The Devil's Apprentice (musical)

The following information is based on events in the *Devil's Apprentice* musical and contain spoilers.

   *This article is about the stage musical adaptation of* The Devil's Apprentice *by Kenneth B. Andersen. For the book which it is based on, go to The Devil's Apprentice (book).*

Philip LaZebnik

2019 Aalborg (upcoming)
2019 Århus (upcoming)
2019 Herning (upcoming)

***The Devil's Apprentice*** (Danish: *Djævelens Lærling*) is a Danish language stage musical from 2018 based on Kenneth B. Andersen's fantasy novel *The Devil's Apprentice*, directed by Peter Langdal, with a script written by Mads Æbeløe Nielsen and the American screenwriter Philip LaZebnik (*The Prince of Egypt*, *Pocahontas*, *Mulan*) with lyrics and songs written by American lyricist and composer Madeline Myers. It is going be the first adaptation of any book in the *Great Devil War* seres.

The script and songs were written in English first and then subsequently translated into Danish by Peter Langdal and Helle Hansen.

The play will premiere November 1, 2018 and continue to run until November 25, 2018 on Refshaleøen in a big red tent between Refshalevej 171 and 173 in Copenhagen, Denmark. A pre-premiere was held on October 31, 2018. It is produced by Heltemus Productions ApS, who has previously adapted Astrid Lindgren's *Ronja the Robber's Daughter* into a musical in 2016, produced the Danish version of the musical *Into the Woods* in the Glass Hall Theater in 2017 and most recently the Danish version of Green Day's *American Idiot* musical/concert in The Grey Hall in 2017.

After the shows on Refshaleøen, the musical will begin a short tour in Jutland and play shows in Aalborg, Aarhus and Herning. Det vil komme til at foregå sidst i december 2018 - først i januar 2019

Tickets went on sale May 13, 2018.

An official Danish cast recording is set to be released on September 14, 2019, on CD and streaming platforms.

## Background

### Story

*The Devil's Apprentice* is a thought-provoking and comedic fantasy tale about the human boy Philip Engel, who, despite his sweetness and politeness, mistakenly ends up in Hell with the Devil. Here Philip has to be taught as the ailing Devil's heir, and against his will adapt to life among the devils, where good is a sin, and evil is celebrated. Philip falls for his new female friend Satina, and together they find clues of a conspiracy against the dark throne of Hell, which hurls them into a web of love and jealousy and hatred that force Philip's deeply buried dark sides to come to light. It is an epic story that asks questions about life and death and good and evil, free will, and the importance of them all.

### Production

On December 17, 2017, Heltemus Productions ApS announced on their Facebook page that they would be making *Djævelens Lærling*, the first book in the *Great Devil War*, as a Danish language musical, and that it would premiere November 1, 2018. As playwrights Mads Æbeløe Nielsen and Philip LaZebnik was attached to the project.

Heltemus and the Danish advertising agency Liquidminds has collaborated on developing the concept, key visuals and communication for the production.

On May 22, 2018 the first rehearsal of the musical was held. In addition a 3 week long workshop for the cast and crew began on May 23, which included coaching voices, doing song rehearsals and rehearsing the script to see if anything needed to be changed in the text. Composer and lyricist on the play, Madeline Myers, had also flown from the United States to Copenhagen to partake in the workshop, which she told about on her Instagram. The majority of the cast were already found at this time. The workshop ended on June 10, 2018.

On August 15, 2018, Jonas Suurballe posted a picture on his Instagram from a sound studio, and wrote that he had spent th day there recording choir bits together with two talented artists and their musical supervisor, for a promo for *Djævelens lærling*.

On August 25, 2018, the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad printed an interview with show director Peter Langdal in relation to *Djævelens lærling*.

