In 2006 a musical called Lestat opened on Broadway it was based on the famous characters of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, with a score written by Elton John and a Book by Linda Woolverton.
The Musical was sadly short-lived due to the negatives of critics, despite a good audience reaction and the approval of Anne Rice.
Despite the short lived run, Lestat had a Cast Recording made, but has never been released, thus leaving the musical forgotten by all but those that have seen it.
Plot of Show[]
Retelling the plot from The Vampire Lestat loosely, Lestat talks of his life being the apple of his mother Gabrielle's eye, he goes to Paris with his friend (and lover) Nicolas, however he is turned into a Vampire by Mangus and inherits a fortune. After turning Gabrielle and Nicolas which results in the former's travelling alone and the later's death, Lestat still questions what meaning he still has to Marius a ancient Vampire. While wandering through America he turns Louis a landowner and Claudia an orphan things go wrong and Claudia's murder attempt on Lestat results in her death. Armand the lead of the Parisian Vampires refusing to heal Lestat with his blood. Lestat is pushed from the roof while waiting to die, Gabrielle and Marius give him the blood he needs as he finds something to embrace by enjoying the rest of his unending life.
The Cast Recording[]
Recorded 6 days before the Closing Night, the recording was to be released in July, it was done by Mercury Records and several photos were taken. However after the closing night, Elton John's company declared that the release date was withdrew. In the early months fans of the musical created a now defunct website to campaigns the OCR release.
What We Have[]
While no audio clips exist of the OCR there is several ways to hear the show:
- First off the whole Musical was uploaded to YouTube in and people can view the Broadway Run, Broadway Preview and the very different San Francisco Preview.
- Elton John's Original Demos of the songs have been released they may not be the whole show but they do have songs that would have been on the OCR.
- There was also Promotion Live Recordings made of the songs but these were for Radio Air and were done in San Francisco.
Why Should it be Released?[]
Lestat came in 2006, at the time the notion was that Vampire Musicals don't work on Broadway, the decade had two shows earlier that both flopped for their reasons but both have worked else where with revisions and foreign lyrics, Lestat has been forgotten about there has been one unauthorised production and songs have been sung online but a Cast Recording might give way to others to revisit the show especially since Anne Rice has desired to see it again.