|
| Home | News | Tour | Charts | Board | Archive | Shop | Links | FAQ | Contact |
| ELTON JOHN NEWS |
| Taking the first bite Sunday, December 18 2005 |
Previews for "Lestat" -- a musical with an Elton John and Bernie Taupin score based on the novels of Anne Rice -- began December 17, 2005, and the show will officially premiere Januar 8, 2006.
Vampire musicals have not fared well on New York's big stage lately. The campy "Dance of the Vampires" from the 2002-03 season and last year's ever-serious "Dracula" both flopped.
But the aforementioned did not have the composing veteran Elton John ("The Lion King," "Aida" and "Billy Elliot") and Taupin. As rock 'n' roll collaborators, the two made 16 top-20 pop hits in a row, from 1972 to 1976.
"Lestat" also boasts the proven commercial tandem of director Robert Jess Roth and scriptwriter Linda Woolverton from "Beauty and the Beast." They pitched the "Lestat" concept to Warners executives, who had been looking for a potential blockbuster for the studio's first stage effort, said Gregg Maday, Warner Bros.' executive vice president of theatrical ventures.
"This is a product of passion," Roth says. "We came to them. It's different than being a hired hand." In what has become a familiar site at Geary Street theaters, the creatives will be recognized by their clipboards and lighted pens.
"When you're in the audience, you know whether they're on the emotional journey you want to take them on," Roth says. "The only way we're gonna find out, as they say, is when the bums are in the seats," lyricist Taupin says, over Caesar salads across the street from the 42nd Street rehearsal studio.
Taupin is the music-theater rookie. He might not have gotten the opportunity if not for a chance backstage meeting between Elton and Roth at a concert a few years ago. Roth, already determined to adapt Rice's work for the footlights, asked Elton if he had ever read her books. Elton replied yes and told Roth they would make a wonderful musical. A handshake deal, a phone call from Elton to Taupin and a 14-month hunt to secure the rights culminated in a "Lestat" boot camp at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
Cut to a montage of neon lights flashing, clock hands turning and coffee cups emptying: In four days, Roth, Woolverton and Taupin hammered out the story line, using "The Vampire Lestat" as the first act and "Interview With the Vampire" as the second. Taupin began to write the lyrics with a symphonic bent to accent the novels' sensuality. Enter Elton, who had remained in London. In a spasm of productivity, he wrote the melodies in 10 days, playing tracks for Roth over the phone almost daily.
But it is Taupin who has been the rehearsal regular, along with an industrial-size tub of throat lozenges. That morning, actor Hugh Panaro ("The Phantom of the Opera") had requested revisions in one of the songs, and Taupin immediately scribbled new lyrics.
"It's so not about vampires," says Panaro, who, as Lestat, was seen sinking his teeth into the breast of Colleen Fitzpatrick during a rehearsal. "It's about relationships with partners, lovers, family and siblings, and they happen to be vampires."
That means no fake fangs, no blood capsules or any other old-school accoutrements. The play distills Rice's epic series into Lestat's yearning for eternal love. Immortality proves seductive, but Lestat is tortured by the moral conundrum: How can one be good when one has to drain the life out of human beings every now and then?
A different version of Rice's work was targeted for Broadway in the early '90s, before David Geffen signed Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise for the nonmusical movie version.
The road to San Francisco has been paved more smoothly by having one point man in Maday, Roth says. Unlike the common practice of a project bloated with investors, Maday narrowed the lines of communication. "You don't have the dentist from Duluth saying this is who you should cast," Maday says.
The biggest challenge for film conglomerates entering the theater business, Maday says, is to realize that they can't recoup the financing in one big weekend, like with movies.
A healthy stay in San Francisco, where Rice once lived, would be the first step to profit. Roth, who directed "The Opposite of Sex" at the Magic Theatre last year, called the local audience "sophisticated." But a supposedly smart house has not prevented other hopeful productions from biting the dust.
Says Roth: "I'm not nervous at all. I've chosen the greatest artists to surround myself with."
LESTAT plays at the Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco. $30-$90. +1 (415) 551-2000, +1 (415) 512-7770, www.bestofbroadway-sf.com.
| Related News |
Wednesday, December 14 2005 at 21:16:12
Thursday, December 8 2005 at 22:01:44
Friday, November 11 2005 at 08:56:24
Wednesday, October 26 2005 at 10:46:54
Tuesday, September 27 2005 at 10:44:16
Saturday, April 16 2005 at 07:40:12
Monday, April 4 2005 at 16:31:32
Tuesday, November 4 2003 at 11:45:07
Tuesday, May 6 2003 at 19:45:38
© 1997-2017 by HERCULES International. Hercules is not affiliated with Elton John`s management or the Elton John Aids Foundation. Please note that this site has been discontinued on March 31, 2017 and will not be updated anymore. |