On September 10 and 11, 2018 actor Torben Zeller, who is to be play Death in the musical, appeared in two episodes of the TV program Sådanmark on TV2 Lorry as co-host, in which *The Devil's Apprentice* was briefly mentioned. In first episode, Zeller talks about the plot of the show and its themes, and in the second episode he revealed that the set design for the show would be built in three storeys.

On September 15, 2018, Kenneth B. Andersen posted a photo of a new poster for the musical on his official Facebook page. On September 17, 2018, Heltemus Production posted a high-resolution image of the same poster on the official Facebook page of the play. It features actors Kasper Leisner, Oscar Dietz and Sofie Amalie Kronborg Christensen without their costumes in front of a background of flames and light.

On September 23, 2018, the Danish production, tent and stand-renting company Enoch Show Production wrote on their Facebook page that they would be the ones to supply the tent for the production. Specifically their so-called "Paladstelt" (Palace Tent). At the time, they had just taken down the tent in Aalborg after a show by Flying Super Kids, and was preparing to transport it across the country to Refshaleøen in Copenhagen, where *The Devil's Apprentice* is going to have its opening.

On September 24, 2018, the rehearsals started up once again and will continue until the premiere on November 1, 2018. On the same day, Heltemus Production posted a video on the musical's Facebook page in which the main star of the show, Oscar Dietz, is interviewed and which includes a quick sneak peek at some of the original music and lyrics composed and written by Madeline Myers for the production, translated to Danish by Helle Hansen. In addition, Heltemus confirmed that rehearsals had started on that same exact day.

On September 27, 2018 Heltemus Production posted photos on the musical's Facebook page of the start of rehearsals, writing that they had gathered all of the cast, costumes and devil horns were being presented, and they were rehearsing their song repertoire, which according to them sounded like "a agonizing cry of a different world." Both voice coach Klaus Møller and composer and lyricist Madeline Myers are present for the rehearsals.

The night at September 29 2018 Enoch Show Production posted photos from Refshaleøen, where they are currently raising their "Palace tent", which is going to act as the theater for the musical, and which uses 350 tent-poles. The post was shared by Heltemus Production on their official Facebook page.

On October 4, 2018 set designer Eilev Skinnarmo shared photos of the tent being raised on his Facebook profile and wrote that the set was under construction, and that it was a "small building project scenographically".

On October 6, 2018 the raising of the theater tent was complete.

On October 17, 2018 a sitzprobe was held for the show, 15 days before the premiere. Some test flyings with Oscar Dietz were also performed at the beginning.

On October 31, 2018 a pre-premiere of *The Devil's Apprentice* (*Djævelens lærling*) was held.

Some props for the production were built by the Danish company Conradi Design, including fake books, flamingo apples and rococo mirrors.

## Press and marketing

On December 20, 2017, Heltemus Production posted a short animated teaser showing the play's title card on the musical's official Facebook page, and subsequently a longer teaser with a cinematic reenactment of one of the book's main scenes produced by Gaucho Film. On December 21, 2017 Heltemus published the cinematic teaser with narration.

On May 23, 2018 Kenneth B. Andersen announced that the play was to be directed by Peter Langdal on his Facebook page, and that the actors were rehearsing.

On May 30, 2018, the majority of the cast was announced through the show's newly launched official website on, and in the more detailed official press release (in Danish), with some bigger names among both cast and crew. Among others was the musical and theatre veteran Kasper Leisner (*Så længe jeg lever*, *Efter bryllupet*, *Røde Orm*) who is going to star as the Devil Lucifer, as well as Torben Zeller and Søren Hauch-Fausbøll, while the main characters of the human boy Philip Engel and the devil girl Satina was given to Oscar Dietz, best known for his role as Pelle Nørhmann/Antboy in the films based on Kenneth B. Andersen's children's books, and Sofie Amalie Kronborg Christensen, best known for starring as Ronja the Robber's Daughter in Heltemus' musical based on Astrid Lindgren's classic. Among the names in the crew it was announced that the scenic design would be created by Eilev Skinnarmo, who is known for several larger theatrical set designs and production design on television, latest in the large outdoors viking play *Røde Orm* produced by the Royal Danish Theatre.

