hallo!

Three different ways to greet someone in southern Germany and Austria – to be heard on the Musikantenstadl live music show in Austria as well, which was broadcast for the first time in 1981. The first-ever show, which was broadcast from the small town of Enns in Upper Austria, was somewhat rough at the edges, so to speak – but the audience sitting on the beer garden benches applauded just as much as the crowd that was present for the 53rd show The basic principle here is clear: Karl Moik is the amusing host and the Alpine region serves as the backdrop – and is also the place where most of the acts on the show originate from. There’s plenty of yodeling, stomping and shoe-smacking (Schuhplattler dancing), and Bavarian-style oompah swaying, and then some young singer or trumpet player performs for the very first time. It’s all so fantastic that the beams in the modularly constructed barn sometimes begin to bend from all the stamping and applause.

Well, that’s what comes to mind when we think about the Musikantenstadl. But what many people do not know is that the Musikantenstadl was a global project. Indeed, Karl Moik took it to Moscow, Beijing, Melbourne, Cape Town, and even the Caribbean – and always with the same stage set. In other words, all the Schuhplattler dancers, women in busty maiden costumes, young men yodeling their love for the Alps, and others playing trumpets were presented as typical Germans, and they reinforced every cultural stereotype to be found in the country they were performing in. This would be unimaginable today. The show doesn’t exist anymore, and Karl Moik is dead. It’s all history now. But the end of this history is only around 20 years old.

Rainald Grebe, who is a director, cabaret artist, author, and songwriter, joins the RambaZamba Theater Ensemble to take us back to the very first broadcast of Karl Moik’s Musikantenstadl in 1981 – and on a journey through the world of German Volksmusik and “good taste.” It’s an evening with lots of music, dancing, and yodeling – and applauding beer garden benches.