The immovable theatrical-musical journey that the Berlin metro portrays since the Cold War

BERLIN — On April 30, 1986, “Linie 1” (“Line 1”), a rock musical set in the Berlin subway, premiered in a 367-seat theater in what was then West Berlin. The newspaper Der Tagesspiegel praised the show as “cosmopolitan and exportable.”

“The German musical has emancipated itself from its American models in an intelligent, mature and very Berlin way,” wrote Hellmut Kotschenreuther, the newspaper's critic.

“Linie 1”, written by Volker Ludwig, has continued to be present in Berlin ever since. It regularly sells out the GRIPS Theater, where it has been on the billboard for 40 years and recently celebrated its 2,000th performance.

Natalie, the naive small-town protagonist of the play, resembles Dorothy from the “Wizard of Oz.” But its yellow brick road is the dirty U1 subway line, or U-Bahn.

While searching for the Berlin musician who passed through her city in West Germany and got her pregnant, Natalie encounters drunks, prostitutes, drug addicts and other colorful characters in the big, bad city. There is very little plot in this musical revue-type evening. Many of the 11 performers flit into and out of Mascha Schubert's fabulous retro outfits—neon pants, denim jackets, tights, nylon ski jackets—to inhabit the show's 80 roles.

At a recent performance (number 1,994), the audience applauded their favorite sketches and characters and sang in unison. (One song lists U1's stops.)

Birger Heymann's score, performed by five musicians, is infectious and very '80s. But some of the most upbeat numbers deal with alienation, lost ties, and loneliness. The songs are often injected with vulgarity and anger.

A spectacular number is “Wilmersdorfer Witwen,” a beer march sung by fur-clad widows (four men dressed as women) spending the pensions of their long-dead Nazi husbands in a West Berlin department store. They see themselves as defenders of an older Berlin. “With God and the press on our side / Our city will soon be cleansed / Like 50 years ago,” they sing.

GRIPS claims that more than 600 thousand people have seen “Linie 1” there. The show has toured and local productions have appeared in Europe and Canada, Brazil and South Korea. “Linie 1” has been viewed by more than 3 million people worldwide, GRIPS says.

Berlin is no longer divided, punk is dead and few Nazi widows remain, but the Berlin of “Linie 1” is surprisingly familiar. The musical still captures the abrasive charm of Berlin, and its cast of dreamers and misfits remains recognizable.

“Linie 1” feels like one of the few musicals that embodies the soul of a city.

AJ GOLDMANN. THE NEW YOK TIMES