On June 1, 2018, Heltemus Production wrote in a comment on their official Facebook page that the roles of the play's antagonists Aziel Stofeles would be announced later that same month.

On June 26 2018, Heltemus Production confirmed on the official Facebook page of the musical that there was a "massive interest" in school performances, and announced that it is something they were purusing.

On August 25, 2018, the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad printed an interview with show director Peter Langdal in relation to *Djævelens lærling*.

On August 29, 2018, Heltemus Production anoounced on the official Facebook page of the musical that dates of school performances had been set, and in addition they had created a Facebook event for this with dates and times of the performances, as well as contact information. The school performances are going to be held on November 8 at 7 PM and on November 22 at 11 AM. The tickets cost 50 DKK a student.

On September 5, 2018, through the announcement of the premiere in Musikkens Hus in Aalborg, Bjarke Atterdadg was listed as the actor playing the antagonist Aziel Stofeles., Atterdag was previously to be part of the ensemble. It is still not known who will play Aziel Stofeles' mother, the castle servant Grum, and the elderly prison guard Shrillclaw, or whether the three roles would even appear in the show. Even though it later turned out Grum was in the show, Aziel's mother and Shrillclaw had been written out in the adaptation of the book, and Grum had been changed from the old devil and servant at Lucifer's castle to Lucifer's dog, a sort of parallel to the Devil's cat, Lucifax, who likewise appears in the musical, and prominently so.

On September 29, 2018 Heltemus Production posted a photo of conductor Mikkel Gomard on the musical Facebook page with a short description of his role in the production under the hashtag #ugensfordømte ("the Condemned of the Week"). In the background is seen Bjarke Atterdag who portrays "Devil-Sam", Philip Engel's bully in the story, who uses this name for the one victim that he choses every week at Philip's school in the land of the living. They also announced that there would be a profile of a cast or crew member every week, and that fans could use the hashtag themselves to nominate friends that they are pulling pranks on, on both Facebook and Instagram.

On October 2, 2018, Heltemus Production confirmed on the musical's Facebook page that Bjarke Atterdag is to play the role of Aziel Stofeles, and also announced that he will double as the role of Sam, both Philip's bullies. It is going to be Atterdag's professional acting debut.

On October 5, 2018 a video advertisement for the show was posted and promoted on Facebook, in which Oscar Dietz briefly appears in the beginning and classically-inspired music in fortissimo with a loud choir, composed by Madeline Myers, was heard for the first time. The advertisement are narrated by Kasper Leisner who plays the Devil in the musical.

On October 25, 2018 Oscar Dietz appeared in the radio program "Aftenklubben" on NOVA FM, where he was interviewed by the host Mikkel Westerkam about *The Devil's Apprentice*.

On October 31, 2018, Heltemus Production posted some photos of the show from the show's dry run on the show's official Facebook page as a sneak peek. They include a photo of Oscar Dietz in the role of Philip engel, a photo of Kasper Leisner, Mikkel Moltke-Hvilsom and Kristian Jensen, in the roles of Lucifer, the Devil's cat Lucifax and the Devil's dog (created for the show), respectively, and a single photo of Bjarke Atterdag in the role of Aziel Stofeles.
That same day the Danish national theatre news media ISCENE brought an article with interviews of Kenneth B. Andersen, the author behind the book on which the show is based on, and the show's set designer, the Norwegian Eilev Skinnarmo. The article has some photos from the show and goes a little into depth in regards to how Skinnarmo turned the telt the show plays in into Andersen's version of Hell. Furthermore, from the photos it is evident that the brief appearance of Grimleg is played by Torben Zeller, who otherwise plays Death.

