About the work
“Smarte Tricks für Ihren Urlaub!” is the German version of the American musical revue “Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know”, which is based on Wendy Perrin’s travel guide of the same name from the Fodor’s series. Its songs and sketches come from a large team of writers including Douglas Bernstein, Francesca Blumenthal, Michael Brown, Barry Creyton, Stan Freeman, Dave Frishberg and Murray Grand, with Lesley Davison as head writer. After a one-week developmental run at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut, the revue opened Off-Broadway at New York’s Triad Theater on 30 October 1997. The German version was written by Timothy Roller.
Plot
There is no continuous plot: in rapidly changing numbers, two women and two men, accompanied by piano and double bass, play through the small and large disasters of travelling. The show deals with lost suitcases, mixed-up destinations, customs checks, battles with automated booking systems and the pitfalls of ships, trains and buses. The German version replaces two numbers with variants tailored to present-day German circumstances.
Cultural significance
In 1998 the revue moved from the Triad Theater to the Ibis Supper Club and had played 953 performances by the time it closed in February 2000. A cast recording was released by RCA Victor in 1999. Performance rights are handled by Music Theatre International and, in the German-speaking countries, by Musik und Bühne.