#1
Posted: 4/21/06 at 10:00am
As I've promised yesterday, I'm going to write a review on the show with, of course, inevitable spoilers....BUT for those who don't want to know what happens I'm being nice and I'm going to write another with the least possible amount of spoilers later, after this one.
Beyond this point you agree to read the spoilers...........Do NOT sue me if you really don't want to see the SPOILERS and have read this...I gave you a WARNING. :)
____________________________________________________________
This is from what I remember.
Act I
It opens with Lestat fighting the wolves, he has a knife and all, swinging it around. This part, in my opinion, was ok, Hugh played it out perfectly.
He then goes back to his mother, Gabrielle, where they talk a bit. Then Gabrielle/Carolee sings "Beautiful Boy" which was pretty sad. The song is good though. Then Lestat/Hugh gets reunited with Nicolas when he finds him doing some theatre in Paris.
OK, as you can see, the show is all over the place. Very choppy, though I would think they trimmed a lot of it based on other reviews I've read. Everything happens too fast and I think people who have not read the books will be mostly lost. The problem with this musical is that they try to explain too many things in too little time (2hrs 35min)
Make Me As You Are was silly. I think they needed to tell more on why Gabrielle is telling Lestat: "make me as you are." The audience was thinking: "she's suppose to be his mother, all conservative and all, why is she being so selfish?"
I will not take you through the sequence of the whole show but I will now jump to "Morality Play."
I know it's the play within a play and it's cool with all the masks and white powdered people and those nice colored sheets or whatever they are....BUT PLEASE LOSE IT!...It just pulls the people out from the real story. It'll just confuse people even more. (And the guy who tells the story, I think Laurent, kept on spitting on me) I had no clue what was going on in that part as well. It was corny and, as I said, throws people off the actualy storyline.
"Crimson Kiss" is probably the best song there was in the show. Carolee did an amazing job and that part, they did right, I LOVED IT! But, again, everything happens so fast! She leaves..........and Marius makes his grand opening "VIOLA" he emerges from the center, flying his above everyone else. "Come with me!" he says. I said this yesterday, it was all sudden.
Act II
"Welcome to the New World" was fun and entertaining, so cool. Lestat finds Louis and makes him into one of the immortals. He strives for new meaning in his new role in life. (EMBRACE IT-which I also loved) Now, here comes the choppy part again. Right after they finish Embrace It, Lestat finds Claudia and makes her into. The problem is that many people might say: "Why the hell is he making another?!" They need to explain that better...But, of course, they mention it later when everyone is lost in another part of the story. "I Want More" comes some thirty years after the scene before, AGAIN, trying to tell too much in too little time. Soon after "I'll Never Have that Chance" Claudia tries to kill Lestat, but she uses a knife so, of course he can't die, but Louis starts a fire (which is so SUDDEN) Now, this is really hard to understand, even for me (it's either that or I missed something in the book) the audience was probably asking themselves: Why the hell is Louis trying to kill Lestat when just before (I think) he was trying to stop Claudia and after thirty years of living together? Now, there comes the scene that I heard everyone talk about on panarophiles.net: one moment, Lestat is being killed, fire and all where he says "I MUST NOT DIE LIKE THIS!" and then he goes into the fire......*a quick flash on the stage: TEN YEARS LATER*....."SAIL ME AWAY!"...yep, they still have that scene. I almost burst out laughing. I mean, it was too sudden. Next comes "To Kill Your Kind" which I really loved. Armand/Drew was really HOT is this song, I couldn't help but smile. The death of Claudia was wierd, I mean, it was like "Ahhh" ok, she died. Embrace It REPRISE comes next, where Louis goes off on his own.
Armand emerges again and pulls Lestat down a cliff (did I miss something? why did Armand do it?) I had no clue why he threw Lestat down a cliff. And the finale...I didn't feel that it ended. Gabrielle comes out of the blue saying "Stand up, son." He stands up and goes up to the front and says " I AM THE VAMPIRE LESTAT AND I WILL LIVE FOREVER "
The end.
The songs were pretty much sung by Hugh, no one else got more than two songs! I was surprise because Carolee appeared so little, Nicolas had a very small part, Marius DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A SINGING PART, Louis appeared in a small part in Act II, so did Claudia.
