Vampire Musicals

We saw Dracula & enjoyed it. Would love to have seen the european version of DOTV. Having said that it was moderately entertaining. We see, if still open, the last preview of Lestat

I think the idea is great for one done properly. I enjoyed the studio cast of Possessed & the same holds true for Vladimir. Wonder if a vampire musical by either ALW or Sondheim would be the answer

Mull & discuss

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No more vampire musicals. Let the undead lurk elsewhere---it doesn't seem to be a concept that is anywhere as good in the realization on Broadway as it was in the imaginations of those who bring them to the stage.

SayitSomehow -

To be perfectly honest I do believe Andrew Lloyd Webber would fare well with a vampire musical, if anyone decides to revisit the idea after these last three. He certainly has a flare for the "gothic," and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who has the capacity to write in a "gothic-romance" style. His music is truly remarkable for this genre, or topic I should say. If it ever happened, I do believe it would be a good deal more complex and compelling than the vampire musicals that have recently surfaced. To me, Elton John's style of "pop" doesn't suit a musical about vampires, there's nothing sensual about it. Whether or not they have stated that "Lestat is not a rock-pop musical," it is, just listen to it. Frank Wildhorn's style of composition is just dull, over-the-top, and unplanned. He is too worried about having large show stopping numbers one after the other, that the story, in the end, is usually dismissed and unrecognizable. These stories are meant to be romantic, sensual, sexy and erotic, fear-provoking and uncomfortable, and above all, good storytelling. I don't think that vampire musicals should be unwelcome on Broadway, it just needs to be a good one, lol!

Later!

Phantom05

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I love Wildhorn's Dracula,. It is much better than Dance of the Vampires. And of course Jekyll & Hyde is brilliant and of a similar theme. But please don't let Sondheim touch it or he'll ruin the genre.

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But please don't let Sondheim touch it or he'll ruin the genre.

Seems as if the genre has already been ruined to me. Sondheim feels like the only person left with even a hope of pulling it off.

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what about a lachiusa vampire musical?

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How could Sondheim ruin the genre? The genre is a bust already.

Personally, I don't see how the problem could be vampire musicals themselves. It's the execution. No one had made a good one. I don't think it's that vampires don't work in musical theatre or something. Why wouldn't they? Think of the things that have worked in the past.

I'm sure someone's capable of doing it well. If Sondheim penned a vampire musical, it would probably be pretty awesome. I don't want him to, but I'd go see it. Past vampire musicals have been too concerned with "dark creature of the night BLOOD so DARK so ANGSTY hi this sounds like jekyll and hyde"; for me, if I find anything interesting about vampires, it's the psychology of it, this life-but-not-life aspect of it (which was almost analyzed in Dracula the Musical, but like so many things in that musical, it fell short), the isolation, the character--

And composers like Sondheim and LaChiusa write great character pieces.

But give vampire musicals a rest for a while. Even if it was brilliant, people would just say, "Oh? Dracula? Dance of the Vampires? Lestat? H'okay."

I hate most all of Sondheim shows especially the deplorable Assassins. I can't understand what people see in that show.

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There is garlic in the sky
There is great big beautiful garlic in the sky...

Why not let Boubil and Schonberg write a vampire musical? They are the masters of pop epics.

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IMHO, the problem of vampire musicals is that they very easily slip into the realm of being ridiculous.

I think a well-conceived show with a great score and book who may happen to have a character that is a vampire would work- but only after word-of-mouth took over. Critics pretty much automatically write off these shows, probably because of the examples we've had.

The show can't revolve around the fact that a character is a vampire- it has to just be one of the details that fleshes out an interesting, multi-dimensional character.