Tanz der Vampire/YMMV


 * Adaptation Displacement: The musical is a lot more famous than the original film. It's not uncommon to see people commenting on the Broadway version to say "this story could never work in English!", with resulting "*Cough* *cough* Ahem" responses from people who actually know the movie.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: So, the whole musical's in German/Hungarian/Dutch/Estonian/Japanese. You're listening to the finale, when all of a sudden, the vampires start singing in English. Before you can realize that no, you're not just hearing things, they've gone back to German/original language. It never happens again, and is given no explanation. Apparently, the lyrics were kept in because Steinman's original English demo's were too bad good to not keep at least something of them in.
 * The Polish production didn't feature the English lines there, and while Japan left them out of that part, it did have some Gratuitous English in other places.
 * Covered Up: An English-language version of Carpe Noctem, titled Seize the Night, was recorded by Meat Loaf in 2006.
 * Reverse example: Most people in German-speaking countries know the Tanz finale as, well, the Tanz finale, without realizing its basis in Streets of Fire and "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young".
 * Same with "Totale Finsternis" as opposed to the original "Total Eclipse of the Heart". It helps that the friggin' vampire love duet makes more sense than, and is far less narmtacular than, the original Bonnie Tyler song.
 * And then there's the fact that "Die Unstillbare Gier" had a first life as "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II. Unlike the others, this isn't a complete lift - the two songs have different choruses and "Die Unstillbare Gier" is a verse shorter.
 * As the other wiki points out, about 70% of the musical score written by Jim Steinman was recycled from his earlier projects, mainly from his less-known shows written in the late Sixties and early Seventies before he abandoned theater to work with Meat Loaf. As the Loaf himself says in his autobiography of Jim's songwriting process for albums, "The way Jim works on an album is this: First he recycles stuff that's either been lying around or, often, songs he's used elsewhere in another form. [...] Steinman regurgitates the older material, then he writes three or four new songs, and that makes the album new. When he has the content down, then the album is ready to be recorded." That's pretty much what happened here. Steinman even speaks at the link provided of having written the score in a month, which would be near impossible for an established theater composer without recycling.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: "I'm a Jewish vampire!"
 * Herbert and Alfred singing together in 'Wenn Liebe In Dir Ist'
 * "Bücher, Bücher! Hunderttausend Bücher!" makes me giggle every time.
 * On the note of the previous one, half of Ambronsius' lines leave me giggling uncontrollably.
 * In an incident during the Oberhausen performance of "Vor Dem Schlo?", a few girls screamed when they got frightened by some of the vampires. Just watch Von Krolock try to keep a straight face.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "Fur Sarah".
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: "Carpe Noctem", "Der Tanz der Vampire".
 * Ear Worm: "Dies irae Kyrie, libera me domine. Dies irae Kyrie, requiem da domine..."
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Herbert is not all that important to the plot, but even the press release for the Vienna revival calls him the show's most popular character.
 * Even Better Sequel: A lot of the fandom considers the Hungarian version to be better than the original, mainly because of the more dramatic props, costumes, and staging changes.
 * Fan-Preferred Couple: There aren't that many Alfred/Sarah shippers out there. Most fans seem to prefer Sarah with Krolock, and a strong number like to pair Alfred with Herbert.
 * Plus anyone who's seen the film beforehand ships Krolock/Professor with renewed vigour, some fans going so far as to state that 'Gott ist tot' is aimed at the Professor not Sarah.
 * Tear Jerker: Just try to not shed a tear during "Say A Prayer" (3:00). It doesn't help that the music and imagery are already beautiful enough to make you cry.
 * Ugly Cute: Some of the ensemble vampires verge on this, depending on the actors and more commonly with the women than the men.
 * Some actors even pull this off with Koukol.
 * Unfortunate Implications: The last we see of Magda as a human is her being held to a table and screaming and trying to get away while Chagal bites her and kills her. In her next appearance, she's lost all traces of modesty and appears to be fine with sleeping with him, though she still seems to personally dislike him. The resulting effect is that her transformation- essentially being raped- has made her loose and no longer caring if he has his way with her.
 * Also, Herbert's... amorousness, depending on the performance.
 * To be fair, he's at least scripted to be basically just a lovestruck fanboy. Anything more aggressive (or more woobielicious) is up to the actor. Magda's transformation is hard to view as anything but sketchy, no matter who's playing her.
 * The Woobie: Alfred. And with some actors, Herbert.

The American production includes examples of:

 * Covered Up: Again, and one that wasn't in the original. Large sections of "God Has Left The Building" (the opening vampires' dance) are taken from "The Opening Of The Box" from Steinman's project Pandora's Box. (Which was also the group that gave us "Gott Ist Tot".)