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Friday, September 02, 2005

"Lestat"... with music by Elton John?!

Haven't read many of the more recent ones (I think Pandora was the last one and that was some years back) but I've always enjoyed the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. If nothing else than because of its sweeping sense of history: it's set against the backdrop of so many eras and locales.

As anyone who's even casually approached the books knows, New Orleans is a major setting for most of the series. That's where the story of Louis begins in Interview With The Vampire, and we watch Lestat and Louis (and later on Claudia) as the town grows around them. Later we see that it's where Lestat has his headquarters during his other adventures after he arises from his "sleep" in The Vampire Lestat. Rice is from New Orleans and its pretty obvious she loves interjecting the details and spirit of her town in this story.

A couple of times during the past few days I've found myself wondering, half-jokingly, how it is that Lestat would handle life as a vampire in New Orleans post-Katrina. That made me wonder how Anne Rice herself fared, hoping she safely got out. I did some "Googling" and haven't found it reported anywhere yet that she's okay (praying she is) but I did find one lil' item that made me wrinkle my brows. From WDSU.com:

Anne Rice's 'Lestat' Musical To Have World Premiere

POSTED: 9:04 am CDT August 24, 2005

NEW YORK -- "Lestat," a musical inspired by novelist Anne Rice's best-selling "Vampire Chronicles," will have its world premiere Dec. 17 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

The show is a first for the songwriting team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, but John's third Broadway musical, following "The Lion King" and "Aida." Hugh Panaro ("Les Miserables," "Side Show") stars in the title role.

The show's public relations representative, Wayne Wolfe, said "Lestat" is scheduled to play San Francisco through Jan. 29, 2006, before opening on Broadway in March 2006.

So the tale of Lestat is gonna be a musical, with songs by Elton John. Yah I know he's done some ummm... questionable things in the past few years (the "boy scout" incident makes me sick every time I think about it) but let's face it: the guy is a talented musician who's made a lot of real classics. I'm way more than a little curious now to see what he's gonna do with Lestat and Louis and Claudia and Marius and the rest. I do wonder how this kind of horror will translate to the stage though. Let us hope that Lestat: the Musical will have a better run on Broadway than Carrie: the Musical (not joking this actually happened!) did.