LESTAT - The New Carrie!- Page 11

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:07pm

If you didn't UNDERSTAND it, that's a whole 'nother thing.

Yes, it's called "someone in the creative team screwed up, so let's talk about it."

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:09pm

Understand it as in...?

I understood the plot, but I thought that motivations were insufficiently explained and explored. I don't think that qualifies as "not understanding." Or do you mean not understanding the deeper themes, which again, I thought were either not there, or not explored or explained in any useful way.

[Anastasia_Beaverhausen]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:09pm

Wow, WaltSummersPI, you seem to be the only one that "UNDERSTANDS" this show. Seriously...get off your high horse and let people, who I am sure UNDERSTOOD the show and just didn't like it, express their opinions!

And as Karen Walker would say, "Accept the hug with the good intentions it was given with or I'll kick you in the genitals!"

Updated On: 3/30/06 at 05:09 PM

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:10pm

This thread is so heartwarming. Hugs for all!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:10pm

WaltSummersPI = Anne Rice!

SHILLS SHILLS SHILLS

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:11pm

Ok Walt. I'm done. Game over.

Since you obviously understand ALL (except my posts, oddly enough), there's just nowhere else to go. You are clearly the superior intellect here.

I think I'll go read Odysseus now...maybe it'll give me some insight into Lestat and help me change my opinion.

Or some 'nother thing.

[jarretSF]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:11pm

Understood it, and hated it. And I like a lot of shows. I think the SF CHronicle review said it well:

The vampire Lestat has settled in San Francisco. And he's singing in a new musical. Quick! Someone fetch the garlic and a wooden stake!
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic

Tuesday, January 10, 2006


Printable Version
Email This Article








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 [phone] 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.

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:11pm

I don't think the sentance structure is tortured enough for Anne Rice.

BTW, is her bio the same as in SF, the crazy one talking about Lestat bursting forth from the page blah blah blah?

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:16pm

Pardon my previous bitchy behavior...it's been one of those days. You poor suckers just happened to be here when I felt like speading the love.

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:17pm

Yes, I am Anne Rice. LOL.

And it's sentence, Shawk. Not sentance.

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:19pm

Oh no, I misspelled a word! My opinion is further rendered invalid!

Also, Anne Rice doesn't use paragraph breaks, as seen in her rant on Amazon.com, so you haven't convinced me yet.

[Anastasia_Beaverhausen]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:20pm

WaltSummersPI is officially a nut case.

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:21pm

I am officially nuts for defending a show that I think has artistic merit.

Welcome to the vipers of BWW. Updated On: 3/30/06 at 05:21 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:24pm

Admit it, you created this, Walt!

See link...
http://www.petitiononline.com/bbld/petition.html

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:25pm

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:25pm

LMAO Lizzie. That's good stuff. But no. Not me.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:27pm

I hope Alice washed his hair.

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:28pm

wow.

I have no desire to read the books so I have no idea how the story is supposed to go.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:30pm

Yeah, see? And you're proof that it does work for some people who haven't even read the books.

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:32pm

Welcome to the vipers of BWW.

Wow, does that mean that I'm a viper?! That's a new one for me. I'll have to write it down. Maybe I could set it to the music of "Welcome to the New World." With tambourines! Lots and lots of them!

Seriously, though, we're all just having a discussion, some of us more seriously than others. But I think that rational discussion in this thread died a loooooong time ago, so, bring me more crazy pictures!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:34pm

Vipers!

And hey, there must be at least 7 of us, so maybe we can all get together and create our own version of the Symbionese Liberation Army, but Lestat-style. One for each head.

Updated On: 3/30/06 at 05:34 PM

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:40pm

Can I get a commemorative Enkil and Akasha backscratcher if I join?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:44pm

You even get a Marius decoder ring! Which comes with tossable gold furniture.

Updated On: 3/30/06 at 05:44 PM

[Shawk]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 5:53pm

But wait, will there be dry ice? If there will, just call me "Patty!"

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 6:00pm

"more crazy pictures"