Earlier on the day of the world premiere of the musical, Heltemus Production posted a video trailer for the show on their Facebook page and Instagram profile, featuring footage from the show. Additionally, Heltemus posted two videos on their YouTube channel that shows how to get to the location of the show through boat bus and bike from Nyhavn, respectively.

## Music

The score and lyrics for the play are written by American composer and lyricist Madeline Myers, who worked as a music assistant on the musical *Hamilton*.

On January 14, 2019, Heltemus Production announced through the official *Devil's Apprentice* musical Facebook page that an official Danish cast recording with songs from the show were being produced following many requests, and that it was expected to come out at a time in the Summer of 2019. The same thing was noted by the show's composer and lyricist, Madeline Myers, on the "News" section of her official website, however in June of 2019 she changed the release date to September 14, 2019. She also wrote that it would be released on physical CD and all streaming platforms.

## Instrumentation

The cast will be accompanied by a 8 man live orchestra lead by conductor Mikkel Gomard. Originally only 7 musicians were planned to play at the show. The music is orchestrated by Morten Gildberg, who also serves as music copyist on the production. Gildberg is known for his work on the Frederica Teater production of Walt Disney's *Tarzan* fra 2018.

The instrumentation will consist of
Instrumentation:

* Reed (clarinet, alto sax, flute)
* Trumpet/flugelhorn
* French horn
* Piano/conductor
* Percussion
* Drum set
* Cello
* Double bass

