fredericks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fredericks) wrote2003-05-07 07:37 am
fredericks) wrote2003-05-07 07:37 am
::cue sounds of disgust::
Again, the suck potential is positively enormous for this one, kids...
pilfered from EOnline.com
Elton Does Singing Vampires
by Julie Keller
Now that Buffy is heading into retirement, the time is right for some singing vampires to hit the stage.
At least that's what Elton John seems to be thinking, announcing Tuesday that he has decided to sink his teeth into a new blood-sucking Broadway musical.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
The singer and his longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, will pen music and lyrics for The Vampire Lestat, a brand-new musical based on the bestselling Anne Rice novels about the undead prince turned rock star slated for a 2005 Broadway debut.
The musical will chronicle the adventures of Lestat and will draw on characters and events from all three of Rice's bestselling novels: Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned and The Vampire Lestat.
John, whose previous Disney-backed Broadway forays with Tim Rice produced the long-running, Tony-winning megamusicals The Lion King and Aida, said the new project is a labor of love.
"I am so thrilled at last to be working on this project. Interview with the Vampire is one of my favorite books, and Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors. Although this project has taken awhile to come together, I firmly believe we have the right team in place."
Taupin said the collaboration has been a long time coming and that he and John already have some solid plans for the project, which he calls "the opportunity of a lifetime." He also promises to spare audiences from the dreaded "rock opera."
"Our intention is to make a classically based show that is stripped of gothic clichés and that shows the vampire dealing with his damnation on a more realistic and human level," he explained. "Please let me make this clear--this is not a rock opera. Our hope is that it will be stylish, sexy, intelligent, rich and hypnotically dark."
John added that he is composing music for an orchestra and swears there will be no newfangled modern music or electric components to the musical. "I didn't see where any modern music could possibly come in without sounding ridiculous," he said at a press conference Tuesday.
He also said he has not cast a lead for the role, but he does have a serious job requirement: a good voice. "My main concern is finding people who can sing the songs properly," he said.
Warner Bros., the show's producer and a virgin to all things Broadway, is hedging its purported $10 million to $15 million bet, according to the New York Daily News, bringing a host of Hollywood and theater veterans on board for the project.
Joining John and Taupin, who has collaborated with John since the 1960s, will be Tony-nominated Beauty and the Beast director Robert Jess Roth. Emanuel "Manny" Azenberg, who has produced more than 50 shows on and off Broadway is also involved as a producer for Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures. The show will also feature a book by Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aida vet Linda Wolverton.
The Anne Rice plots have already been turned into movies with mixed results for Warners: the Brad Pitt-Tom Cruise teaming in Interview with a Vampire proved to be bloody good for the studio in 1994, but the Aaliyah-led Queen of the Damned was DOA at the box office last summer.
While the studio is hoping it will have a hit on its hands for its first foray onto the Great White Way, the last vampire musical to hit Broadway did plenty of sucking.
This year's Michael Crawford-led musical Dance of the Vampires, based on the Roman Polanski 1967 horror flick spoof The Fearless Vampire Killers, was an utter monstrosity. Even Crawford, the Tony-winning original star of Phantom of the Opera couldn't fill seats, and the show closed in January after a measly 56 performances, with producers losing more than $12 million.
------------------
"Stripped of gothic cliches"? Like what, pray tell? A "vampires dealing with damnation on a realistic and human level"? Come on! Lestat didn't start that deep philosophical crap until Memnoch the Devil. Up until then he basically said "I am a sexy predator, hear me roar" while everyone moaned and bitched that he was a "brat prince". He never took himself too seriously, which is what made his books fun and Interview with the Vampire, Louis' stab at novelization, in turns ponderous and heavy-handed. Besides, who do they think reads Ms. Rice's works? Goths and goth wannabes make up a sizable market, believe you me. *le sigh*
pilfered from EOnline.com
Elton Does Singing Vampires
by Julie Keller
Now that Buffy is heading into retirement, the time is right for some singing vampires to hit the stage.
At least that's what Elton John seems to be thinking, announcing Tuesday that he has decided to sink his teeth into a new blood-sucking Broadway musical.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
The singer and his longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, will pen music and lyrics for The Vampire Lestat, a brand-new musical based on the bestselling Anne Rice novels about the undead prince turned rock star slated for a 2005 Broadway debut.
The musical will chronicle the adventures of Lestat and will draw on characters and events from all three of Rice's bestselling novels: Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned and The Vampire Lestat.
John, whose previous Disney-backed Broadway forays with Tim Rice produced the long-running, Tony-winning megamusicals The Lion King and Aida, said the new project is a labor of love.
"I am so thrilled at last to be working on this project. Interview with the Vampire is one of my favorite books, and Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors. Although this project has taken awhile to come together, I firmly believe we have the right team in place."
