An Imaginary Report on an American Rock Festival

According to Színházi kalauz, a Hungarian encyclopedia of plays, “the most prominent productions were Balázs Kovalik's staging of 1999 in Szeged with choreography by Tamás Juronics and János Szikora's clear-out, thought-provoking rendition in Szolnok (2005).”[1] The songs of the musical became hits in Hungary and parts of the repertoire of Locomotiv GT.

While researching for the proposed repertoire, Levente Osztovics recommended him Tibor Déry's short novel titled Képzelt riport egy amerikai popfesztiválról, the theme of which Pós found appropriate for the adolescent and young adult audiences.

[2][3] Manager Zoltán Várkonyi gained the permits from the Department for Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party by introducing the plot as a "criticism of the Western hippie culture".

Next the authors of another popular Hungarian rock band, the Locomotiv GT—composer Gábor Presser and lyricist Anna Adamis—were asked who were unfamiliar with theatrical composing at the time.

Almost each star of the contemporary [Hungarian] beat, rock, and pop-music was against it because they thought it to be against youth, and they didn't like the fact that a band like the Locomotiv participated in an official theatrical production.

It focuses on a married Hungarian defector couple, and draws parallel between the drugged crowd, Hell's Angels and the holocaust and the Arrow Cross Party.

There is an infinite line of cars on the rainy highway, made up by 300 thousand young people heading to the Montana Rock Festival ("Menni kéne").

In one of the cars sits József who fled from Hungary to New York City in 1956 and who is searching for his also immigrant wife, Eszter who travelled to the festival in spite of her husband's disagreement.

She leaves with her American friend, Beverley, and they witness in the drugged crowd as during a riot one of the Hells Angels contracted as security stabs a knife in the heart of a black boy called Meredith Hunter.

The finale differs depending on the concept of the director: the musical may end with the optimistic "Arra születtünk" that sets the aim of healing Earth's wounds (and cleaning up the trash after the festival) or with the rather melancholic reprise of "Valaki mondja meg".

[6] The cast included many young artist who later became popular actors, like Éva Almási, Attila Apró, Péter Balázs, Ilona Béres, Márta Egri, Béla Ernyey, Krisztina Ferenczi, György Gárdonyi, D. Géza Hegedűs, György Kemény, András Kern, Róbert Koltai, Gábor Koncz, László Komár, István Kovács, Erzsébet Kútvölgyi, Judit Lukács, Sándor Lukács, Zoltán Moser, Gábor Nagy, Sándor Oszter, Sándor Szakácsi, Erika Szegedi, Éva Szerencsi, and László Tahi Tóth.

The Szolnok cast included Sándor Szakácsi as József, and also Mari Csomós, Péter Czibulás, Mátyás Usztics, Frigyes Hollósi, Katalin Andai and Zoltán Papp.

[13][14] the Comedy Theatre revived the musical on September 11, 1981, with Sándor Szakácsi as József, Nóra Kovács as Eszter, Judit Hernádi as Beverley, and Péter Rudolf as the Witness.

The open-air premiere of An Imaginary Report was at the Open Air Festival in Szeged on August 19, 1999, and was directed by Balázs Kovalik and choreographed by Tamás Juronics.

The production moved to the National Theatre of Szeged on October 9, and starred Judit Schell as Eszter, Mónika Sáfár as Beverley, Iván Kamarás as József and Péter Novák as Manuel/Mick Jagger.

[16] It was directed by Rose Deak, choreographed by Patricia Birch, its costumes were designed by Karen Krammer, its set by Loren Sherman, and its lighting by Victor En Yu Tan.

[18] It starred Leonard Crofoot as Frantisek, Lynnie Godfrey as Beverley, Joseph Larrabee-Quandi as József, Forest Dino Ray as Manuel, and Jeanne Vigilante as Eszter.

[5] To commemorate the 40 years of An Imaginary Report, a new production debuted at the Comedy Theatre on September 8, 2013, under the title Popfesztivál 40, utilizing the songs, the plot outline, and archive footage of the original musical.

Directed by Enikő Eszenyi, with costume and set designs by Anni Füzér, featuring original cast members László Tahi-Tóth and Éva Almási, the production starred Edit Balázsovits (Eszter), Péter Telekes (József), Éva Bata (Marianne), Máté Mészáros (witness, Joshua), Kata Péter (Beverley), Áron Molnár (Angel of Hell), András Lajos (Manuel), László Józan (Bill), Zoltán Géczi (boy), Kata Gonda (Juana), and Janka Kopek (girl).

[2] Erika Szántó wrote for Színház: "Sándor Pós borrowed an idea, a topic, characters, and a story from the work of Déry; anything that could be otherwise arbitrarily replaced, left out, or exchanged.

… The Anna Adamis's lyrics are tender, poetic extensions of the Déry's dialogues, and the superb songs composed by Gábor Presser fit naturally into the play and have great dramatic, intensifying effects."

[24] Further reviews were published in Hungarian periodicals Esti Hírlap, Népszava, Népszabadság, Fővárosi Színházak Műsora, Ország Világ, Tükör, Élet és Irodalom, Kritika, Kortárs, Jelenkor, and Népújság.

… Everything has to be, should be treated by its values, An Imaginary Report forgotten completely, and the same way Gyula Horn wasn't honoured, Presser–Adamis would deserve a snub, at least if we'd like to pretend that there has been a regime change.

)[25] János Sebők reacted to the negative reviews in Élet és Irodalom, concluding that "in the midst of the intellectual slaughter of the early 70s, the production meant an outbreak from the ideological ghetto that paralysed (liquidated, banished) so many things and so many people in this country.

And even though, the play did become a 'toy' for those in power and for debaters upon its birth and even later—the same way István, a király did ten years afterwards—its influence, all the covers and directorial concepts since, prove that the work withstood the test of time.

[6] Most of the songs—most notably "Menni kéne", "Valaki mondja meg", "Arra születtem", "Vinnélek", and "Ringasd el magad"—made their ways to the repertoire of Locomotive GT and to Hungarian popular culture.

[30][31][32] "Valaki mondja meg" has been covered—among others—by Zorán Sztevanovity on his album Szép holnap (1987), by band Géniusz on Csillagokból kő, by Zsuzsa Koncz on Miénk itt a tér, by Zorán again on live album Koncert – Budapest Sportcsarnok (1996), by composer Gábor Presser with Péter Kovács and Viktória Voga live on Koncert – Dalok régről és nemrégről (2003), by Presser again in studio on Dalok a színházból (2004), and as a duet by then-husband-and-wife Zoltán Bereczki and Dóra Szinetár on Musical duett (2007).

– A világ legszebb musical slágerei magyarul (2006), Péter Puskás on Megasztár Allstar – A három sorozat legnagyobbjai!, and composer Presser on his live album Koncert – Dalok régről és nemrégről.

[16] "A fák is siratják" has been covered by Linda Király on album #1 in 2003, and by Nguyen Thanh Hien on compilation Megasztár – A legenda folytatódik – A döntősök kedvenc dalai in 2008.

[30] The 25th anniversary adaptations of the songs were published by BMG Ariola Hungary on CD and Compact Cassette in 1998 and reached #2 on the Mahasz Top 40 album list.