| Lestat | |
|---|---|
 Opening night Playbill cover | |
| Music | Elton John |
| Lyrics | Bernie Taupin |
| Book | Linda Woolverton |
| Basis | The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice |
| Premiere | December 17, 2005: Curran Theatre, San Francisco |
| Productions | 2005 San Francisco 2006 Broadway |
Lestat is a Broadway musical inspired by Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles . The score is by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, with the book by Linda Woolverton. The musical had a brief run on Broadway in 2006.
The musical had a reading in November 2003, with the title The Vampire Lestat. The reading cast featured James Barbour as Lestat, Jack Noseworthy, Steve Blanchard and Max Von Essen. [1]
Lestat premiered in pre-Broadway tryouts at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco, California on December 17, 2005 and closed on January 29, 2006. [2] The musical transferred to Broadway and opened at the Palace Theater on March 25, 2006 and closed on May 28, 2006, after 33 previews and 39 performances. [2] [3] The musical was directed by Robert Jess Roth with musical staging by Matt West. Scenic design was by Derek McLane, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Jonathan Deans, visual concept design by Dave McKean, and hair design by Tom Watson. The title role of Lestat was played by Hugh Panaro, and the cast starred Carolee Carmello as Gabrielle, Drew Sarich as Armand, Jim Stanek as Louis, Roderick Hill as Nicolas, Michael Genet as Marius, and Allison Fischer as Claudia. [4] The choreographer Jonathan Butterell was added to the Broadway creative team "to give his perspective on the staging." [5]
Elton John explained that he had written two new songs for the Broadway production: "Right Before My Eyes" and "My Beautiful Boy," for Lestat's mother, Carolee Carmello. He also noted that "The storyline has certainly changed in Lestat." [5] An additional change is that "Lestat typing his memoirs into a laptop, with super titles being shown to the audience, has been abandoned since San Francisco." [6] The CurtainUp reviewer noted: "Press reports from out-of-town about songs, characters, scenes and performers being dropped and/or replaced indicated that there was plenty of work to do on this particular incarnation." [4]
This synopsis reflects the final, New York version.
Lestat leaves his mother Gabrielle to go to Paris to live with his boyfriend Nicolas ("My Beautiful Boy"). He finds Nicolas working as an actor in a small theater, happy with his life ("In Paris"). They go to Nicolas' flat and it becomes clear they're in love with each other ("The Bugs and the Bears"). A vampire called Magnus attacks Lestat and turns him into a vampire ("The Thirst"). He struggles with this, and hides from his mother when she comes looking for him ("Right Before My Eyes"). Eventually he finds her and makes her a vampire to save her life, as she is sick ("Make Me As You Are"). They meet a vampire named Armand, who leads a group of satanist vampires. He denounces them as blasphemers, but Lestat reveals to his followers that they do not actually serve the Devil ("The Dark Laws / To Live Like This"). They decide to become a troupe of actors. Nicolas is discovered among them, and Lestat eventually transforms him too. The troupe's first play tells the story of Armand and Marius, his maker ("Morality Play"). Nicolas is in a catatonic state after his transformation, and Lestat decides to find Marius to heal him. Ten years pass. Gabrielle decides to leave Lestat and see the world ("Crimson Kiss"). Nicolas speaks for the first time, asking to be released. Lestat lights a fire to kill him, and scatters the ashes ("Right Before My Eyes" (reprise)) as Marius appears.
Marius claims that he could not have saved Nicolas. He encourages Lestat to go to America. Once there, he meets and falls for a young self-destructive Creole, Louis ("Welcome to The New World"). Louis agrees to let Lestat make him a vampire. They live together for a time, but Louis becomes dissatisfied with the vampiric life ("Embrace It"). Lestat transforms Claudia, an orphan girl, which horrifies Louis, who nevertheless agrees to help raise her. Time passes. Claudia has a greater craving for blood, having been transformed at a young age ("I Want More"). She mourns the fact that she will stay a child forever ("I'll Never Have That Chance"). Lestat apologizes, and she tries to kill him. Louis burns down the house. Later, on a ship, Lestat is wounded and thinks of what his life has become ("Sail Me Away"). He returns to Armand and the theater, where he discovers Louis and Claudia as members of the troupe. Armand and the others kill Claudia for trying to kill Lestat despite his protests ("To Kill Your Kind"). Louis leaves ("Embrace It" (reprise)). Armand mocks Lestat when he asks why he killed Claudia ("After All This Time"). They argue about what Marius said, and Lestat is thrown from the roof, breaking his legs. He prepares to die in the coming sunlight ("Sail Me Away" (reprise)), but Marius and Gabrielle arrive and convince him to save himself ("Crimson Kiss" (reprise)). The light goes off. Lestat appears, dressed in modern clothes, and says "I am the Vampire Lestat, and I will live forever."
| Character | Original San Francisco cast [7] [8] | Original Broadway cast |
|---|---|---|
| Lestat | Hugh Panaro | |
| Gabrielle | Carolee Carmello | |
| Claudia | Allison Fischer | |
| Nicolas | Roderick Hill | |
| Armand | Jack Noseworthy [lower-alpha 1] | Drew Sarich |
| Louis | Jim Stanek | |
| Marius | Michael Genet | |
Ensemble: Vampires of Armand's coven/the Theater of the Vampires, Parisians, people of New Orleans.