Taupin said the collaboration has been a long time coming and that he and John already have some solid plans for the project, which he calls "the opportunity of a lifetime." He also promises to spare audiences from the dreaded "rock opera."
"Our intention is to make a classically based show that is stripped of gothic clichés and that shows the vampire dealing with his damnation on a more realistic and human level," he explained. "Please let me make this clear--this is not a rock opera. Our hope is that it will be stylish, sexy, intelligent, rich and hypnotically dark."
John added that he is composing music for an orchestra and swears there will be no newfangled modern music or electric components to the musical. "I didn't see where any modern music could possibly come in without sounding ridiculous," he said at a press conference Tuesday.
He also said he has not cast a lead for the role, but he does have a serious job requirement: a good voice. "My main concern is finding people who can sing the songs properly," he said.
Warner Bros., the show's producer and a virgin to all things Broadway, is hedging its purported $10 million to $15 million bet, according to the New York Daily News, bringing a host of Hollywood and theater veterans on board for the project.
Joining John and Taupin, who has collaborated with John since the 1960s, will be Tony-nominated Beauty and the Beast director Robert Jess Roth. Emanuel "Manny" Azenberg, who has produced more than 50 shows on and off Broadway is also involved as a producer for Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures. The show will also feature a book by Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aida vet Linda Wolverton.
The Anne Rice plots have already been turned into movies with mixed results for Warners: the Brad Pitt-Tom Cruise teaming in Interview with a Vampire proved to be bloody good for the studio in 1994, but the Aaliyah-led Queen of the Damned was DOA at the box office last summer.
While the studio is hoping it will have a hit on its hands for its first foray onto the Great White Way, the last vampire musical to hit Broadway did plenty of sucking.
This year's Michael Crawford-led musical Dance of the Vampires, based on the Roman Polanski 1967 horror flick spoof The Fearless Vampire Killers, was an utter monstrosity. Even Crawford, the Tony-winning original star of Phantom of the Opera couldn't fill seats, and the show closed in January after a measly 56 performances, with producers losing more than $12 million.
------------------
"Stripped of gothic cliches"? Like what, pray tell? A "vampires dealing with damnation on a realistic and human level"? Come on! Lestat didn't start that deep philosophical crap until Memnoch the Devil. Up until then he basically said "I am a sexy predator, hear me roar" while everyone moaned and bitched that he was a "brat prince". He never took himself too seriously, which is what made his books fun and Interview with the Vampire, Louis' stab at novelization, in turns ponderous and heavy-handed. Besides, who do they think reads Ms. Rice's works? Goths and goth wannabes make up a sizable market, believe you me. *le sigh*
no subject
OH GOD WHY?!?!?!?!
Really, this has about a 0.1% chance of being extremely cool, since melodrama does work well in musical theater and vampires lend themselves to that.But here is my prediction:
1- Character assasintation, target: Lestat
2- Shitty ass songs called things like "Face of an Angel, Coven of Darkness (an ode to Armand)"
My poor Lestat. Always getting drug through the mud.
I do applaud the idea of doing something new and different, because I think broadway could use an injection of badass. But I think it's clear to all of us that the right people on the job are key... and that is really rather hopeless, since I cannot think of anyone who could be trusted with such a thing.
Let's hope we're wrong, for the sake of the characters.
And in other news, I think Lestat did loads of philosophising in all the books but interview. I even liked it when he did. But Memnoch... ok we've talked about this. Hopefully THAT won't be what they write the songs about :/
no subject
Although it usually doesn't come across when I'm ranting, I don't have a problem with Lestat's philosophizing and realized he did tons of it. But there came a point (oh, let's just guess and say somewhere around the title page of Memnoch) when it just didn't flow anymore and seemed out of character. It usually came across as Lestat being "the brat prince" and, I don't know, *fun* (heh, don't ask me to define "fun" for you, please).
I'm just not looking forward to this at all. Elton John? The guy who worked on The Lion King and Aida? You want that sort of music to accompany Lestat as he gives his big rock concert? I can see it now. Lots of piano, lots of organ, a little percussion here and there...ugh. I don't know. Honestly.
Re:
I could not have said it better! (And didn't!) Sacres me to think that this is the Lestat they will present to the world.
*chokes on own sobs*
Yeah. Elton John.
NO!
But thanks for the warning. Now I can be ready to cry my heart out :/
no subject
no subject
It took me, what?, three days and two readings before I got it. You're too much, my friend. :-)
See? I put in a smiley even though I think they're an invention of Satan. That's how funny I found your post.
And my own slowness, but still.
Re:
I was hoping that one would be a sort of "delayed-reaction" gag.
I am the Neo of wordplay- The Pun.