Finally they're dancing again! In the second season of “The Palace,” the Berlin revue theater fights for survival after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
An article by TV DIGITAL chief reporter Mike Powelz
When the curtain rose for the first time in Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast in 2022 in the ZDF series “The Palace” for 32 dancers, almost seven million people watched at their peak, loving, intrigued and natural in the GDR revue theater was danced. Now it’s time again: “Lights off, spot on!” – Available in the media library from December 19th and on December 6th. 8:15 p.m. on ZDF.
The action, which begins in the spring of 1990, continues the story. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ensemble dances in front of almost empty stands under the direction of ballet director Regina Feldmann (Jeanette Hain). The Berlin Cultural Senate is already planning to close the house, but a new director (Benno Fürmann) from West Germany has other plans: a casino with shows, a kind of “Las Vegas on the Spree”, is to be built.
An affront to the director. She organizes a casting to recast the famous “Girl Line” and hires the siblings Luise (Lary Müller) and Lukas (Lukas Brandl) as well as the ambitious Karla (Taynara Silva-Wolf). The trio occupies an empty East Berlin apartment, fights with the long-established neighbors against their eviction by real estate sharks, celebrates the first Love Parade – and is faced with a breaking point when Lukas begins a secret affair with the much older Regina.
Revealing love scenes
How does this unconventional relationship and historical change affect the ballet director? Actress Jeanette Hain told TV DIGITAL: “Even though my character believes she has the choreography of her life firmly under control, over the course of the six episodes it gradually slips out of her hands. The cultural and political changes that German reunification brings with it in general and especially with regard to the palace pose major challenges for her.” Regina only mastered it thanks to her own strength as well as the experience and creativity of the “palace family” and, last but not least, thanks to love As a woman leaving her single life behind, she faces the challenges of the transition period, Hain continues.
Hain's highlight of the second season? “A wonderful image in the fourth episode that starts in the bathtub and ends in a wild dance in the living room! Director Uli Edel staged it so playfully and freely that it is one of my absolute favorite moments.” All love and nude scenes were choreographed by intimacy coordinator Gabriele Mattner. Would Hain also be interested in another season? “Oh yes!” she says. “The palace with its fascinating, dazzling past still holds countless captivating stories!”
Uli Edel also sees it this way: “One could continue to tell the triumphant story of the palace in continuous episodes up to the present day. The Berlin Palace is not only the most successful 'revue' theater, but Germany's most successful theater ever!”
