Grand Hotel
2001 Show
Grand Hotel: The Musical was another step in the development of musicals away from separate song, dance, and dialogue scenes and towards a total integration of the three. The show is based on Vicki Baum's 1927 novel "Menschen im Hotel" which became a 1930 Broadway play and a classic 1932 MGM film with John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo.
The novel is the first major success in the "intersecting lives" genre, in which several stories and characters revolve around a single setting. The Grand Hotel in Berlin serves as the stopover for five disparate, and desperate, people with time running out.
The aristocratic Baron is forced to purloin jewellery to pay off debts. The ageing ballerina is losing her talent, while the blustering business executive is losing his empire. The timid clerk has a fatal disease and determines to live his remaining days in luxury.
The pretty secretary dreams of going to Hollywood but is saddled with an unwanted pregnancy. These five collide in the lobby, corridors, suites and ballrooms of the Grand Hotel.
Grand Hotel opened on November 12, 1989 and won five Tonys. It had a run on Broadway for over two years and played 1,077 performances