Beyond this point you agree to read the spoilers...........Do NOT sue me if you really don't want to see the SPOILERS and have read this...I gave you a WARNING. :)
____________________________________________________________
This is from what I remember.
Act I
It opens with Lestat fighting the wolves, he has a knife and all, swinging it around. This part, in my opinion, was ok, Hugh played it out perfectly.
He then goes back to his mother, Gabrielle, where they talk a bit. Then Gabrielle/Carolee sings "Beautiful Boy" which was pretty sad. The song is good though. Then Lestat/Hugh gets reunited with Nicolas when he finds him doing some theatre in Paris.
OK, as you can see, the show is all over the place. Very choppy, though I would think they trimmed a lot of it based on other reviews I've read. Everything happens too fast and I think people who have not read the books will be mostly lost. The problem with this musical is that they try to explain too many things in too little time (2hrs 35min)
Make Me As You Are was silly. I think they needed to tell more on why Gabrielle is telling Lestat: "make me as you are." The audience was thinking: "she's suppose to be his mother, all conservative and all, why is she being so selfish?"
I will not take you through the sequence of the whole show but I will now jump to "Morality Play."
I know it's the play within a play and it's cool with all the masks and white powdered people and those nice colored sheets or whatever they are....BUT PLEASE LOSE IT!...It just pulls the people out from the real story. It'll just confuse people even more. (And the guy who tells the story, I think Laurent, kept on spitting on me) I had no clue what was going on in that part as well. It was corny and, as I said, throws people off the actualy storyline.
"Crimson Kiss" is probably the best song there was in the show. Carolee did an amazing job and that part, they did right, I LOVED IT! But, again, everything happens so fast! She leaves..........and Marius makes his grand opening "VIOLA" he emerges from the center, flying his above everyone else. "Come with me!" he says. I said this yesterday, it was all sudden.
Act II
"Welcome to the New World" was fun and entertaining, so cool. Lestat finds Louis and makes him into one of the immortals. He strives for new meaning in his new role in life. (EMBRACE IT-which I also loved) Now, here comes the choppy part again. Right after they finish Embrace It, Lestat finds Claudia and makes her into. The problem is that many people might say: "Why the hell is he making another?!" They need to explain that better...But, of course, they mention it later when everyone is lost in another part of the story. "I Want More" comes some thirty years after the scene before, AGAIN, trying to tell too much in too little time. Soon after "I'll Never Have that Chance" Claudia tries to kill Lestat, but she uses a knife so, of course he can't die, but Louis starts a fire (which is so SUDDEN) Now, this is really hard to understand, even for me (it's either that or I missed something in the book) the audience was probably asking themselves: Why the hell is Louis trying to kill Lestat when just before (I think) he was trying to stop Claudia and after thirty years of living together? Now, there comes the scene that I heard everyone talk about on panarophiles.net: one moment, Lestat is being killed, fire and all where he says "I MUST NOT DIE LIKE THIS!" and then he goes into the fire......*a quick flash on the stage: TEN YEARS LATER*....."SAIL ME AWAY!"...yep, they still have that scene. I almost burst out laughing. I mean, it was too sudden. Next comes "To Kill Your Kind" which I really loved. Armand/Drew was really HOT is this song, I couldn't help but smile. The death of Claudia was wierd, I mean, it was like "Ahhh" ok, she died. Embrace It REPRISE comes next, where Louis goes off on his own.
Armand emerges again and pulls Lestat down a cliff (did I miss something? why did Armand do it?) I had no clue why he threw Lestat down a cliff. And the finale...I didn't feel that it ended. Gabrielle comes out of the blue saying "Stand up, son." He stands up and goes up to the front and says " I AM THE VAMPIRE LESTAT AND I WILL LIVE FOREVER "
The end.
The songs were pretty much sung by Hugh, no one else got more than two songs! I was surprise because Carolee appeared so little, Nicolas had a very small part, Marius DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A SINGING PART, Louis appeared in a small part in Act II, so did Claudia.
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky. With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high! Blood-red were the spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat, when they shot him down on the highway, down like a dog on the highway, and he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat...
(The Highwayman. Sung by: Loreena McKennitt)
