FROM THE SPOKEN THEATRE TO THE MUSIC THEATRE

Raimund Theater

The Raimund Theater was built according to the designs of the architect Franz Roth and was officially opened on November 28, 1893 – in honor of its namesake – with Ferdinand Raimund's rarely performed magical play "Die gefesselte Phantasie," as a suburban theater for a wide audience, especially from the "lower social classes."  

The first director was the writer and critic Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn, who had made a name for himself as an advocate for the idea of a theater for the people and for the promotion of the Viennese folk play. The theater initially hosted spoken dramas and successfully established itself as a counterpart to the courtly Burgtheater on the one hand, and to light entertainment and variety shows on the other. 

However, from 1908 onward, under Wilhelm Karczag – who had already leased the Theater an der Wien and the Stadttheater and thus controlled all Viennese operetta stages – operettas increasingly appeared on the program, which, due to their resounding success, often ran for months. The greatest success was celebrated by DAS DREIMÄDERLHAUS, based on motifs by Franz Schubert, which ran for over 1,200 performances between 1916 and 1927.

Since the theater had been spared during the war, performances could resume immediately after the war ended. In 1948, Rudolf Marik finally took over the Raimund Theater as director for almost 30 years and turned it into the only internationally recognized stage in the German-speaking world that exclusively performed operettas. The success of the operetta productions persisted, not least due to a star lineup including Marika Rökk, Zarah Leander, and Johannes Heesters, well into the 1970s.

Only from 1976 did isolated musicals appear on the Raimund Theater's program. However, the true musical triumph of the legendary house began after the general renovation in the mid-1980s and incorporation into the Vereinigten Bühnen Wien in 1987. With this, A CHORUS LINE brought a major Broadway show to the stage for the first time and laid the foundation for the Raimund Theater's rise to becoming the top address for large-scale musicals. 

The Raimund Theater's programming has always focused on a balanced mix of well-known musical hits and VBW's own productions. In addition to famous Broadway shows such as LES MISÉRABLES, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, or BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and international hits like HAIR or MAMMA MIA, the lineup has featured numerous world premieres of successful VBW productions such as DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES, REBECCA, SCHIKANEDER, or I AM FROM AUSTRIA. 

In June 2019, the comprehensive renovation and modernization of the Raimund Theater began. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it was completed on schedule, and as early as the 2021/22 season, the moving musical worldwide hit MISS SAIGON could be experienced in the new venue. Currently, Cameron Mackintosh's spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's masterpiece THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is on display. 

In 2023, the Raimund Theater was certified with the Austrian Eco-label for spoken and musical theater, making it one of the first theaters in Austria to receive this recognition.