ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to the German market for musicals since about 1990, the year of German reunification. The German-speaking market for musicals is largely based on Anglo-American imports, and is weak on the export of homegrown originals. Yet while musical theater in German-speaking Europe lacks the peaks of Broadway production in creativity, quality, revenue, costs, and international resonance, it offers a rich diversity of professional musical theater within a strong theater system. Popular musical theater has a long tradition in German-speaking countries. In the postwar era, Anglo-American musicals were subsidized in Germany, and thus began appearing in German-speaking public and private theaters. Considering the fact that German-speaking Europe is roughly the size of the state of Texas, the overall market for musical theater is astonishing. Germany alone has about 800 professional theaters, a quarter of which are privately owned.
