Thanks to the kindness of some friends, Scott and I were able to see the new musical “Lestat” in San Francisco last night.
Overall, I’d give it three out of five stars. The show has a lot going for it, it was entertaining, and the majority of the flaws are fixable ones. Whether it will ever make it to 5 stars, though, I’m not sure.
First, some technical observations. The show is done with relatively minimal set; heavy use is made of projections onto various screens. It worked better for the Paris scenes than the other locations, but overall I was OK with it. Using projections on the screen as special effects when the vampires attacked was a nice touch; and I also liked that there were no fangs and minimal blood effects. Costumes were overall good, although Gabrielle’s last costume was just weird, and I’m not sure why they chose to do the ensemble in black and white for “Welcome to the New World”. It didn’t fit. Lestat’s costumes also could use a bit of help — he seemed underdressed much of the time compared to the rest of the cast.
With one exception, the cast was very solid. I particularly liked Lestat and Gabrielle – both had powerful voices and did a good job with their roles. The actress who played Claudia was also very good – her number, “I Want More” was a highlight of Act 2 – but she was also obviously not 10 years old, and that bugged me a bit. Armand, Louis and Marius were also effective. However, the actor who played Nicolas was clearly not as good as the rest of the cast. His acting was weak and so was his voice. To be fair, Nicolas is a tough role – playing a depressed person isn’t easy – but that doesn’t excuse the vocal weakness. Perhaps he was having an off-night, but if that’s as good as he gets, I hope they recast the role for Broadway.
Before I go into the book, lyrics, and music, I want to talk about the big problem with the show, because it impacts all the rest and I’m not sure they’re going to be able to sucessfully resolve it. That’s the fact that they’re trying to cram a tremendous amount of plot — two 300+ page books — into one three-hour event. The problem is, the plot has been cut down to the barest bones of Lestat’s life story, and I’m not sure what else they could possibly cut without either ending the story sooner or deviating away from Anne Rice’s story. And yet, there’s just too much plot.
This impacts everything else. The evening felt rushed, like we were on a whirlwind tour and never had time to sit back and really enjoy the moment. The need to drive the plot forward hurt both the book and the lyrics (the latter moreso than the former; although Taupin’s inexperience with the genre probably didn’t help). The music was fine but could have been stronger in Act 1. All of the really memorable music comes from Act 2 — I particularly liked “Welcome to the New World” and “Sail Me Away” (sure to be the single off the cast album when the time comes) — but other numbers might have been better if they weren’t so focused on driving plot, plot, and more plot.
The other problem caused by the deathmarch through all this plot is that there’s a minimal focus on the emotional attachments between many of the key characters. There may be more purpose here than just driving plot, though. Readers of Rice’s vampire novels are well aware of the significnat amount of homoerotic subtext in these books. I don’t know if a conscious choice was made to de-emphasize that aspect of the story, or not, but this aspect of Lestat’s life is virtually invisible. This missing part of the story becomes even more obvious when you see that the relationship between Gabrielle and Lestat is well laid out and their bond discussed in several different scenes, but virtually no time at all is given to Lestat’s bond with Louis. One minute they meet, the next, they’re living together and Louis is unhappy. Later, when Lestat talks about how happy he was in New Orleans, it’s hard to see why unless you have your memory of reading the books to fall back on.
“Lestat” is only in the first week of previews, and is still being worked on. Much may change before its San Francisco run ends. At this point, I’m reasonably sure the show will make it to Broadway, but I also don’t see any Tony Awards in its future.
UPDATE 12/30: I’m noticing an uptick in traffic to this page. Please be aware that the show has gone through some changes since I saw it and that my comments may not be a valid criticism of the show as it currently stands. Also, I’d love to hear some feedback from other folks who’ve seen “Lestat”.