I attended a panel they had yesterday at New York Comic Con. Zachary Quinto was there to moderate the discussion, which included Patrick Wilson, Michael Arden, LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries. A few notes/takeaways:
- It sounds like it'll be a pretty big show as Michael Arden talked about using the space. There will definitely be flying; Ali and LJ both talked about doing a flying test
- The vampires will be a band and all play instruments
- LJ Benet sang a song from the show, I can't recall the title but there are probably some videos out there or will be eventually - I saw at least one person near me recording it. Despite being in a room in the Javits, I thought it sounded great and even out of context rather enjoyed it (for all that's worth haha)
- They don't seem to be seeing this purely as a "vampire show" and are well aware of the history of vampire shows. Arden talked about one of the big elements is that it's about a family, and is an opportunity to highlight a relationship between two brothers, which isn't something that is often seen in theatre
- Maria Wirries said the show will get more into Star's story, which the movie apparently doesn't do as much (sorry, haven't seen the movie yet!)
- Arden didn't want to give too much away as far as which specific scenes of the movie will be in the show, but did mention one of the things he likes to do is surprise the audience in some way - which apparently isn't the flying since they talked so openly about that!
- Heartwarming/serendipitous personal anecdote: LJ Benet, who will make his Broadway debut, told a story about how his mom told him after he booked the show that his grandfather used to sell programs on the street outside the Palace
- They played a video they recorded for "Have to Have You," the song that was recently released. It was a video of everyone in the studio recording the song. The guitar solo you hear is Slash...I assume they just got him to record the solo for purposes of adding some cachet to it and that in the show, if anything it'll just be one of the band (Ali mentioned he plays guitar, so maybe him?) playing it. Or maybe it's not part of the version in the show at all
They gave everyone a window card on the way out, which was nice! I would've thought the Stranger Things panel earlier in the weekend would've handed something out as well, but I digress. All in all, I'm looking forward to visiting the Palace for this next spring.