It started life in 1929 as ¡°Menschen im Hotel¡± (¡°People in the Hotel¡°), the first novel by Austrian writer Vicki Baum, but its storyline ¡ª set in the Grand Hotel in Berlin in 1928 ¡ª first became widely known through 1932¡¯s Oscar-winning film ¡°Grand Hotel¡± starring silver-screen idols John Barrymore, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.
In what¡¯s now known as a ¡°grand hotel¡± plot genre, Baum¡¯s book and the various productions it has inspired all center around coincidental but fateful encounters between guests, staff and others ¡ª including fading prima ballerina Elizaveta Grusinskaya, ruined aristocrat-turned-thief Baron Felix Von Geigern, a terminally ill Jewish accountant named Otto Kringelein and Flammchen, an ambitious typist.
Despite the movie¡¯s success, ¡°Grand Hotel¡± didn¡¯t resurface until 1989, when a Broadway musical by Luther Davis won five Tony awards, including best direction and choreography for Tommy Tune ¡ª the living legend invited over here in 1993 to help the all-female Takarazuka musical theater troupe stage this country¡¯s first-ever ¡°Grand Hotel.¡±
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.