Four chandeliers hang above the carefully decorated scenario.
A perfect castle ruin with all the bells and whistles, including a staircase for dramatic chases up high in the tower.
Welcome to the nightmare castle!
Let's just call the spooky stage setting in Frankfurt's Centennial Hall Frankenstein Castle.
After all, the fast-paced ghost train ride starts with "Feed My Frankenstein" and ends about 100 minutes later with "Teenage Frankenstein".
In fact, in the course of the various horror subjects, a larger-than-life Frankenstein monster and the hunchbacked factotum Igor buzz around several times.
Always in the middle of the turbulent events at the age of 74, the prince of darkness: Mr. Alice Cooper.
Born in Detroit and later raised in Phoenix, the son of a preacher was originally named Vincent Damon Furnier.
In the mid-1960s, he and four high school buddies formed a garage band, and a little later Frank Zappa discovered the quintet.
Since the band was still in women's clothes, made up and Vincent still wore peroxide blonde.
Only when the image changed to sinister, Vincent officially renamed himself Alice and cultivated the evil Captain Hook in himself, did global success set in.
Forced into skin-tight imitation leather
Anyone who experienced the Alice Cooper Band on their first flying visit to Frankfurt's Centennial Hall in 1971 as part of a tour package with the bands Procol Harum and Heads Hands And Feet knows that the entertainer hasn't changed all that much.
The concept of the "Detroit Muscle: Live Tour 2022" still follows the same ingredients as 50 years ago.
Clad in skin-tight black imitation leather with knee-high boots, Alice Cooper still pulls out all the stops with significant make-up.
A wonderfully enjoyable escapism, which not only makes use of various horror cinema genres every five minutes, but for which the boss also throws on new colorful jackets and jackets again and again.
The only difference to the Sturm und Drang period: Nowadays Alice Cooper can fall back on dozens of classic songs with evergreen status.
Early fans love "I'm Eighteen", "Be My Lover", "Under My Wheels", "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Go To Hell".
Those who only got caught up in Cooper's seductive entertainment spider web from the '80s onward prefer Poison, Hey Stoopid, and He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask).
But there are also surprises: "Fallen In Love" is convincing as a blues with a harmonica intro by Cooper.
In any case, a first-class ensemble of lead guitarist Nita Strauss, Chuck Garric on bass, drummer Glen Sobelum and guitarists Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen has been backing the master for quite some time.
Wife Sharon Cooper is also involved when the husband, in a white blouse embellished with fake blood, waves his sword around, struts around and pretends to be a psychopath.
In return, Sharon cracks her whip as a leather dominatrix or appears as a chalk-white ghost figure.
The finale is the highlight of every Cooper show: the monster ends up on the guillotine, his head falls like it did during the French Revolution, but the resurrection follows a little later.
In snow-white tails and top hat, the illusionist guarantees "School's Out" and gives the mantra "May all of your nightmares be horrific!
Good Night!” on the way home.