That was quite a party! Paul Curran’s production of Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival makes for a terrific evening in the theatre thanks to a brilliant cast

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus – The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus; Sylvia Schwartz, Andrew Hamilton, Ben McAteer, Ellie Laugharne, Claudia Huckle, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths, Darren Jeffery, Myra DuBois, director: Paul Curran, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Paul Daniel; The Grange Festival
Reviewed: 22 June 2025

With cross-dressing chorus, all-singing, all-dancing soloists and chorus, this was a terrific evening in the theatre 

Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus is about a party, isn’t it? With productions of Strauss’ best-known operetta, it is often difficult to remember that amidst the rollicking good tunes and party antics is an actual plot.

Strauss did not have much luck with his librettists. It is fascinating to discover that Offenbach was thinking about adapting the play, Le Revéillon by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, a project prevented by the Franco-Prussian war. Instead, Richard Genée and Karl Haffner adapted it as a German libretto for Johann Strauss. The best libretto that he set.

The virtue of Paul Curran‘s new production of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival was that as well as giving us a rattling good party in Act Two, Curran never let us forget that there is actually a plot too.

We caught the 2nd performance of the production on 22 June 2025, Paul Daniel conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Sylvia Schwartz as Rosalinde, Andrew Hamilton as Eisenstein, Ben McAteer as Falke, Ellie Laugharne as Adele, Claudia Huckle as Orlofsky, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths as Alfred, Darren Jeffery as Frank, Isabelle Atkinson as Ida, John Graham-Hall as Dr Blind and Myra DuBois as Frosch. Designs were by Gary McCann.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus – Ellie Laugharne, Andrew Hamilton, Sylvia Schwartz – The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Act One played out like a 1930s drawing room comedy, and after all Noel Coward did write Operette! Gary McCann’s stylish circular set owed something to the Courtaulds’ Eltham Palace. Act Two was a far more ritzier setting, the two-tiered circular set used to great effect by the chorus, dressed here in high gender fluid style. Yes it was one of those parties. Act Three played out against ranks of cells, but the presiding genius here, and I use the term advisedly, was Myra DuBois as Frau Frosch. Myra DuBois being the drag name of comic Gareth Joyner.

The text was given in John Mortimer’s English version which was commissioned by the Royal Opera in 1989. This worked well in the first act, but the busier numbers in the remaining two acts Mortimer’s limits as a lyricist showed, words and music did not always fit well. But the cast were all admirable both in making the words count and in delivering the dialogue without any hint of over-emphasis.

Proponents of this opera would have you think that the piece is a masterly take-down of late 19th century Vienna, but this rarely comes over in production as what little plot there is in Acts Two and Three evaporates in a welter of fun. Here, Curran brought an edge to the fun with elaborate cross-dressing for the chorus. This was dressing up for fun and more.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus – Ben McAteer, Isabelle Atkinson, Myra DuBois, Ellie Laugharne, Darren Jeffery – The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Sylvia Schwartz made a poised Rosalinde, very much channeling Maria Aiken in Noel Coward in Act One. All brittle charm and knowing looks, whilst in Act Two she made the Czardas a creditable cabaret number, though perhaps this lacked the spine-tingling element. Around her buzzed the three men, and you could well understand their fascination. 

Andrew Hamilton as Eisenstein played the silly ass to the hilt. This works because to make the plot work, Eisenstein has to be dim. Hamilton brought an effortless charm to the role and lightness too. He and Schwartz made easy pickings of the business with the repeater watch, never over-egging it. 

Ben McAteer’s Dr Falke was full of a sort of camp glee. His delight at the cleverness of his ridiculously complex plot being an excuse to repeatedly let us know about it. But McAteer brought appealing comic timing to the role whilst the sheer campness suggested a homoerotic strand to his relationship to Eisenstein, which the production hinted at but did not explore.

Trystan Llŷr Griffiths as Alfredo seemed to spend a large part of the opera singing fragments of popular operas and wearing little more than a pair of black boxer shorts. He did both admirably, and played the buffoon intelligently whilst managing to look good in the process.

Ellie Laugharne was a charming and very knowing Adele, masterfully over-done in Act One and getting away with murder in Act Two in a glittery barely-there dress. Her laughing aria was delightful whilst her Act Three number was a real show-stopper. 

Claudia Huckle was a very gender-fluid Orlovsky in an over-the-top costume which she combined with wonderfully gurgly relish in her overdone accent, and great aplomb in her solo. 

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus – Ellie Laugharne The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

The other roles were well taken. Darren Jeffery made Frank funny but less of an idiot than usual and managed to rock a leather daddy costume for Act Two (harness and leather trousers), whilst his and Hamilton’s cod-French dialogue was less toe curling than usual. Isabelle Atkinson was all poised elegance as Ida and John Graham-Hall was luxury casting as Dr. Blind.

In the opening scene of Act Three, Myra DuBois gave a masterclass in how to bring a pre-existing act into this show. Channelling the late Dame Edna Everage, DuBois managed to insult the audience (to their delight), work in the plot elements and raise plenty of laughs, whilst breaking down the fourth wall to such an extent that later in the act McAteer’s Falke addressed us as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Act Two had the Tritsch-Tratsch Polka added for good measure, but then does anyone ever perform this opera as Strauss actually wrote it? Curran’s production did not try to disguise the fact that most of the plot runs out well before the end of Act Two, and he did rather over-egg things towards the end of the act. We aware this was the case, but what the hell, it was bloody good fun.

The soloists were an impressively all-singing, all-dancing lot and I was impressed with the way the entire cast combined music and movement in the ensemble numbers in Act One as well as at the party in Act Two.  The chorus worked damned hard, constantly on the move and all seeming to enjoy both their outrageous costumes and their dance moves.

Paul Daniel’s way with Johann Strauss’ music was to keep things moving and emphasise the vivid colours. There were moments in some ensembles when Daniel’s speeds and Mortimer’s words seemed a tricky mix for the soloists but overall this was intoxicating stuff, classily played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Curran and his team did not convince me that Die Fledermaus is the masterwork that some claim it to be, but certainly this was a terrific evening in theatre.