Vampire Musical "Lestat" To Get Transfusion

According to Reuters, the stage musical about vampires - scored by Elton John and long-time writing partner Bernie Taupin - will get a massive overhaul before it heads for Broadway.

"Lestat," the musical based on Anne Rice's best-selling "The Vampire Chronicles," just finished a six-week run in San Francisco, grossing $4.3 million but received scathing reviews.

The San Francisco Chronicle called the musical "didactic, disjointed, oddly miscast, confusingly designed and floundering in an almost unrelenting saccharine score by Elton John."

Many theater-goers said they wished they had stayed home. "I would have left at intermission as did many in our row and section," a woman said in an online message board. "The staging was lifeless and the projections of fire and destruction boring."

The producers of "Lestat" are revamping the show and hope that newly hired creative consultant Jonathan Butterell (Broadway's "The Light in the Piazza" and the recent revival of "Fiddler on the Roof") can revive it. The New York opening has been pushed back from April 13 to April 25, with previews beginning March 25.

Warner Bros. Theater Ventures chief Gregg Maday acknowledged "Lestat" had problems but said it will be a whole new show when the curtain goes up in New York.

One must wonder, however, if the vampire theme will ever lend itself well to a musical format. Can we really imagine the dark and moody Lestat singing something other than death metal/industrial as in "Queen of the Damned"? What's next? Romero zombies doing "Dance of the Dead"? I'm sure he could pull off some statement about society in it, but even I'd be hard-pressed to watch. I guess we'll see what New York audiences have to say about the revamped "Lestat." --Shannon Nolley

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