Elton John held a press conference in New York City on May 6, 2003 to announce "an exciting new theatrical project".

Elton John announced his collaboration with songwriter Bernie Taupin on their first Broadway musical, "The Vampire Lestat". The new musical is based on Ann Rice's character Lestat, who has also appeared in such works as "Interview with a Vampire" and "Queen of the Damned."

"It will be dark, sexy and scary, but that doesn't mean it has to be cliche," Taupin said. The project is the first production from Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures and is scheduled to hit the stage in 2005. This is Taupin's first msucial effort.

"Bernie and I have been huge fans of Anne Rice's books for a long, long time," Elton said, adding that the New Orleans-based author supported the project and had heard and approved of the music that has been composed so far.

Aside from Elton John, the production has others with Disney connections. The book is being written by Linda Woolverton, who wrote the stage version of "Beauty and the Beast," and it will be directed by Robert Jess Roth, who was nominated for a Tony award for his direction of that Disney production.

Elton said he expected all the content -- music, lyrics, and book -- to be completed by the end of September, and hoped to have a read-through in November.

The collaborators said the musical would be based on three Rice novels -- "Interview With the Vampire," "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned" -- with emphasis on the first two. (A movie version of "Queen of the Damned" came out last year, starring late singer Aaliyah as an ancient vampire. Neil Jordan's 1994 film version of "Interview With the Vampire" starred Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.)

Elton said the music he was composing was for an orchestra and would have no electronic components or other modern sounds, since the books' settings largely were from a couple of hundred years ago.

"I didn't see where any modern music could possibly come in without sounding ridiculous," he said.

When asked who could play Lestat, Elton John said whoever it was would have to have charisma -- but most importantly, would have to be able to sing. "My main concern is finding people who can sing the songs properly," he said.

Broadway's last outing with vampires was the musical "Dance of the Vampires," based on the Roman Polanski movie, "The Fearless Vampire Killers." The production starring Michael Crawford closed in January after only 56 performances and a loss estimated at more than $12 million.

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