The Show will go on

These days, rehearsals have begun in Winterthur for what is probably the biggest Swiss stage show of the year. "Cyclope," a six-million production, is inspired by a sculpture by Jean Tinguely. At 22 meters, this is the tallest object by the Swiss sculptor. The original is located near Paris. Tinguely, Bernhard Luginbühl, Niki de Saint Phalle and other artist friends worked on the iron sculpture made of 350 tons of steel for more than 25 years starting in 1969. A few years later, Darko Soolfrank discovered a design for "Le Cyclope".

"As a producer of shows, I get up in the morning and think, 'What could you put on stage?' And in the evening I go to bed and still think: What could be put on stage? So Jean Tinguely, with his background, has always been very close to me, even as a designer of sets, for example for a ballet at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées." At some point while studying Tinguely's work, Soolfrank came across "Le Cyclope" and said to himself, "This is a finished stage design. All you have to do is write a play around it. A musical doesn't impose itself on this kind of art, but something circus-like I can imagine." And what Darko Soolfrank can imagine, he can realize. The premiere is on February 27 and 28 in Winterthur. On two days, because the hall with 850 seats "is too small for all our guests." In summer, "Cyclope" will have another premiere in Basel on July 10. Then as an open-air spectacle. A first successful version of "Cyclope" already thrilled 27,000 visitors in Biel in 2012 on the grounds of the former Expo.

New ideas in old halls

Darko Soolfrank and his partner Guido Schilling, the producers behind "Cyclope," otherwise run the theater in Zurich's Maag area right next to the Prime Tower. Because the stage is only 12 meters high, a new hall had to be found for Tinguely's largest object, which is still 17 meters high in the scaled-down stage version. But discovering new halls has become something like Darko Soolfrank's second vocation. His first could be described as finding new show ideas and discovering new talent. Soolfrank counts "a good nose, an awareness of trends, like every advertiser has to have" as part of the necessary equipment for a show producer. This requires an understanding of marketing, especially when launching something that must resonate with the mark and thus with the audience. "We live off the visitors and get no subsidies. That requires a passion. The day does not have eight hours, but always much more, including weekends. The last New Year's Eve I could celebrate at home was about 15 years ago. I'm often at work when people are enjoying their free time," says the father of two daughters who are nevertheless well entertained.

Despite the considerable financial risk that every new production brings with it, however, Soolfrank does not see himself as a gambler. "Since Guido Schilling and I have been responsible for the Maag Hall, we have already twice come to the situation where things got dicey. Of course, this is always associated with a lot of sleepless nights." In "normal " business life, a market need is evaluated and to satisfy it, something is then produced. With a show, it's an assumption, "a hope that the idea will take off on stage and people will come. That's why it has completely unpredictable components. It's not like we have subscribers. Every production is a new product."

Either the market says "thumbs up" or thumbs down. It gets dicey when you have the "thumbs down" a few times in a row, as was the case two years ago with "Dällenbach Kari" in Bern, the musical version of "Die Schweizermacher" and "Altweiber-Frühling. This stage adaptation of the film "Die Herbstzeit losen" was indeed "a wonderful production". Soolfrank bought it in Bern, where the comedy was produced by the Stadttheater with subsidies and ran very well. But in Zurich, it just didn't want to work. After such a run of bad luck, liquidity is "used up relatively quickly, and you hope that you can find your way out of the trough with a hit.

Not only a hit, but the biggest mega hit of all time, finally became "Ewigi Liebi" for the producers in the MAAG hall. This musical ran for 5 years in Zurich and in a specially built hall in Bern. In 906 performances, an audience of 650,000 people was enthralled. The launch of this musical also came from Darko Soolfrank. He offered the project to Roman Riklin, who then wrote the book for "Ewigi Liebi" together with Dominik Flaschka.

Discover talents

Soolfrank can therefore also be seen as a promoter of talent. Talented people from the alternative scene, for example, who have the potential to make something for a broader market as well. Roman Riklin flirted with cabaret before "Ewigi Liebi," touring Switzerland with "Heinz de Specht" and with the dialect rock band "Mumpitz," among others. In the meantime he is a sought-after author also with other producers. Philipp Boë has also climbed a few steps higher on the show stairs thanks to Soolfrank. The latter has made a name for himself in Biel as a director of experimental plays. Then, after a "Soirée Creative" with "Karl's Kühne Gassenschau" and friends at a dinner, the MAAG director confided in the movement artist his idea that he wanted to make something out of Tinguely's object "Le Cyclope". In Boë's eyes, it "sparkled immediately." Still on the placemat, the concept for the spectacle, which has now grown to a budget of 6 million francs, was born. "Boë got the chance and also grabbed it." Despite his million-dollar budget, Darko Soolfrank has remained modest not only as a person. He also doesn't want to overstate his work. "We can't claim, like a playhouse, that we make intellectual theater that motivates to stimulate and question things. But we can have the effect of giving people a piece of joy. If that works out, then that already makes us happy."

