Page "Dance of the Vampires" Paragraph 129

An attempt was made at arriving at a comfortable middle between the " two shows at war with each other ," and original author Kunze was finally consulted for his opinion of what should be changed ( far too late, in his view ).

Ultimately, thanks ironically to the German author of the original piece, the show arrived at much of its final form: during previews, 30 % of the dialogue was cut to allow room to expand the score and arrive closer to the original almost sung-through concept ; the vampire costumes were redesigned to look less freakish ; a new staging of the shock ending set in modern times suggested by Kunze was inputted.

Other suggestions, such as cutting a new dramatic death scene for the Count and restoring some of the original German lyrics, met with more dissension, and Kunze withdrew those suggestions, not wishing to cause any trouble.

On a lighter note, entertainment mogul Howard Stringer, a friend of Crawford's, rang the final death knell for the weight-hiding costumes by telling Crawford he looked silly ; from that point forward, the ruffled collars were gone.