Qualla: Metronom Theater

Metronom Theater: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Effie, CC BY-SA 4.0. The roof is shaped like a dragon's head. That was the architect's idea in 1998 - a 1,807-seat arena next to a giant shopping mall on a brownfield site in Oberhausen, the old industrial town in the Ruhr where the steel mills had just closed. A dragon to swallow musical-theatre audiences for the next twenty years. For a while it worked. Then for four and a half years the dragon went silent, lost in a slow legal war between the theatre's owner and the city of Oberhausen over what could happen to its empty stage.

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Image: Effie | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metronom Theater: The Dragon on the Brownfield

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Островский Александр, Киев, CC BY-SA 3.0. Neue Mitte Oberhausen - the New Centre of Oberhausen - was built on the rubble of the closed Gutehoffnungshütte ironworks in the 1990s. Its anchor was CentrO, then one of Europe's largest shopping malls, and beside the mall the city wanted a marquee entertainment venue. Construct...

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Image: Островский Александр, Киев | CC BY-SA 3.0

Metronom Theater: The Stage Entertainment Years

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Effie, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 1 August 2005 the Dutch entertainment giant Stage Entertainment Germany took over the theatre and renovated it inside fourteen weeks for around twenty million euros - new foyer, expanded auditorium, extra seats (1,830 now), new backstage. Renamed the Stage Metronom Theater, it...

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Image: Effie | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metronom Theater: Four and a Half Years of Silence

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Effie, CC BY-SA 4.0. The closure announcement triggered protests. Musical employees organised through the night to keep the theatre open. Star performers including DSDS winner Alexander Klaws went public with their dismay. The Mehr-BB Entertainment company offered to buy the building outright. None o...

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Image: Effie | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metronom Theater: The City's Legal Trick

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Effie, CC BY-SA 4.0. In November 2022 the city announced its move: it would use a legal mechanism to ensure that the Metronom site could only be used for live entertainment, period. No demolition, no office park, no warehouse. The site had been zoned and developed for live performance from the start ...

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Image: Effie | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metronom Theater: The New Programme

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Metronom Theater reopened in November 2024 with the Christmas musical Der Geist der Weihnacht - the same Dirk Michael Steffan show, returning after twenty-three years to the stage where it had premiered. January 2025 brought Die Zauberflöte - Das Musical, then The World of Ha...

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Image: Raimond Spekking | CC BY-SA 4.0