Review: Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel, currently at Green Valley Theatre, is the 1989 Tony-award-winning musical remake of the 1932 Greta Garbo movie.

The Grand Hotel is Berlin’s most posh, most exclusive hotel where, even as visitors parade through, it seems as though nothing ever happens. It feels like reading a book of short stories, where you capture small pieces of people’s lives without ever really knowing them fully.

There are excellent performances, like Mark Ettensohn as the Baron, in debt and out to steal the jewels of aging prima ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya (Stephanie Hodson). Instead he steals her heart, and also the heart of aspiring actress Flaemmchen (Melody Payne), working as a typist until she gets her big break. Kevin Caravalho gives a memorable performance as the terminally ill Kringelein.

Doctor Otternschlag (Jes Gonzales) is the show’s narrator, and it is not clear why his drug habit is part of the story, though the front desk clerk, Erik (Kyle Welling), is desperate to get some of his heroin to help his wife who is in “excruciating pain” from childbirth.

This show seems disjointed, as each of the 18 scenes is detached from the one before or the one after, though by the end of the show several of the stories come together. Ultimately, it is an enjoyable production.