Hello Fellow Vipers! Better to be a viper than a shill!
Pat Craig of The Contra Costa Times:
"The greatest danger in the new Elton John-Bernie Taupin musical, based on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, is death by boredom… It's a great story, but, as directed by Robert Jess Roth (with 'musical staging' by Matt West), the new show doesn't capture the romance or the otherworldly qualities of Rice's novel. It's more corny than scary, and it doesn't approach Rice's sense of authenticity. Hampered by cheesy production values and an uneven cast, the staging is unconvincing at best. Linda Woolverton's book, which turns much of the spoken dialogue into hackneyed cliches, doesn't help. And the John-Taupin score — the famous songwriting duo's first effort for the stage — gives it the kiss of death."
Karen D'Souza of The San Jose Mercury News:
Toothless
VAMPIRE MUSICAL `LESTAT' IS PLAGUED BY LIFELESS PERFORMANCES AND SCORE
"For a vampire musical, Lestat lacks teeth… Shaking his mane like a lion, the actor [Panaro] strikes one to-die-for pose after another as the flamboyant vampire. If pouts could kill, watch out. But he never finds the pulse of this role. His Lestat is neither fierce enough to scare us nor valiant enough to move us…. The worst sin of all may be that the show takes itself so gravely seriously; a little camp would have given it some tongue-in-cheek juice…The score is likewise bland… Only rarely, as in the child Claudia's songs, does the musical hit a vein… Unless its creators can find a way to infuse more intensity, Lestat may be dead on arrival on Broadway in the spring."
Chad Jones of The Oakland Tribune:
"The biggest problem in director Robert Jess Roth's jumble of a production — and the one that isn't likely to change anytime soon — is the score…. The two primary female characters steal the show. It's as simple as that. But this musical isn't called Gabrielle or Claudia. It's called Lestat, and that's such a shame… Panaro — with a generous assist from Linda Woolverton's cursory book — makes Lestat less an empathetic monster and more a target of ridicule. Panaro does have a beautiful singing voice, but John and Taupin have failed to provide him with a defining number."
Robert Hurwitt of The San Francisco Chronicle:
"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 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… 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."
'Lestat' proves to be bloodless
Marcus Crowder, Sacramento Bee Theater Critic
Bloody awful
‘Lestat’ stage adaptation proves anemic
Tiger Hashimoto, The San Francisco Examiner
'Lestat' offers little to bite into
Charles Brousse, Marin Independent Journal
The temptation to drive a stake into the feebly beating heart of "Lestat," the new "non-vampire vampire musical" (to quote one of its creative makers) that officially opened a short tryout run at San Francisco's Curran Theatre on Sunday, is irresistible. Better to do the deed immediately, before its financial maker, Warner Brothers Theatrical Ventures, has time to ship the coffin off to Broadway. Once there, who knows what mischief may ensue if the undead rise to drain coin and high expectations from unwitting ticket buyers? Lyricist Bernie Taupin, who has collaborated with John on many other ventures, shares responsibility for this woeful lack of musical vitality. For the most part, his songs rely on clinched couplets and interior rhymes whose relentless sentimentality is often unbearably cloying. If only they contributed to our understanding of the characters or moved the plot along, the absence of originality might at least be partially excused. Unfortunately (when they can be understood within the singers' over-amped deliveries), they do neither...Panaro is always on the move, shoulder-length blond hair flying, as he spans centuries and continents. Although the opening scene finds him at a laptop computer typing the first lines of an account that he promises will set the record straight, by the end we have gained little illumination beyond the fact that he is seemingly indefatigable...While the orchestra is splendid and the production's technical values (light, sound, costumes) undoubtedly satisfy the creative team's vision, in the end "Lestat" is an ill-conceived project. Please pass the hammer and wooden stake.".
"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions"
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"Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu"
from "Can't Stop The Music"
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"When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth"
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"Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.
- he's coming after Hugh to overtake the video blog. Haha.