Reviews of the Broadway production were uniformly negative. The New York Post 's verdict was "Bloody Awful", and the Newark Star-Ledger opined that it was "just deadly." [11] Lamenting the show's "soporific" nature, Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: "Joining the ranks of Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata and other prescription lullaby drugs is Lestat, the musical sleeping pill...Dare to look upon Lestat and keep your eyelids from growing heavier and heavier and heavier." [12] Brantley also characterized the play's songs as "pulpy and mostly interchangeable". Washington Post critic Peter Marks mused that "Lestat's contribution to art and equality is demonstrating that a gay vampire with a two-octave range can be just as dull as a straight one." [13]
Sources: Internet Broadway database; [14] CurtainUp [4]
|
|
The Original Broadway Cast Recording was recorded by Mercury Records on May 22, 2006 and was produced by Guy Babylon and Matt Still. After the show's closing however, Elton John's management stated "there are no plans to release the recording at the present." [15]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Tony Award | Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical | Carolee Carmello | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design of a Musical | Susan Hilferty | Nominated | ||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Carolee Carmello | Nominated | |
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Hugh Panaro | Nominated |
The Queen of the Damned (1988) is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the third in her The Vampire Chronicles series. It follows Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. This novel is a continuation of the story that ends in a cliffhanger in The Vampire Lestat and explores the rich history and mythology of the origin of the vampires, which dates back to Ancient Egypt.
Interview with the Vampire is a gothic horror and vampire novel by American author Anne Rice, published in 1976. It was her debut novel. Based on a short story Rice wrote around 1968, the novel centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, who tells the story of his life to a reporter. Rice composed the novel shortly after the death of her young daughter Michelle, who served as an inspiration for the child-vampire character Claudia. Though initially the subject of mixed critical reception, the book was followed by many widely popular sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles. A film adaptation was released in 1994, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and a television series premiered in 2022. The novel has also been adapted as a comic three times.
The Vampire Lestat (1985) is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire (1976). The story is told from the point of view of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt as narrator, while Interview is narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac. Several events in the two books appear to contradict each other, allowing the reader to decide which version of events they believe to be accurate.
Les Misérables, colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks. Many other long-running productions followed on Broadway and around the world, and a film adaptation was released in 2012.
The Vampire Chronicles is a series of gothic vampire novels and a media franchise, created by American writer Anne Rice, that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century.
The Vampire Armand (1998) is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the sixth in her The Vampire Chronicles series.
Lestat de Lioncourt is a fictional character from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles novel series. Born in the mid 1700s, Lestat is an immortal vampire and the antihero of the franchise.
Hugh Panaro is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway stage musicals, most well known for his role in The Phantom of the Opera being in over 2,000 performances in the Broadway production.
Jack Evan Noseworthy Jr. is an American actor known for his roles in Event Horizon, U-571, Barb Wire, and Killing Kennedy.
Once on This Island is a coming-of-age one-act stage musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. It is based on the 1985 novel My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl by Rosa Guy, a Caribbean-set retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Little Mermaid. It concerns a peasant girl in the French Antilles who falls in love with a rich boy and makes a deal with the gods to save his life.
Armand is a fictional character in The Vampire Chronicles novels written by Anne Rice. At the end of the series, he is approximately 500 years of age. His outward appearance is that of a beautiful adolescent boy, 5’6, with curly auburn hair, large brown eyes and slender fingers. His features are at times compared figuratively to those of Cupid or a Botticelli angel.
Louis de Pointe du Lac is a fictional character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. He begins his life as a mortal man and later becomes a vampire. He is the protagonist who tells his story in Interview with the Vampire. He also features in The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, The Vampire Armand, Merrick, Prince Lestat, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis and Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat
Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American gothic horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name, and starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. It focuses on Lestat (Cruise) and Louis (Pitt), beginning with Louis's transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791. The film chronicles their time together, and their turning of young Claudia into a vampire. The narrative is framed by a present-day interview, in which Louis tells his story to a San Francisco reporter. The supporting cast features Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea.
Dracula, the Musical is a musical based on the original 1897 Victorian novel by Bram Stoker. The score is by Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics and book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.
Drew Sarich is an American stage actor and singer songwriter from St. Louis, who performs in the English and German languages.
Allison Fischer is an American singer and actress.
Queen of the Damned is a 2002 horror film directed by Michael Rymer from a screenplay by Scott Abbott and Michael Petroni, and based on the 1988 novel The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice, the third novel of the book series The Vampire Chronicles, although the film contains many plot elements from the novel's 1985 predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. A stand-alone sequel to Interview with the Vampire (1994), the film stars Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah in her final film, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Pérez and Lena Olin. Townsend and Matthew Newton replaced Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas in the roles of Lestat and Armand, respectively.
Chris McCarrell is an American theater and television actor and singer. He is best known for portraying Marius Pontmercy in the Broadway revival of Les Misérables, and for originating the titular character in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical in its Off-Broadway premiere, 2019 tour, and Broadway production.
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the live show, stageplay and musical production arm of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company forms a part of Warner Bros., one of the major business segments of Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is led by Mark Kaufman.
