Show Synopsis:
At the Grand Hotel in 1920s Berlin, stories are unfolding all around: fatally ill Otto Kringelein is spending his life's savings on a luxurious vacation at the hotel, prima ballerina Elizaveta is trying to decide whether she should continue dancing, and Baron Felix Von Gaigern is trying to hide from a gangster whom he owes money. Elizaveta and the Baron fall in love and decide to go to Vienna together, but the Baron is coerced into stealing the wallet from a textile mill manager to pay his debts. During the crime, the Baron saves Flaemmchen from being raped by the manager, who is her boss, but is killed in the process. Otto offers to take Flaemmchen to Paris, and Elizaveta is consoled by her dresser.
Character:
Flaemmchen, a young ambitious woman who wants to be on the stage or in films.
Song Context:
The Baron and Flaemmchen have playfully been flirting with each other, and Flaemmchen is pleased that such a wealthy man finds her attractive. She wonders if it could be the start of millions of people loving her as an actress.
Fun Facts:
1. This musical was based on Vicki Baum's novel Menschen im Hotel (People in a Hotel) and subsequent play.
2. Jane Krakowski originated the role of Flaemmchen on Broadway and was honored with a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
3. In an interview with BroadwayWorld.com, Krakowski talked about how her song evolved pretty much every single night during the musical's try-out in Boston. The first version was called "Girl in the Mirror," a phrase that remains in the current version of the song.
"What did he see in me?
What's my attraction?
Could that face make a million men adore me?
And make a hundred camera mean explore me?
Is that the girl I see there right before me?
I wanna be that girl in the mirror, there!
I wanna be that girl with gorgeous hair up on a silver screen most everywhere in the world!
I want to go to Hollywood
Talkies - I mean the pictures!
I wanna have a hot time every night,
Go out and raise a little fahrenheit
Knock ev'ry duke and count and baron right off his feet!
I'll be that girl that's understood -oh!
I want to go to Hollywood.
I wanna sing the blues
I wanna wear nice shoes
And drink illegal booze
In every late night spot
for Le Jazz Hot
I want a breakfast, lunch and dinner there
If I'm a big box office winner there
I'll be the most well-known Berliner there ever was
I want to go to Hollywood
So I can get far away from
Fredrichstrasse
My cold water flat,
The sofa that I sleep on behind the screen,
The noisy lodger in the next room,
My broken hand mirror,
My broken coffee pot
If things get broken, they stay broken
In Fredrichstrasse!
The worn-out bristles on your hairbrush,
The pennies needed for the heat ev'ry hour,
And when you get sick, you stay sick
In Fredrichstrasse,
where you live with little soap
And with hardly any hope!
I wanna be that girl in the mirror there!
I wanna be that girl with gorgeous hair
Up on a silver screen most ev'rywhere in the world!
I want to go to Holly-
I want to go
I want to go
I want to go
I want to go
I want to go
I have to go
I have to go
I have to go
I have to go
I have to go
I swear that girl in the mirror
That girl in the mirror
Is going to go to Hollywood!
Hollywood!
Hollywood!
Hollywood!"