So in the early 2,
we had three mega musicals about vampires flop in a six year period.
And I wanna talk about that
because none of these musicals got cast recordings.
And all three of these are mostly forgotten.
Well, one of these got a cast recording,
but the composer was so ashamed of the work
that he shelved it away forever,
never to be released. Well,
maybe we’ll get to that. So in 2,002,
the mega musical from Germany and Austria,
dance of the vampires, is announced to be transferring to Broadway.
But there are going to be some giant changes
from the production in Germany and Austria.
Notably, the director of the production in Germany and Austria
and the director of the film it was based on was Roman Polanski.
And Roman Polanski is not allowed into the United States.
Nor should he be allowed into the United States,
because he is such a despicable,
awful person. I cannot even say what he did on this platform.
So a new director was picked for the project.
But the production in Germany and Austria was this Moody, Gothic,
kind of scary horror love story type of piece.
And when it came over to the United States,
they thought they had a home run in casting Michael Crawford
in his first Broadway musical
since playing the Phantom in Phantom of the opera,
as the lead role.
But when they signed Michael Crawford immediately afterwards,
Michael Crawford demanded big changes
because he did Not want to get typecast as the Phantom of the opera.
So he started to force the production,
allegedly, to go in a more comedic tone,
which just totally fucked up everything on a monumental level.
They went through multiple book writers.
It had one of the longest preview periods
of a new musical ever in Broadway history.
Until Spider Man Turn Off the dark.
And when it finally did open,
there are, unfortunately,
moments such as the one I’m going to show you.
Where Mandy Gonzalez walks on stage with Michael Crawford
and begins singing Total Eclipse of the heart.
And the audience simply does not know what to do except to laugh.
It is, unfortunately,
the only Broadway bootleg I have ever encountered.
Where you can audibly hear the audience laughing at the material.
Let’s watch that for a second.
A little bit lonely, but I don’t know what. I miss you.
Every now and then, I get a little bit anxious.
And I wonder what it is I desire
more than ever. And if you’re lonely,
where we holding on?
No.
Tonight at the mall.
اللہ
اکبر
and that is not the audience laughing at the performers
that’s the audience laughing at the fact that they are expected
to take total eclipse of the heart seriously and this Frankenstein
of a musical by the time it opened
was already d O a and closed shortly after
losing all of its money fun fact
the ending of the Broadway production
had the vampires going to a version of Times Square
set in the future. It was absolutely bonkers.
And by the way, speaking of Frankenstein versions of musicals,
there was actually a giant Frankenstein Broadway play flop in the 70s
that had this incredible set
with a giant Tesla coil on stage
that shot lightning out over the audience.
There’s a wonderful in depth article in the New York Times
about that production of Frankenstein
if you want to know more about it.
So exactly two years after the giant flop of dance of the vampires,
Frank Wildhorn decides he’s going to take a swing at a vampire musical
with Dracula the musical on Broadway.
And this musical had some things going for it.
By all accounts, the special effects were absolutely magnificent.
You might be noticing a theme in these Broadway musical flop videos.
Where the set and the special effects
are the best things about the production.
And perhaps when the set and the special effects
are the only thing that you can say great about a production,
the production might be in fundamental trouble.
But this also had Kelly O’hara in it.
Um, Hewett was playing Dracula.
And it very promptly, very quickly closed,
even though it lasted longer than the rest of the vampire musicals
at about 100 performances just over.
Then, exactly two years after that,
in 2,006, Elton John decides he’s gonna be the person
to fix the vampire musical on Broadway
with An adaptation of Lestat.
And Lestat had a lot going for it,
including an all star cast with Hugh Panaro,
Drew Sarage, Carly Carmello.
And Elton John actually reunited with his most beloved lyricist,
Bernie Tobin. Did I pronounce that last name right?
To write this score.
And it premiered in California,
had the. Had the biggest advance sales that that theater had seen
since the original production of cats,
then transferred to Broadway
and promptly fell on its face in about 30 performances.
And the score for Lestat is absolutely beautiful.
There is a demo recording that was made with some of the cast
that you can hear floating around the internet.
And songs like Sail Me Away should be theater classics.
And what’s funny is
the cast actually recorded a cast recording for Lestat
for the original Broadway cast.
And Elton John was apparently so ashamed by the flop of the musical,
he shelved it away in a vault forever,
never to be heard. Even though recently
I heard there might be plans to release it
on a giant Elton John career retrospective.
And I think that would be absolutely wonderful
if they can pull that off
just for preservation sake.
So what did we learn between 2,002 and 2,006?
We Learned that it’s very hard to make vampire singing scary.
It’s very hard to succumb to the threat of a vampire
when they’re belting Frank Wildhorn pop ballads at you.
And Dracula may work on stage.
There’s That wonderful play production with sets by Edward Gory,
that’s just absolutely fantastic.
But I don’t think intrinsically vampire sing.
As we Learned with three of mega musical vampire flops on Broadway
in a six year period in the early 2000.