Vereinigte Bühnen Wien

In 1890, a group of Viennese townsmen formed the „Wiener Volkstheater-Verein“ association with the aim of founding a theatre in the suburbs that would attract a broad audience, especially among the „lower social classes“. Offering affordable ticket prices, they aimed to present „patriotic folk plays“, farces, Singspiele ("song-plays"), along with all popular and relevant works of folk art. Built to the plans of architect Franz Roth, the Raimund Theater finally opened – in honour of its eponym – with Ferdinand Raimund’s rarely performed play "Die gefesselte Phantasie" on November 28, 1893. Its first director was writer and critic Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn who had made a name for himself by championing the idea of a theatre for the people and keeping alive the tradition of Viennese folk plays. He served until 1896 and established the new theatre as one that only showed classic spoken folk plays; thus, it served as a counterpart to, on the one hand, the Imperial-Court Burgtheater and, on the other hand, to light-hearted entertainment and variety theatre. Already during its first years, the Raimund Theater featured great stars of the stage, among them „the“ Eleonore Duse, Adele Sandrock, Alexander Girardi, and Max Reinhardt, who was to become world-famous.

Around the turn of the century, operettas increasingly won the favour of Viennese audiences, while non-musical theatre attracted only few visitors. These developments finally forced the operators of the Raimund Theater to lease it to a consortium that included Wilhelm Karczag, among others. He had already leased the THEATER AN DER WIEN and the Stadttheater and therefore controlled all of Vienna’s operetta stages. Starting from 1908, the operetta, thus, made its arrival at the Raimund Theater and the success was so overwhelming that performances were often played en suite for months. As a result, operettas dominated the repertory, which included works by Robert Stolz, whose „Das Glücksmädel“ premiered at the Raimund Theater in 1910, and Johann Strauß. The biggest success was achieved with the „Das Dreimäderlhaus“ after motifs by Franz Schubert (adapted into English language versions as „Blossom Time“ and „Lilac Time“), over 1200 performances of which were played between 1916 and 1927.

It was only in the years 1921-24 under Rudolf Beer, the director of the Volkstheater at the time, that spoken plays were again staged with increasing frequency at the Raimund Theater. As the theatre had been spared bombing during the war, it was able to resume operations immediately after the war. It opened with the "Das Dreimäderlhaus" on April 25, 1945.
In 1948, finally, Rudolf Marik took the helm of the RAIMUND THEATER. He served as its director for almost 30 years and turned it into the only internationally recognized operetta-only stage in the German-speaking world. The greatest stars in this genre, among them Marika Rökk, Zarah Leander, and Johannes Heesters, performed here, as well as a number of famous actors, for instance Hansi Niese, Paula Wessely, Attila. Hörbiger, and Karl Skraup.

It was only from 1976 on that musicals were occasionally performed at the RAIMUND THEATER, for instance Kurt Weill’s LADY IN THE DARK. In 1984/85, the Raimund Theater underwent an overall refurbishment; since 1987, it has been operated by Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, serving as a stage for large-scale musical productions.

A Chorus Line played from October 16, 1987, to July 1, 1988; thus, the first big Broadway show had made its arrival at our house. Subsequently, Les Misérables was shown from September 15, 1988, to March 31, 1990; A. L. Webber’s DAS PHANTOM DER OPER ran from June 9, 1990, to June 30, 1993; DIE SCHÖNE UND DAS BIEST, our first spectacular Disney musical, was shown from September 28, 1995, to June 29, 1997.

October 4, 1997, saw the premiere of TANZ DER VAMPIRE, a musical remake of Roman Polanski’s cult film from the 60s. By January 15, 2000, more than 800,000 visitors had seen musical that would later meet with international acclaim at the RAIMUND THEATER. Subsequently, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat played from March 3, 2000, through January 14, 2001, and a remake of the legendary hippie musical HAIR was shown from March 10, 2001, to June 30, 2002. WAKE UP, the first musical by Rainhard Fendrich and Harold Faltermayer, premiered on September 29, 2002. It continued until January 1, 2004. The next premiere production was Dave Stewart’s BARBARELLA, which ran from March 11, 2004, to January 1, 2005. February 24, 2005, saw the German-language premiere of ROMEO & JULIA. This spectacular musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s love drama played until July 8, 2006; on September 28, 2006, Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay’s REBECCA made its world premiere. For half a year in the spring of 2008, guest performances were shown of the Queen musical WE WILL ROCK YOU; from September through December 30, 2008, audiences were treated to a revival of REBECCA, on February 26, 2009 RUDOLF – THE MAYERLING AFFAIR celebrated its premiere.

The most recent big premiere was staged on March 17, 2010: That was the opening night of ICH WAR NOCH NIEMALS IN NEW YORK, the musical whit the greatest songs by Udo Jürgens.