Musical Theatre from Croon to Classic

Anders Nyborg (born 1963). Singer, actor and director. Trained at the Actors School of Odense Theatre. Co-founder and artistic director of the Odense Internationale Musikteater since 1994.

Artistic profile
With their own fusion of music genres from all over the world and moving theatrical performances, the Odense Internationale Musikteater has distinguished itself as one of the most important innovators of Danish musical drama.  The newly written or arranged music of these productions fuse pop, jazz, Latin, country, opera and cabaret into a lush, coherent symphony. The texts contain associative, collage-like glimpses and tight plots that form a synthesis. 

The vision is to fuse music and theatre in a new, boundary-breaking form, very different from familiar musicals. During rehearsals, the performers improvise on the material, and the improvisations have great influence on the finished performance.  The musicians play more than just their instruments, and the actors are capable sinters who master everything from divine, angelic choruses to coarse variety to extravagant  croon.
In 2003, the theatre won a Reumert Award for best musical theatre of the year in recognition of the theatre’s original style, which is entertaining, imaginative and thought-provoking.

Current productions

Cosa Nostra
(Premiere March 2007)
Anna Mazza's husband was shot in the face and died at the wheel of his car. Up to that point, she had just been the wife of a mafia 'capo' - now she became known as 'the black widow', a capo in her own right - one of the most dangerous, certainly one of the most bloody. Cosa Nostra is a tale of power and lust, torture and treason, murder and madness accompanied by music for mandolin and machinegun.

Memory
(2006)
Communication and understanding are only possible thanks to the automatic operation of memory – of which we are normally not conscious.  Only lies are remembered exactly!  The performance blends medical cases with a religious revival meeting and a theatrical freak-show.
The performance blends Danish, English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. 
All the plays mentioned above may be purchased in manuscript form.

The Ancient Mariner
(2005/2006)
Loosely based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The story of a man alone on the sea who rashly kills an albatross and finds himself the victim of dark and merciless forces.  The poem’s dream vision is played by six men in a musical and visual universe, blending pop ballades, Irish folk music, rap, blues, gospel, and rock in an interpretation of this mysterious tale.
The piece was written and is performed in English.

Heaven
(2004)
The dream of heaven has enchanted, seduced, guided or misguided, comforted, inspired and frightened people all over the world.  A conception of death, judgment, heaven and hell to explore the stuff that dreams are made of.  Composite of German cabaret, rock, tango and more.  Danish, German and English are sung and spoken. 

Review extracts

”Odense Internationale Musikteater has reinvented the genre as uniquely their own, without parallel on the Danish theatre landscape.  Intense, soulful musical theatre with demonic humour.” (5 out of 6 hearts)
Politiken (DK), The Ancient Mariner

”The message is delivered in Monty Pythonesque style. Composite of German 1920s cabaret, rock, tango and everything that belongs to OIM’s skill and oblique approach to the musical stage.  Composite light show and much mystique.  This is great! - OIM is out of control.” (4 out of 6 stars)
Ekstra Bladet (DK), Heaven