Did you guys know about this? A musical version of Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles.” Maybe we should let this die a deserved death, ’cause WOW is this bad!
So naturally I had to share 😉
It apparently dates back to 2006, with music by Bernie Taupin (yes, Elton John’s longtime collaborator). I found this when I was on IMDB.com this morning, and noticed that today is Bernie Taupin’s birthday, the big 6-0. Happy Birthday, Bernie!
This particular clip doesn’t have any of the music, but the acting, :::shudder::: is almost painful to watch. How does this stuff get on Broadway? Anyone know if it’s still running? I’m out here on the fringes of civilization, I have no idea what’s going on in New York.
And I thought it was bad when they made a musical out of “Wicked.”
UPDATE 5/23/2010: It just boggles my brain that they tried to make (well, ok, they DID make) a musical out of it. And it wasn’t just Bernie Taupin, Elton John did the score as well. It apparently garnered two Tony nominations, and Anne Rice even discussed it (favorably) on her web site here.
fillingspaces.wordpress.com 
That looks bad…so I want to see it 😛
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You, sir, are a glutton for punishment
According to Wikipedia, it ran from April 25, 2006, to May 28, 2006. There are, however, a number of videos on YouTube of it, if you are so inclined. 😉
Feh, I should have done more research on it yesterday.
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I didn’t see “Wicked” but people I trust said it was better than OK, largely b/c of excellent performances by the actresses who played the original Glinda and Elphie. The problem is the same as in publishing – nobody wants to take a risk on an unknown quantity (those shows are SO expensive to produce) so commercial theater falls back on known quantities and name recognition: either revivals of classic shows, or titles and characters (like Lestat) that are well-known and have been proven marketable in other media. Even worse, audiences often eat that stuff up: that’s how a crappy pastiche of ABBA songs like “Mama Mia” becomes not only a huge hit, but a big-budget movie as well. Lestat is no doubt Broadway’s attempt to jump on the vampire gravy train, but I’ll tell you, there’s been NO BUZZ about it at all in the NY media – your post was the first I’d heard of it!
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It seems to have died a quick death, about a month after opening back in 2006! It just seemed like weird subject matter to try to inject musical numbers into, but I guess no stranger than “Phantom of the Opera” or “Les Miserables” now that I think about it. That little video clip was just so uncomfortable to watch. When the one guy walked onstage, he was standing there clearly with no idea what to do with his hands. It was just painful to watch, kind of like a high school play.
I read the book “Wicked,” and I thought it was a joke when someone told me it was being made into a musical. There was some really strange stuff in that book, but I guess like “The Wizard of Oz” it probably got a bit of a re-write for performance (Wikipedia says it was “loosely based” on Maguire’s book). I think that one’s still running, I know they were advertising performances here in Portland not long ago.
As far as “Mama Mia”, ABBA was cheesy in the 70s, and as far as I’m concerned hasn’t improved with age. Classic disco fluff.
Death before disco! \m/ 😉
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There have been some real bombs based on really popular sources (my theater geek fans love to talk about the musical version of S. King’s “Carrie” that closed after one night,) but you know, also some big successes based on weird, little known source material like “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Sweeney Todd.” I had high hopes for the stage version of “The Sweet Smell of Success,” and there were some really good actors in it (John Lithgow played the Burt Lancaster part, and Brian D’Arcy-James went on to get great reviews in a bunch of other shows) but somehow it didn’t gel.
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oops, I meant “theater geek FRIENDS,” not fans. My act is not well-known enough to have many fans.
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LOL, well you can count me as one!
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I’m blushing 😉 With reference to our discussion of last week, I guess that although I never really wanted to be famous, the idea of having a small, devoted geek following does have a certain appeal…
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I can see that. Don’t forget we’re going to book you here on your living room book tour someday! 🙂
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Awesome. That is a really short run to earn two Tony nods. They should try running it again with Brad Pitt 🙂 I thought the idea of Wicked as a musical was weird, but I have heard so many rave reviews I want to see it. Loved the books.
I thought of you b/c I just started playing on a blog called Undead Poets Society. Some fun stuff, including a Lestat poem up now 🙂 Hope your WIP is going well. I am scattered these days, but have been over at writer’s flow, dusting and moving some stuff around 🙂 May be back again soon.
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Hi Jan!
Great to hear from you. Hope all is well with you. I understand the ‘scattered’ bit all too well.
I was pretty astonished too that they garnered the Tony noms, but I’m not sure what they were for. From what I read later, critics panned it, and it seems like the public didn’t care for it much either. Oh well.
The WIP is going. I don’t know how well it’s going, but it’s going 😉 I’m about halfway through the first round of revisions, we’ll see what’s what after that I guess. Hang in there, hope to see you again soon!
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OMG. Thank you for posting that link. THAT was frigging hilarious. Sadly, I am sure it was not supposed to be frigging hilarious.
I would LOVE to see Wicked. There are some videos of it on youtube. And it sounds especially cool in German!
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Awesome, but there’s no video with that one, just sound. Here’s one that shows part of the show:
And it’s subtitled in German for those of us German-challenged 😉 I picked up more than I thought from being able to read it as she sang. I don’t know who the actress is playing Elphaba but she’s got a great voice.
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I spoke w/a woman who works in a diner the next town over, who told me she learned most of her English by watching American TV with subtitles. as quite good – I wouldn’t mind speaking a second language as well as she spoke ours.
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You and me both.
Tasha I’m so glad you posted the YouTube thing for Wicked, I never would have thought of looking it up! I’m going to watch some more of them. This is fun 🙂
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You’re welcome, DD! And I love the link you posted in response.
Hee hee. Now I can picture us hunched over our keyboards, typing away, with Elphaba singing in the background. 😉
I think she is played by Willemijn Verkaik, and Lucy Scherer plays Glinda.
MaryJ,
Watching dvds in German with the German subtitles has been helping me, so I can definitely relate to that woman’s experience with English.
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Now, how much German did you know when you first moved there, Gypsy?
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MaryJ,
I had bought a couple of those basic learn German books. I made sure to know beforehand the basic greetings, and “thank you”, “you’re welcome” “Please”. Those sort of things.
Oh, and, “I’m sorry. My German is not very good. Could you please speak slower?” (which has turned out to be the most useful of lines)
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Fang and I always make sure to learn “please,” “thank you,” “rest room?” and the names of foods & numbers before we go anywhere, and we’ve never had any trouble anywhere in Europe. Plus when I was in Germany it seemed that almost everyone spoke pretty good English (although maybe that’s b/c we were staying near an Army base.)
Didge – you know who’s acquired some very decent German over the years? Our own McCaustic – he had a long-distance relationship for a long time with a guy who lived in Austria, and although his accent is still the clunky one we learned in high school German class, his written Deutsch is quite impressive, and he understands everything.
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I remember you mentioning about McC and Lotho (I think that was his name?).
Half the problem Americans have with pronouncing things correctly is that we barely move our mouths when we speak, unlike other languages that are much more, shall we say, animated 🙂 I found if you try to exaggerate it a bit, you feel silly doing it, but you sound much more authentic. This was really true when learning some Mandarin awhile back. You really can’t be afraid to shift that lower jaw around.
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I’ve got that song, “Frei und Schwerelos,” stuck in my head now. 🙂
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