Gabriel Barylli

Gabriel Barylli was born in 1957 in Vienna. He works as an author, director and actor all over Europe.

Gabriel Barylli is the most-performed present day author in the German language. His play Butterbrot (Chickenshit) has had more than 150 productions throughout German-speaking countries and is still being regularly performed. The novel based on the play has sold more than 300.000 copies.

His play Honeymoon, which was created five years later as a sequel to Butterbrot, has already been produced at over 90 theatres Both plays have been adapted into films, with Gabriel Barylli as author, director and playing the lead role. For Butterbrot, Barylli has received the Bavarian Film Award for Best Dialogue.

Two of his plays have premiered at the prestigious Austrian National Theatre – the Viennese Burgtheater. Its theatre director at the time, Claus Peymann, says about Barylli, “Barylli is the Botho Strauß of Austria”. ‘Cosmopolitan’ praised him as “Europe’s answer to Woody Allen”.

Gabriel Barylli also ventured into the world of musicals with “I’ve never been to New York”, based on songs by Udo Jürgens, for Stage Entertainment. This musical soon turned into their most successful production in Germany. After a two year run in Hamburg, the musical is now being performed in Vienna and Stuttgart. So far more than 3 million people have seen the show; future productions are planned in Berlin, Tokyo and New York.

The “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” writes in its review of the musical’s premiere, “Thanks to Gabriel Barylli’s libretto the evening proved to be a grandiose theatrical event. – The miracle of Hamburg”.

For his performance in the French film “Une femme française” starring Emmanuelle Béart and Daniel Auteuil, Barylli was presented with the “Best Actor Award” by Richard Gere in Moscow. The director of this film was Régis Wargnier, who had received an Oscar for his film “Indochine”. Barylli was also awarded the prestigious “Grimme-Preis” as best actor in Germany in 1999.

Gabriel Barylli’s current project is the adaptation of Butterbrot (Chickenshit) for international productions.

For further information and more detail please see his website www.gabrielbarylli.at