Vampire Lestat to be a big-time Broadway Musical...

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Grayson

Oh God... I'm English!
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I just caught this on cnn.com...
No capes, no crosses and definitely no tap-dancing vampires.

Longtime musical collaborators Elton John and Bernie Taupin are planning to bring "The Vampire Lestat" to Broadway, and they promise a production free of gothic excess. "It will be dark, sexy and scary, but that doesn't mean it has to be cliche," Taupin said Tuesday at a news conference to announce the show.

The project, based on the character from Anne Rice's novels, is the first production from Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures and is scheduled to hit the stage in 2005. John already has two productions on Broadway, the Disney hits "Aida" and "The Lion King." This is Taupin's first effort.

"Bernie and I have been huge fans of Anne Rice's books for a long, long time," John 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 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.

John 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.)
 

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I dunno... I think it's more a case of 'Life Imitates Art'.

Wasn't there a Theare des Vampires in Anne Rice's novels? I think it was based on a real Paris theatrical event of the late 1700's, and was sort of a grand opera supposedly acted out by vampires.

Looks almost like a revival (or is it resurrection?😉) we're looking at here!
 
I think that's cool. I wish I could see it, because I know that at least the music will be increadible.

I'm still trying to figure out how the movies went from 'treating the book with respect and dignity' in Interview, to 'using the genre loosely just to make a few bucks off the fan base' in QOTD. In Queen of the Damned, not only did they make up MOST of the scenes and lines, they also completely departed from the whole theme, and the artistic feeling of the book. It was insulting. It's a good thing I previewed the movie from a download; I'd hate to have ever payed the producers a red cent for that steaming hunk of offal they called a movie.
 
Khaych; agreed. The only thing QoTD got right was the physical representation of the characters... at least they LOOKED good.

I think this is a general Hollywood phenomenon. Directors and screenwriters want to use best-selling novels for the name recognition and fan-base needed to sell their movies to production companies, but then usually proceed to carve out plotlines and characterizations that bear almost no relationship to the original material.

Stephen King's work is another example of material that has gone all different directions when brought to the big screen. But what the hey... as long as the checks clear!... 😉
 
Originally posted by Grayson
there a Theare des Vampires in Anne Rice's novels? I
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true, but still! I love the series, and am a big fan, but a musical?? I'll definatly hafta check it out though



Originally posted by Khaych
I think that's cool. I wish I could see it, because I know that at least the music will be increadible.

I'm still trying to figure out how the movies went from 'treating the book with respect and dignity' in Interview, to 'using the genre loosely just to make a few bucks off the fan base' in QOTD. In Queen of the Damned, not only did they make up MOST of the scenes and lines, they also completely departed from the whole theme, and the artistic feeling of the book. It was insulting. It's a good thing I previewed the movie from a download; I'd hate to have ever payed the producers a red cent for that steaming hunk of offal they called a movie.
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That made me mad too. They seemed to try and tie Vamp Lestat into QOTD. In the book, Queen of the Damned starts out at the concert, and book Vampire Lestat covered all the before the concert and how the band got together.
 
Oh, gawd! This is dumb. What on earth was Anne Rice thinking, when she let them have the rights? DOH!
 
I'm picturing another 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'(and I don't mean in terms of box office appeal) when I read this story. ::huh::
 
Hmm, I'm not at all sure of the prospects of a musical Lestat.

I mean, I know he is supposed to be a rock god but I'm not sure his character would like to boogie along to Simba the Lion or Candle in the Wind. Crocodile Rock maybe 😉
 
Hmmmmm.........if they pull it off it will be fantastic, but the potential is there for it to be a complete disaster!! I wish them luck, they could probably use it!!
 
I think the problem occurs when the producer hands the project to a screenwriter who isn't a fan. Since every novel has to be completely re-written to bring it into a visual medium, the words HAVE to change. So if you are having someone re-write a novel, you probably want to be sure to pick someone who has a basic appreciation of what to keep intact. I think what happens in the bad re-writes is they hand the script-writing job to someone who has good credentials, and trust that he will make a good script. And he does make a good script; it just isn't the same script a fan would write.

Quite often people who are not fans go to these movies and love them, not knowing the difference between the original and the movie, so it just goes to show that the script actually is good when taken as a seperate entity. Unfortunately, the film will bomb, because they have pissed off the strongest potential supporters of the film. You'd think the film-industry would catch on to this little problem, but no one said they were smart..

I think that Elton John, being a fan, will write some good music, but the real test will be who writes the script. I don't really care though, I wouldn't mind just getting my hands on the music that he felt fit the genre. 🙂
 
I'll probably check it out, but they could easily screw the whole thing up as Khaych (I think I got the spelling right)said
 
Broadway has been successful with making musicals out of dark subjects like "Sunset Boulevard" and "Phantom of the Opera".

If they go more the "Phantom" route with grand operatic sets really moody music, and top-shelf stars...it could work.
 
Hey I liked Queen of the Damned.....so shut up and plus Lestat is hot in that movie........lol.

Remember in buffy vs dracula she said (read my quote)...

Dru
 
I agree, Queen of the Damned was a good movie. BUT it didn't live up to the book. Interview with the vampire was almost the same as the book, but QoD was completely different. They should have retitled it and said they got the idea from QoD because it didn't at all come close to the book
 
I think that this will be interesting, I am a huge Anne Rice fan, but a musical? I don't know, it doesn't seem like the kind of a book, that they could make a musical of, but maybe.
Yeah, the movie of Interview w/ a Vampire was really good, and brad pitt is really hottttt as Louis, but the movie of queen of the DAmned sucked! they totally left out like, most of the book and they change so much stuff around, it was so annoying.
 
I liked the movie 'Interview with the Vampire', and am interesting in reading the books, but I think a musical sounds really good. I like the theatre and stuff and would love to go and see a musical of Lestat. I would be interested to see how they would pull it off.
 
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