How bad was DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:21pm

From the non existent bootlegs I've seen and the clips I've heard it looked like such hilarious, campy fun. Anyone care to elaborate on how bad it was etc?

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:32pm

In a word, BBBBBAAAAADDDDD!!!!!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:39pm

It was good bad. Campy fun. I do admit I would loved to have seen the German version.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:39pm

New York Times Review: "It Ain't Over Till the Goth Vampire Sings"

Updated On: 5/19/08 at 09:39 PM

[me2]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:47pm

I read an interview where the bookwriter (or was it lyricist--I don't know but the guy was involved with WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND) basically said the Broadway production was awful.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:49pm

Best. Review. Ever.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 9:50pm

...You gotta admit though, Mandy Gonzalez belting the sh*t out of the last few seconds of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is nothing to sneeze at. She sounds incredible.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 10:07pm

Not as bad as you think.

Michael Crawford and his enormous ego ruined it.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 10:10pm

It was not that bad at all, the show was a lot of fun but had flaws.Ive seen much worse shows run for years

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 10:19pm

It wasn't terrible, it was just a stupid, campy show that should have played Off or Off-Off Broadway instead of on Broadway where it just didn't belong.

[amalou]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 11:06pm

I really hated it when I saw it in previews but they made enough changes for me to enjoy it when I went back. It was just silly, campy fun. If it didn't have Michael Crawford in it, it would have worked 100% for me. He just isn't sexy. I'm sorry. And I think Krolock is supposed to have at least some sex appeal. So that part just never worked. But the rest of it was good fun.

[jpbran]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 11:43pm

Awww... all that NYT review did was make me sorry I missed it!

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 11:53pm

Oh, it was bad. Far, far, worse than Cry Baby.

I understand the German production was much more serious, more of a gothic thriller. This production had elements of that, but than also had these horrific musical comedy moments, that were apparently added in by Michael Crawford. There was a talking sponge, a "boy toy," and a production number about the virtues of garlic.

To whomever said it belonged off-Broadway, that most certainly could not be the case, as the set and physical production were HUGE. It barely fit onstage at the Minskoff.

The one positive to come out of the production was Mandy Gonzalez, and she did sing the sh*t out of Total Eclipse of the Heart.

But, the show itself was a train wreck. However, it was a delightful train wreck to watch, because just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. I never entertained thoughts about leaving at the intermission, because I just had to see the second act.

One of the things I will forever remember is that they made the ushers wear vampire capes. I kid you not.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 12:01am

HA! Can you elaborate on the talking sponge? (There's a sentence you don't hear every day.)

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 12:34am

I liked it much better than CRYBABY.

[H.Higgins]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 1:13am

The score, written by Jim Steinman, is actually pretty amazing.

I think the casting of Michael Crawford is what really went wrong. He's the one who insisted on completely changing the tone of the show and making a mockery out of the piece (with so much of his own money backing the production, he was granted a great deal of creative control). If New York had received the intense gothic thriller that the show began as, I think things would have gone differently.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 2:28am

It is the Ed Wood of musicals.

[friedrichVT]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 3:10am

There were NO talking sponges...The phallyc sponge was lifted from the origin movie...The virtues of Garlic and The boy toy were DIRECTLY from the German version, except the German version of Garlic went on about another 5 numbing minutes,. The German production was touted as being a more serious and artistic version, it wasn't...THe Broadway version was changed drastically but the German was equally as bad, and almost more so as they took it so seriously. Seriously, Total Eclipse opened act 2...In America it could NEVER be take seriously...granted,a great song but in context of a show , it was laughable...a least Rando tried to substantiate the laugh.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 6:47am

Did Michael Crawford really put money into the Broadway production?

I thought he just SUCKED money out of it with a HUGE salary and percentage points.

I don't remember a sponge but there was a dancing/singing Garlic.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 7:04am

It was dreadful, but the first act was at least fun bad, with a couple of moments that actually worked. (Well, one.)

The second act was just bad, dull, endless. And "Total Eclipse," as FriedrichVT says, was hysterically funny and I don't think it was intended to be. I'd forgotten it was in the show, if I'd ever known. There was all this stuff in the plot about the coming eclipse, and once she started singing that song, I realized that all of that had been there just so they could justify the singing of the song, and I started laughing, I just couldn't help it.

And though Mandy Gonzalez is undoubtedly talented, she was asked to sing the song frequently alternating between soft singing in which she used her head voice and big belting. The constant back and forth became funny, or at least it did to me.

But the first act, at least, was kind of entertaining. And some of the cast came off well, especially Liz McCartney and Leah Hocking. I thought their "Death Is Such an Odd Thing" duet was just about the one moment in the show that truly worked.

[once a month]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 7:23am

I despized the opening number, when the dead came and dance daround the three girls (Mandy). The only number I thought was fun and startling was in the graveyard, which lifted into the air and the coffins opened and zombies stomped there way down to the stage floor. After sitting through it, I really resented Crawford and all he did to screw up this production (at least Rosie in Taboo wasn't onstage during it).

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 8:39am

It was a good campy night at the theatre

I think if Crawford was not in it and it wasn't an english translation of a far superior show it would not be as universally hated as it is now.
The sets were also amazing as were the lighting and the theatre just rocked.I found a great DVD of this show and make my friends watch it when they come round and they love it.

[jakebloke]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 8:43am

I have to agree that it had a great score, but the show itself just had an identity crisis. Very poor direction. It tried to be campy, but campy either works, or it doesn't, and this failed miserably.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 8:56am

It was really dreadful. It aimed for a combination of fright and fun that just had no hope of coming together under the circumstances. I've never laughed so hard in my life, and generally for all the wrong reasons.

[metropolis10111]

Posted: 5/20/08 at 9:04am

I LOVED LOVED LOVED it. I made a trip to NYC just to see it. I was a huge fan of the German CDs before and kinds knew what I was in for. It was big, flashy, campy and one of the most enjoyable nights of theatre I've ever had. I'm still obsessed with finding everything I can on the show. The whole sequence at the end of Act 1 with the snow, purple light and the massive drawbridge just falling out of the back of the stage was just jaw dropping in the best of ways. It's not a masterpiece but it was one hell of a good time if you just wanted a fun mindless evening of theatre to escape into......I think I'm destine to become The Man In The Chair over this one...lol