Biography

He was a very successful theatrical director for musical revues and operettas, especially at Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin.

Revolutionized the German musical theatre by developing the idea of 'staged nudity' and by combining European operetta with idioms of the American music theatre, hoping to create a more 'cosmopolitan German'style.

Studied dance and was discovered by the writer Karl Vollmoeller during a 1913 performance of a ballet-pantomime at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

Charell also used famous male sex symbols in his operettas, like Alfred Jerger, Max Hansen and Siegfried Arno, the latter doing a famous striptease in The Three Musketeers when comparing his battle wounds with the others, critic Erich Urban noted that "when [Arno] unveils his perforated body to Hansen the whole theatre screams and gasp, not just the upper balconies".

His way of using contemporary syncopated music - from the German charts and the USA (the first European performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue took place within Charell's first revue, An Alle) -,the risqué jokes and the inclusion of attractive boy groups (dancing and singing) in addition to the then standard heterosexual display of female nudity were all new to the Berlin theatre scene. He also presented renowned Lesbian stars such as Claire Waldoff to draw in additional crowds.