BWW Previews: SÅ SOM I HIMMELEN (AS IF IN HEAVEN) at Oscars

Tonight I saw a preview on Så som i himmelen (As if in heaven). For over 10 years, Theatre manager, Vicky von der Lancken has had a dream to transfer director Kay Pollak's amazing film "As if in heaven" to the stage as a musical. Now it's only a few days left before it's opening night September 13th. Kay has done the musical version together with his wife Carin. Fredrik Kempe has written all music to it in addition to Gabriella's song (Stefan Nilsson and Py Bäckman) the lead song from the film which Helen Sjöholm made great success with. Director for the musical is Markus Virta.

The story is that the, the famous conductor Daniel Daréus is returning to his hometown after a heart attack. He has planned to withdrawn from the music, but is quickly persuaded to lead the village's church choir. His personality and styles create conflicts and tensions in the village. He meets the young life-loving Lena. The priest, Stig, who at first is greats him with open arms but then turns against him. Stigs wife, Inger, embraces all the changes and starts to blossom. In the village you find the bicycle dealer Arne who is the village fixer up and likes to be in control. Gabriella with the beautiful voice is battered by her husband Conny, the same guy who also bullied Daniel when they were young. In a small city, people do not like changes and everyone stays the same.

Daniel is played by Philip Jalmelid and this is the first time I seen him in an original role, which is very interesting as you have none else to compare with. He creates the role and set the standard. Philph has recently played Javert in Les Miserables at Spira in Jönköping. Philip has a great voice and the song "Den tid jag har" (The Time I Have) is definitely one of the strongest moments in the musical. The young Lena is played by Tuva B Larsen, which is quite new as musical artist. She reminds a lot of Frida Hallgren who played Lena in the film. Tuva has a very nice voice and her Lena is very charming and lovely. A new star on the musical sky. The priest Stig is played by one of our really great musical artists Anders Ekborg and he is perfect for the role. Nobody can switch between being arrogant and mean and despair as he can. He has the ability to cry on stage as no one else. He really can touch the audience. He has one very strong and powerful song in each act. "Hur tror du det känns" (How do you think it feel) is such a strong song and an absolute favorite. Stig's wife Inger is played by Sara Jangfeldt. Sara is a great singer and actress. Arne is played by Björn Kjellman. In theaterworld you say "Break a leg" and Björn took it a bit too literal as he broke his foot as he cycled on the stage on a rehearsal. He walks around with a special cask and a stick, but it goes well with the character. Björn plays Arne superbly well and has such comic talent, he is a bit of a bully but there is a heart deep down in him.

A character without a heart is Conny, Gabriella's husband who abuses her both physically and mentally. Christopher Wollter plays Conny. He is cruel and unsympathetic. Christopher has a very good voice, but unfortunately the composer had not written a special song for him. Gabriella is played by Malena Ernman, world famous opera singer. In the film, Gabriella is played by Helen Sjöholm, who sings with a nerve and really tells a story when she sings, and Gabriella's song is no exception. In the musical, the song is performed as a solo number, but it does not touch me in the same way as Helen's version in the film. It would have been odd if they had not included the song in the musical as it is so strongly attached to the film, but the performance is not the best this evening and the new songs strikes a stronger cord and is more memorable.

In other roles / ensembles we see Therese Andersson Lewis (Siv), Richard Björck (Tore), Annika Edstam, Joakim Jennerfors among others. Everyone is good and although there is a couple of days left for the premiere, they are all very well played and interact perfectly with each other.

Fredrik Kempes music is incredibly good throughout the musical, from the first note to the last. The lyrics of him and Carin Pollak drives the story forward and brings out a lot of feelings. It's a variety of different type o, songs, funny, songs you like to clap along to, love duets, and some really strong songs which give you goosebumps. There wasn't one single song that I didn't like. Fredrik Kempe has created a masterpiece of musical. Already in the introduction I got a good feeling as it reminded me a bit of the "Kristina from Duvemåla" as they had a sloping floor. Only a few birches, rocks or grains were missing, otherwise it could have been Kristina. But there was something in the mood that hit the same tone that Kristina did in me. It is a musical with a lot of feelings, laughter, cry, sorrow, anger and joy of life, and a nice friendship between Lena and Thore.

With two days left to the opening night the 13th of September they will work on fine tuning and fix whatever they think needs fixing. But in my eyes, there was not a lot that needed fine tuning. It is a really great musical which will play for a long time in Stockholm. Great fun that once again, such an amazingly good Swedish musical has been created with newly written original music. Our Swedish musical artists are really talented and they have the ability of telling a story, acting and singing at the same time. This musical has West End and Broadway Class! If you enjoyed the film, you will love this musical!

(Pictures with credits from the Oscars Theatre, Mats Bäcker)

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