In Character: Dieter Bierbrauer of Power Balladz

Dieter Bierbrauer went from delivering straightforward musical theater in Chanhassen's Seven Brides For Seven Brothers to the impassioned scream singing of Power Balladz, a cabaret-style show about three washed-up former '80s rockers who try reviving their old rock dreams. by diving into the school-dance canon of slow jams. Having grown up during that decade, Bierbrauer knows the genre so well he can sound just like legendary rockers—from Freddie Mercury and Steve Perry to Chicago's Peter Cetera. But it's hard to tell where Bierbrauer's acting begins and ends; his character in Power Balladz is named Dieter, and both love to intellectualize hair-metal bands. Decider spoke with Bierbrauer about the show and the pitfalls of wearing a unitard.

Decider: Is the character “Dieter” really you?

Dieter Bierbrauer: No. Actually, the two male characters are caricatures of the creators, Mike Todaro and Dan Nycklemoe, and they used their names when they did it 10 years ago. But my name is Dieter, so they were like, “Okay, you’re going to have a very German thing. You are going to study German rock and the Scorpions.” The character’s thesis is that the Scorpions were instrumental to the fall of communism. Mike has done the research. He believes it’s true.

D: Does the real Dieter intellectualize hair-metal power ballads, or does he believe we only feel their power?

DB: I believe you can do both. We don’t give you a clear answer as to what makes a power ballad. You can intellectualize it, but what it comes down to is how you feel it. ... The first night, some guys stood up and swayed back and forth and held each other. People get up and slow dance during the [Journey] song “Faithfully.”

D: What would the Dieter character say about musical theater?

DB: He wouldn’t have time for it. He’s too busy in the purity of his own form.

D: And yet the show highlights striking similarities between hair-band ballads and opera.

DB: Meat Loaf is a performer. He's doing more than just singing songs. The Queen stuff, where they're creating characters and becoming glam-rock, that kind of propels into Poison and Mötley Crüe, but then it becomes more image than music. ... Skid Row was an amazing band. Sebastian Bach has a phenomenal musical-theater voice, an established vibrato, but when he starts screaming it sounds like rock 'n' roll. Bach actually crossed over to musical theater; he was fired from a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar [in 2003].

D: What relationship does the real Dieter have to hair-metal ballads?

DB: I did craft part of my professional voice with this stuff. I remember going to visit my grandparents in Madison, Wis., and they had MTV, and I remember watching the video for "Separate Ways" and wanting to sing like Steve Perry. Now I can see it with an adult eye and appreciate it. You really can tell how Axl Rose and Tom Keifer [of Cinderella] affect their natural voice to sound hard. What they’re doing is literally singing their falsetto and modifying it to sound badass. Compare that to Steve Perry, who is a freak of nature, just naturally amazing.

D: Of course, we have to mention the tight unitard pants you wear in the show.

DB: It is a painstaking process to wear unitard pants and keep things in their proper place. But I just keep going out there every night in the unitard pants. You can’t embody Freddie Mercury without tight unitard pants.

Power Balladz runs through June 28 at The Lab Theater. Tickets will be available on a two-for-one basis for the remainder of the month.