The rediscovery of tenderness with Daniela Dett

After 90 minutes you want to hug the theater all-rounders Henry Mason and Daniela Dett – touched by their passion, their comic talent and the return to the power of love. What might have been waved through as bad kitsch in a different constellation was experienced through the serious craftsmanship of these two and with the fine musicians Daniel Große Boymann (piano/vocals), Walter Sitz (drums), Gerald Kiesewetter (bass) and Joe Doblhofer (guitar). sensual height.

17 years ago, Dett and Mason brought Shakespeare’s poem “Venus and Adonis” into the present with “Down With Love” and produced a hit with pop stars like Broadway rags. A lot has happened since then: Mason has become a sought-after director and playwright for his work at the Salzburg Festival and in the Burgtheater. The famous musical actress Dett established herself as the audience favorite of the Linz music theater.

In the sequel “Down With Love. Reloaded”, which is now available, they still put everything on one card and, with Beatrix and Benedikt, put two people humiliated by the midlife crisis on stage. Despite sharing a sexual and artistic past, they only grumble at each other. Bandleader Don (Große Boymann) organizes a last performance together and otherwise pulls all sorts of strings to burst open the armor of cynicism that has grown over the injured soul of both.

Mason and Dett effortlessly wriggle their way through Shakespeare quotes from the dome and intrigue fun Much Ado About Nothing. The immunity to everything that touches you is playfully transformed with enormous musicality in a duet: from “Fuck You” by US hip-hopper CeeLo Green to Jon Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning” and “Both Sides Now” to Dett’s feat with Kate Bush’s grandiose number “Wuthering Heights ” , in between in the dispute medley Alanis Morissette, Carly Simon (“You’re So Vain”) and “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child sound through.

Before the show, chocolate hearts with portraits of the main actors were distributed to the audience. No wonder Beatrix and Benedikt get each other in the end. Eric Clapton’s “Change the World” swings among the encores of this fine musical miniature. At least in the Posthof, the world felt changed for the better.

Posthof Linz: “Down With Love. Reloaded”directed by Nora Dirisamer and Henry Mason, Premiere: February 14, further dates: February 16 and 17. posthof.at