LESTAT San Francisco review is in

[DBMaida]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 8:44pm

Hate to post it but, here it is and I hate to say "I told you so" but I did a few weeks ago after seeing the show. San Francisco has saved us and our wallets from mediocre Broadway bound musicals, like High Society, Lennon, and the Mambo Kings. I couldn't agree with this review any more. Sir Elton should ditch the honeymoon, art shows and parties and tend to his substandard musical which is in trouble. We're pulling for you Elton! We don't want to see you fail.

Lestat: Musical. Book by Linda Woolverton, adapted from Anne Rice’s "The
Vampire Chronicles." Music by Elton John. Lyrics by Bernie Taupin.
Directed by Robert Jess Roth. (Through Jan. 29. Curran Theatre, 445 Geary
St., San Francisco. Two hours, 40 minutes. Tickets $30-$90. Call (415)
512-7770 or visit www.shnsf.com).

The creatures of Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" have survived many
things -- fire, famine, dismemberment, even a couple of regrettable
Hollywood movies. Whether they can survive "Lestat," the Broadway-bound
musical at the Curran Theatre, is more open to question.
Didactic, disjointed, oddly miscast, confusingly designed and floundering
in an almost unrelentingly saccharine score by Elton John, "Lestat" opened
Sunday as the latest ill-conceived Broadway hopeful in the Best of
Broadway series (following on the heels of "Lennon" and "Mambo Kings").
It's the first stage production of the new Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures,
and if that sounds as if Bugs Bunny's company is trying to follow in the
footsteps of Mickey Mouse, it's no accident.
"Lestat" was put together by director Robert Jess Roth, who staged
Disney's first theatrical venture, "Beauty and the Beast," now in its 12th
year on Broadway. Linda Woolverton, who wrote the book, adapted "Beauty"
from her own Disney screenplay. John, who composed the score for Disney's
animated hit "The Lion King," did the same for the vapid Disney musical
"Aida." But where "Aida" can be enjoyed for its excessive bad taste,
"Lestat," for the most part, is simply not quite undead.
There may still be time to breathe some life into it before its scheduled
April opening at New York's Palace Theatre. The world-premiere run at the
Curran is a shakedown cruise, after all. But "Lestat" has been in previews
since Dec. 17, during which one major supporting actor has been dismissed
and presumably other changes have been made. It needs much more work.
Part of the problem may be the source. "Lestat" is adapted from the first
two books of "The Vampire Chronicles" -- 1976's "Interview With the
Vampire" and 1985's "The Vampire Lestat" -- which offer very different,
often conflicting versions of three key characters. Woolverton and
lyricist Bernie Taupin, John's longtime pop song collaborator, have to
make those characters consistent and create a unified tone for the
narrative. They're also busy -- very busy -- trying to cram as many
incidents and as much information from both books into one libretto as
possible.
It's too much story, with the authors almost desperately shoehorning some
of Rice's plot turns, narrative flights and interminable vampire creation
myths into a song here, an overstuffed confrontation there or the
large-scale video animation sequences that blanket the set. The characters
prove even more problematic, but then, despite her creative departures
from Rice's novels, very few of the figures in Woolverton's script have
much character.
Of the three who inhabit both books, Louis -- the narrator of "Interview"
(which makes up most of the second act) -- is a peripheral,
one-dimensional image of unrelieved angst, strongly sung by Jim Stanek.
Armand, very capably performed by an enigmatically commanding Drew Sarich
(the understudy for the departed Jack Noseworthy), is pretty much the
fundamentalist villain he'd become in the second book. Lestat, the
uncommunicative dark menace of the first book, is much more the
interminably loquacious, questing vampire of the sequel.
He's the narrator of his own story, the narrative popping up on the scrim
as he types his tale on a laptop -- a device that grows old very fast. As
he narrates, the scene shifts from a modern office to the 18th French
century estate where he was raised; to Paris, where he becomes an actor
and a vampire, turns his mother and his best friend into vampires in turn,
confronts Armand and leaves on his quest for deep knowledge; and
eventually (we're in the second act now) settles in New Orleans, where he
makes the vampires Louis and, Rice's most intriguing invention, the child
vampire Claudia.
A vivid array of scenic projections -- gothic interiors, deep forests,
Parisian and New Orleans cityscapes -- upholster the large moving flats
and arches of Derek McLane's inventive sets (the visual concept is by
graphic-novel artist Dave McKean, with sculptural lighting by Kenneth
Posner). Hyperactive animation sequences less successfully serve as
special effects for the battle with wolves and bloodsucking episodes.
Susan Hilferty's costumes -- vivid and ghostly, historical or wildly
imaginative -- help keep us apprised of where we are and when.
None of this matters much, though, unless Lestat is endlessly fascinating,
which is another problem. Woolverton and Taupin have had to truncate so
much story that they've barely sketched in the main character. Hugh
Panaro, who plays the role, is tall, reasonably dashing and sings with a
big, powerful voice, but seems lost in his long stretches of dialogue. His
speech is rhythmic and unconvincing, which is all the more bothersome
given Woolverton's only partial success in enlivening Rice's clunky
dialogue. Nor does it help that Panaro's acting seems to consist of
knitting his brows to indicate fear, confusion, anger, remorse, thirst,
joy or pain.
A vibrant Carolee Carmello enlivens the stage as Lestat's mother,
Gabrielle, infusing the role with great reservoirs of strength as a dying
elder and wonderfully feral enthusiasm as a vampire. She exhibits a
stunning range and force on her solo "Nothing Here," persuading her son to
leave for Paris, and sings with great power of the thrill of the hunt in
the overblown "The Crimson Kiss." But Gabrielle's stage time is too brief.
Too much of the first act consists of Panaro and an attractive Roderick
Hill, as best friend Nicolas, looking uncomfortable trying to figure out
how homoerotic their friendship is supposed to be.
Some beautifully staged shadow-play theater bits and a masque of vampire
ancient history (musical stagings by Matt West) add a bit of spice. Things
pick up briefly in the second act with the arrival of Allison Fischer's
eerie child, Claudia, especially with her country-rock warbled "I Want
More" -- but little of her story is left, and her other big solo, "I'll
Never Have That Chance," is one of John's most cloyingly syrupy
concoctions. A solid-looking Michael Genet is unconvincing as the sage
Marius. The chorus and orchestra perform flawlessly under Brad Haak's
musical direction.
The songs, however, range from mildly interesting to, for the most part,
banal and virtually undistinguishable. Taupin's lyrics are often woodenly
prosaic and rarely advance the story or our understanding of the
characters. When he tries to cram information into a song, as in the tale
of vampire creation, "The Origin of the Species," the result is simply
confusing. John seems to spend most of the evening trying to become Andrew
Lloyd Webber at his most vapid and pretentious.
It's the finale that hits rock bottom. Woolverton, Taupin and John try to
sum up vampire wisdom in a resolution that reunites everybody in
loving-kindness. Perhaps because of Rice's recent reconversion to
Catholicism, though, they don't want to get into the flirtations with
atheism and heartfelt Mother Earth worship of the "Lestat" novel. What
we're left with is pure bland schmaltz. For vampires, frankly, that sucks.

E-mail Robert Hurwitt at [e-mail]. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle

[toto2]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 8:58pm

already posted in this thread:

Lestat Review Links

[LilBwayLady]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 9:23pm

OLD NEWS