Well, I figured that since Lestat will officially see its Broadway opening at the Palace Theatre tonight, it’d be more than okay to bash it publically, as I’m sure tomorrow’s newspapers will do, as well (New York Times, are you listening?).
The show certainly has promise, as it’s based on Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles (and, in part, Interview With a Vampire) and the music is by recording legend Elton John. Throw in Hugh Panaro (longtime Phantom in Phantom of the Opera) as your star, and you should have money in the bank.
Unfortunately, Broadway never learns. The first place that Lestat fails is that it’s a musical about vampires. If the recent years have taught us nothing (Dance of the Vampires and Dracula : The Musical, respectively) it’s that the public does not want to see vampires singing and dancing. Vampires are badass! They wouldn’t sing! Instead, they’d kill whatever motherfuckers are too busy singing to notice that their necks are exposed.
The next place that Lestat failed was the show itself. Just from looking at the theatre, one can tell that they spent a lot of time thinking up brilliant poster designs and merchandising, but they forgot to actually sit down and write a book. The show begins with a very powerful Jekyll & Hyde-type feel, but tosses in comic relief all too quickly (L:”What do you know about pain?” G:”I’ve given birth. Seven times.” **this ‘joke’ was kind of funny… but I think I was laughing more at the terrible writing). As a result, the show never really decides what kind of mood it wants to set, shifting all too quickly between dark and light but ultimately landing on “laughable.”
The music does the same. As previously mentioned, it begins by sounding much like Jekyll & Hyde and later finds itself sounding more like Jesus Christ Superstar… stopping off at Once On This Island somewhere in the middle.
*Side note: Broadway audiences aren’t stupid. If the writers had attempted to cram the theatrical conventions used to convey a human becoming a vampire or the fact that Lestat “killed seven fucking wolves” down my throat one more time… I was going to scream.*
Overall, Lestat is highly entertaining if you’re a sado-masochistic freak. They say you can learn more about theatre from bad theatre… and, in that case, Lestat is the most informative show on Broadway. The book is crap, the music is crap, the acting (you guessed it) crap. The show has a crappy beginning, no ending at all, and pure tripe in between.
You’re better off keeping your $100 and doing… well, absolutely anything else. This crap isn’t worth it.
(**What pisses me off is that Elton John’s name alone will allow this show to last at least two months longer than it should have. If I were an investor, I would’ve closed out-of-town.**)
I distinctly remember arguing last year with Derek about what show should win the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical. While I sided with Monty Python’s Spamalot, he stood his ground in backing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The funniest thing about this argument, neither one of us had seen the show we were arguing against. Here we are, a great many months later, and I have finally seen Dirty Rotten. I’m not going to withdraw my opinion that Spamalot was more deserving of the top prize, but Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one hell of a show, and I’m truly overjoyed that I went to see it.
