Okay, I've now found a summary of the musical, and the SD/Grumbkow affair isn't the only attempt at more het. There's also Wilhelmine/Katte, which is presumably why the Fritz tumblr fandom has issues with this one.
The framing narration is old Fritz the hermit, at Sanssouci, dictating his memoirs, when ghostly Katte shows up. Old Fritz sends the writer home and talks with ghostly Katte about his life, as ghostly Katte reminds him who he used to be. Cue flashback to his youth; FW is FW, Fritz and Wilhelmine sing their song, then it's off to Dresden, with Wilhelmine and Katte. Fritz gets deflowered by Orzelska, Wilhelmine and Katte fall in love, which Fritz isn't happy about. (Summary doesn't say which of them he's jealous of.) FW nearly beats Fritz to death, Fritz and Katte decides to flee, which is the Act 1 cliffhanger ending.
After the break, we catch up with Katte and Wilhelmine arguing about the escape plan. Fritz gets caught and incarcarated. Grumbkow uncovers that Katte was part of the plan. FW gives the execution in front of Fritz order. At which point Old Fritz interrupts the goings on, and it's clear he can't bear to remember the exeution and that this is the central trauma of his life. He takes over the narration and skips to his first year of Kingship, MT ascending and him using the chance to invade Silesia and becoming Frederick the Great.
Next, the musical skips forward to Voltaire's song and Fritz trying to live the artistic life at Sanssouci. Disaster ensues. Then Wilhelmine visits and is shocked about how he's changed. He gets an FW style temper outburst when she says so, and the ensuing 7 Years War is also a way to numb his unhealed grief, not that it works. He has the self realising song "Ebenbild" and finishes the war outwardly victorious but as a broken and now completly lonely man.
At which point the tale has caught up with the beginning. Ghostly Katte helps him to face the anbearable memory he's been running from all his life and then Fritz finally is able to let go, find peace and die in the final song, reuniting with Katte and Wilhelmine in the finale.
On the one hand, it's a bit Freud for dummies - i.e. peace comes when he's finally able to confront the most traumatic memory, his seaking military glory is solely because of Dad (I'm more with Mildred - Dad influenced how he sought it, but even if FW had been treating him like AW, he'd have become and expansionist monarch) - and of course the SD/Grumbkow (I assume this is how Grumbkow finds out about Katte?) and Wilhelmine/Katte affairs are gratituous heterosexualisation, bot otoh if I understand the summary correctly Old Fritz is on stage with Katte's ghost the entire time, arguing about his life, and as far as narrative ideas for a 2 hours stage version go, that's not a bad one.
Re: Fritz - the Musical
The framing narration is old Fritz the hermit, at Sanssouci, dictating his memoirs, when ghostly Katte shows up. Old Fritz sends the writer home and talks with ghostly Katte about his life, as ghostly Katte reminds him who he used to be. Cue flashback to his youth; FW is FW, Fritz and Wilhelmine sing their song, then it's off to Dresden, with Wilhelmine and Katte. Fritz gets deflowered by Orzelska, Wilhelmine and Katte fall in love, which Fritz isn't happy about. (Summary doesn't say which of them he's jealous of.) FW nearly beats Fritz to death, Fritz and Katte decides to flee, which is the Act 1 cliffhanger ending.
After the break, we catch up with Katte and Wilhelmine arguing about the escape plan. Fritz gets caught and incarcarated. Grumbkow uncovers that Katte was part of the plan. FW gives the execution in front of Fritz order. At which point Old Fritz interrupts the goings on, and it's clear he can't bear to remember the exeution and that this is the central trauma of his life. He takes over the narration and skips to his first year of Kingship, MT ascending and him using the chance to invade Silesia and becoming Frederick the Great.
Next, the musical skips forward to Voltaire's song and Fritz trying to live the artistic life at Sanssouci. Disaster ensues. Then Wilhelmine visits and is shocked about how he's changed. He gets an FW style temper outburst when she says so, and the ensuing 7 Years War is also a way to numb his unhealed grief, not that it works. He has the self realising song "Ebenbild" and finishes the war outwardly victorious but as a broken and now completly lonely man.
At which point the tale has caught up with the beginning. Ghostly Katte helps him to face the anbearable memory he's been running from all his life and then Fritz finally is able to let go, find peace and die in the final song, reuniting with Katte and Wilhelmine in the finale.
On the one hand, it's a bit Freud for dummies - i.e. peace comes when he's finally able to confront the most traumatic memory, his seaking military glory is solely because of Dad (I'm more with Mildred - Dad influenced how he sought it, but even if FW had been treating him like AW, he'd have become and expansionist monarch) - and of course the SD/Grumbkow (I assume this is how Grumbkow finds out about Katte?) and Wilhelmine/Katte affairs are gratituous heterosexualisation, bot otoh if I understand the summary correctly Old Fritz is on stage with Katte's ghost the entire time, arguing about his life, and as far as narrative ideas for a 2 hours stage version go, that's not a bad one.
An English language trailer of the musical!