Concert Ute Lemper

1988 in Paris. The phone rings and Ute Lemper cannot believe that Marlene Dietrich is on the line. The two have a three-hour phone conversation – what a precious gift for the then 23-year-old Ute Lemper. The grand dame has tracked down her aspiring young colleague and called her to thank her for her mail. After Ute received the French MOLIERE Award for her performance in Cabaret in Paris, she wrote a postcard to Marlene Dietrich, directly to Avenue de Montaigne 12, where Marlene had lived since 1979. Ute essentially wanted to apologize to her for the media attention. And then the phone rings.

They talk about their lives, their work and their style, their love for Rilke, their complicated relationship with Germany, their grief and their fascinations. How one would love to be a fly on the wall and listen to the two show ladies. Ute was at the beginning of her theater and music career. In contrast, Marlene Dietrich was already looking back on a long, fulfilled life filled with films, music, incredible collaborations, love stories, and fame.

1992 in Berlin. Six days before Ute's premiere in the role of Lola in The Blue Angel at the Theater des Westens – in the very role that made Marlene a star in 1928 – Marlene Dietrich dies in Paris. After the glamorous funeral at La Madeleine, Marlene finally returned to Berlin to find her final resting place here.

Ute Lemper, by now a world star herself and often referred to as the "new Marlene," shares with us in her new program, taking us back 30 years and letting us partake in her conversation with Marlene. She tells us Marlene's story and sings her fabulous songs from all chapters of her life, from the Berlin cabaret years to her fabulous collaborations with Burt Bacharach.