Soolfrank feels at home in the theater. "That's where a lot of my strengths come together in one spot. That's why we've been doing this for 15 years now. There are many who come and go there. I like doing it: culture and entertainment as such. But organizing also suits me very well. I like to do something for the customer, for our guests. A bit of the host role combined with the cultural entertainment value. That's where a lot comes together."

In addition to the Musical Theater, the "empire" now also includes Club Härterei, the MAAG Event Hall, Frau Gerold's Garden, and Bistro K2. - Is it tempting from an entrepreneurial point of view to let one's company constantly expand? "No," says Darko Soolfrank. In the beginning, there was only theater, when the MAAG Hall opened in 2002 with the musical "Deep" by Charles Lewinsky. This played for 18 months. But occupancy was a daily struggle after the first season. As Darko Soolfrank and Guido Schilling analyzed, "If you only have one mainstay, it's almost not feasible. Similar to a soccer stadium, we need a certain amount of mantle usage so that we are a bit more broadly positioned. If a show production ever doesn't work out, we need to be able to continue to cushion ourselves." So the two jumped at the chance for the "Event Hall" right next to the theater. A wide variety of events are organized there. Currently the "Photo 14", on February 1 the ADC Gala.

Another room - the Härterei - was originally designed as a foyer for the "Event Hall". Then, when the Toni site, with its many interim club uses such as rooftop canteen and raw materials warehouse, was shut down, "we felt the need for a new club space that could absorb the Toni labels, so we said to ourselves, let's take a chance and get into the club business." That's how the "Härterei" came into being.

Finally, the concert business was added. "Today, we are one of the larger concert organizers in Switzerland. We have our own festival with 'Digital MAAG' and also organize at the Hallenstadion." The tour with Ennio Morricone or the Finnish rock band "Sunrise Avenue" are events the Maag- operators did together with their partner company Gadget. "It wasn't the lure, but actually more of a rational decision: if our core, show production doesn't work, we need to be more broadly based." And why not just cherry-pick? The internationally proven acts in the Hallenstadion? "We come from the shows we design and produce ourselves, and that's where our lifeblood is. In the meantime, we also have a good network of relationships with authors, stage designers, directors and composers. We definitely want to continue to use this strength, this USP. In other areas, we are more likely to be copied," says Soolfrank.

Currently, Darko Soolfrank and Guido Schilling present 500 events a year, reaching 350,000 visitors. That makes their organization the second-largest venue next to the Hallenstadion. Has that already led to takeover bids? "There are always interested parties. But that's not an issue for Guido Schilling and me. We want to remain independent, not really subsidized either. We want to push through our own ideas and be successful with them. We want to be able to live our spinning ideas," answers Darko Soolfrank. The contract with Swiss Prime Site as the owner guarantees transitional use of the Maag site for shows, concerts, parties and events until 2015. However, an extension is not ruled out, because all parties involved, including the Zurich City Council, appreciate the upgrade that the neighborhood will experience with this cultural enrichment. "We cost the city nothing and do something for the neighborhood." To be prepared for the future, Soolfrank and Schilling also pounced when Mr. Mayer-Sommer had a piece of land available on Geroldstrasse. "We thought, 'We've got to get our foot in there.' So we decided: let's rent 2400 square meters of land on Geroldstrasse. Then we can build a theater on it as an interim use, if necessary, if the lease with the MAAG hall is not extended." With that "foot in it," they could have played an active role if the convention center had actually come. The idea was to be able to build a definitive theater into the new complex. Because the electorate wanted otherwise and the lease with the MAAGHalle was extended, the restaurant "Frau Gerolds Garten" has now been left on the site instead of a temporary theater. A popular trendy restaurant, which the show producers now run as a further diversification in a joint venture with the gastronomy group Miteinander GmbH. With all these ventures, MAAG Music & Arts AG has 25 permanent employees. If a show is running, however, the team with all the freelancers can quickly skyrocket to 120. Darko Soolfrank acts as show developer and program manager.

Two years ago, Philipp Musshafen, an experienced hotelier, was brought in for the management. Guido Schilling works with Soolfrank more strategically and behind the scenes. He also runs one of the largest headhunting agencies in Switzerland "on the side". "Don't dream your life. Live your dream," was the claim in the musical "Space Dream," with which Schilling and Soolfrank founded their collaboration in 1995. That dream has come true for Soolfrank. "People come to us at the Hall when they're on their free time. And anything that has to do with free time and picks people up outside of their working lives is either vacations, gastronomy or culture and entertainment. In this sense, we work with the precious time of mankind. That's a dream in itself, if you're allowed to do that."

Andreas Panzeri