## Referencer

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Photos from the show *The Devil's Apprentice* posted on the official Facebook page of the play.
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 About the show, times, cast and crew on the musical's official website.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Official press release about *Djævelens lærling*.
4. ↑ *Djævelens lærling* musical on Facebook: Goes on short tour in December 2018 - early Januar 2019.
5. ↑ Kenneth Bøgh Andersens “Djævelens Lærling” opsættes som musical - via Teaternyheder.dk.
6. ↑ Heltemus giver liv til 'Djævelens Lærling' - via Rudersdals Avis.
7. ↑ Djævelens lærling musical on Facebook: Tickets go on sale.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Composer and lyricist, Madeline Myers, announces release date for *The Devil's Apprentice* cast recording as September 14, 2019, on her official website.
9. ↑ Blurb on composer and lyricist Madeline Myers' official website.
10. ↑ Kenneth Bøgh Andersen: "Free will is a theme throughout all my fantasy books" at Fortællingen.dk (Danish).
11. ↑ Heltemus Productions ApS on Facebook: Announcing *Djævelens lærling* musical.
12. ↑ Advertising agency Liquidminds' post on their collaboration with Heltemus Production on *Djævelens lærling*, through Liquiminds' business Instagram profile.
13. ↑ First rehearsal.
14. ↑ Oscar Dietz on Facebook: 3 ugers workshop begynder.
15. ↑ Klaus Møller on Instagram: Cast og crew er til workshop.
16. ↑ Klaus Møller on Instagram: Sangprøver under workshop.
17. ↑ Jonas Suurballe on Instagram: "Last week of workshopping this completely new musical premiering at Refshaleøen 01/11-18" and tease of revised script.
18. ↑ Madeline Myers on Instagram: "It’s the first day of our workshop, and I’m doing cartwheels down the sidewalk!".
19. ↑ Comment related to auditions on Heltemus Productions' Facebok page.
20. ↑ News section at composer and lyricist Madeline Myers' official website.
21. ↑ Jonas Suurballeet Christensen at Instagram: In the sound studio.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Kristeligt Dagblad: I helvede finder man sig selv, interview with Peter Langdal 06/25/18.
23. ↑ Torben Zeller as co-host in Sådanmark, TV2 Lorry 10. september 2018 (Danish).
24. ↑ Torben Zeller som medvært i Sådanmark, TV2 Lorry 11. september 2018 (Danish).
25. ↑ Kenneth Bøgh Andersen på Facebook: New poster.
26. ↑ *Djævelens lærling* musical on Facebook: New poster in high resolution.
27. ↑ Enoch Show Production supplies tent for *The Devil's Apprentice*.
28. ↑ Jonas Suurballe on Instagram: Rehearsals continue.
29. ↑ *Djævelens lærling* musical on Facebook: Interview with Oscar Dietz and sneak peek at music and lyrics.
30. ↑ *Djævelens lærling* musical on Facebook: Photos from beginning of rehearsal.
31. ↑ Klaus Mølller on Instagram: The musical team on *The Devil's Apprentice* at work.
32. ↑ Enoch Show Production on Facebook: Raising the theater tent.
33. ↑ Eilev Skinnarmo on Facebook: Set under construction.
34. ↑ *Djævelens lærling* on Facebook: Photo of tent crew in front of the theater tent.
35. ↑ Jonas Suurballe Christensen on Instagram: Sitzprobe.
36. ↑ Thomas Bay on Instagram: Test flyings.
37. ↑ Conradi Design i færd med rekvisit-fremstilling, Conradis Facebook-side.
38. ↑ Djævelens lærling musical on Facebook: Short teaser.
39. ↑ Djævelens lærling musical on Facebook: Cinematic teaser.
40. ↑ Gaucho Film on Facebook about cinematic teaser.
41. ↑ Djævelens lærling musical on Facebook: Cinematic teaser with narration.
42. ↑ Kenneth B. Andersen on Facebook: "Peter Langdal instruerer".
43. ↑ Heltemus on Facebook: The role of Aziel Stofeles will be announced later in June.
44. ↑ Djævelens lærling musial on Facebook: About school perfomances.
45. ↑ Djævelens lærling musical via Facebook: Datoer for skoleforestillinger.
46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 46.3 Aziel Stofeles is played by Bjarke Atterdag.
47. ↑ *Djævelens lærling* musical on Facebook: Short profile on conductor Mikkel Gomard.
48. ↑ Heltemus Productoion ApS on Instagram: Condemned of the Week: Mikkel Gomard.
49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 *Djævelens lærling* musical på Facebook: Bjarke Atterdag spiller Aziel Stofeles og Søren.
50. ↑ Facebook video advertisement with music and choir, Oscar Dietz and Kasper Leisner, 5 October 2018.
51. ↑ Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters **url** and **title** must be specified.
52. ↑ Photos from the show *The Devil's Apprentice* posted on the official Facebook page of the play.
53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 "Rent Helvede" i et gammelt cirkustelt - kom med bagom musicalen *Djævelens lærling*, ISCENE.dk 31 October 2018 (Danish).
54. ↑ Video trailer for *Djævelens lærling*, through Heltemus Production's business Instagram.
55. ↑ Ruten til teaterteltet på Refshaleøen via havnebus.
56. ↑ Ruten til teaterteltet på Refshaleøen via cykel fra Nyhavn.
57. ↑ About Madeline Myers, composer and lyricist on *The Devil's Apprentice*..
58. ↑ Madeline Myers worked as music assistant on Hamilton while it was in production.
59. ↑ Heltemus Production announces official *Devil's Apprentice* cast recording to be released in Summer of 2019, through official *Devil's Apprentice* musical Facebook page (Danish).
60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 Morten Gildberg on Twitter: Orchestrator on *Djævelens lærling*.
61. ↑ Morten Gildberg's orchestrator credentials on his official website.
62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Morten Gildberg's official website: Instrumentation on *Djævelens lærling*.
63. ↑ Morten Gildberg's music copyist credentials on his official website.
64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 64.2 Billetlugen.dk: Medvirkende, kreativ hold, billetalg.

## External links

* Official website
* Heltemus Productions ApS' official website
* Ticket sales
* Kenneth B. Andersen's official website in Danish
* Kenneth B. Andersen's official website in English
* Kenneth B. Andersen's Facebook page
* *Djævelens lærling* musical's Facebook page
* Heltemus Productions ApS' Facebook page