PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Lestat: Sir Elton Takes Wing
By Robert Simonson
26 Apr 2006
 |
 |
From Top: Sir Elton John; Hugh Panaro; Anne Rice; Gregg Edelman, Carolee Carmello, Zoe and Ethan Edelman; Kathie Lee Gifford; Rachel York; Kelli Carpenter and Rosie O'Donnell.
|
| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
I thought Elton John seemed a tad catatonic after his Lestat landed at the Palace April
25. Then, someone pointed out to me that I was interviewing a Tussaud-like likeness of
him left on the second floor of the brand-new Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.
Less than an hour after the curtain fell on his $12 million musical reading of Anne Rice's
first two Vampire Chronicles—at the theatre that housed his Tony-winning Aida for a
respectable run—this was all that remained of Sir Elton, this and scads of costumes and
memorabilia in the "Elton John: Elements of an Icon" exhibit going on there till April 30.
He did a 20-minute inny-outty and was outta there like a bat out of hell (if, of course,
Lestat were a bat variety of vampire—which it, and he, aren't). Word trickled down from
on high at Barlow-Hartman Public Relations that a very pressing benefit commanded his
attention across town, and who am I to throw a monkey wrench into his considerable
charity commitments? At least he left his stars to soldier on, which they gleefully did.
Hugh Panaro, the Lestat lead, led the en masse cast charge into the Columbus Circle
facility. Since their show was presented (i.e., bankrolled) by Warner Bros. Theatre
Ventures, only a minimum arm-twist was required for the parent company to turn over
the keys to the building's first four floors so everybody could party hearty after the play.
Actually, the party didn't extend beyond the Samsung Lounge on the third floor. The
fourth floor features the art work of Bernie Taupin, John's long-time lyricist, who makes
his Broadway bow with Lestat. (John's other Broadway shows—The Lion King and
Aida—had Tim Rice lyrics, and his next—Billy Elliot, arriving here from England in '08—has lyrics by the writer and the director of that film, Lee Hall and Stephen Daldry).
Greeting guests on the first floor were the sketches and costumes designed for
Lestat's
San Francisco run by
Wicked Tony winner
Susan Hilferty, who was just warming up for
Broadway. The visual splendors wrought by the design team (Hilferty, set designer
Derek
McLane and lighting designer
Kenneth Posner) are worthy of the Palace, or any palace.
The celebs were in skimpy supply at the party, but they made a very impressive united
front at the theatre, some shaking their tambourines for John: Ashford and
Simpson, Rosie O'Donnell and Kelly Carpenter, that blonde dazzler billed believably
as Jewel, Ty Burrell, Tony LoBianco, Adam Duritz, Alana Hamilton, Rob Thomas,
Eric McCormack, who's doing Some Girl(s)—rehearsing now, performing June 8-28—at
the Lucille Lortel, Kylie Minogue, "Sopranos" shrink Lorraine Bracco, Jai Rodriguez,
idling "American Idol" Constantine Maroulis, Scissor Sisters and John Edward.
The pre-show pandemonium befitted a beloved, beknighted rock star-turned-Broadway
composer, and the press were out in full force, with British accents particularly plentiful.
One lady broadcaster from across the pond, a cheeky thing, broke up Jon Bon Jovi by
asking him at point-blank range, "What does Elton bring to a vampire story?" It cracked
him up. "I could really knock that one out of the park," he replied, but he didn't go there.
After the cast bows, John paddled on stage in a tight black tux, followed by collaborators
Rice, adapter Linda Woolverton, Taupin and the evening's forgotten man, director
Robert Jess Roth.
"I was just singing the praises of Lestat," announced Star Jones, when approached at the
post-party on the Elton John floor where the favorable fumes were particularly pungent. It
didn't surprise her the music was good. She was surprised to find Lestat "tragically sexy."
Kathy Lee Gifford went into a chorus of Carolee Carmello, cast as the mother whom
Lestat turns into a vampire and "intimate" for all eternity. "I am her biggest fan on this
planet," gushed Gifford, pulling back just a bit with "next to my director, Eric Shaeffer."
Both, in fact, are hoping Carmello will play '20s evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in
Saving Aimee, which Shaeffer will put into rehearsal next March to premiere at his
Signature Theatre. Gifford did the book, lyrics and a little composing on the side, but the
bulk of the music was written by David Friedman and David Pomeranz, who composed
her Off-Broadway Under the Bridge. One of the voices on that particular CD, Gifford
noted, belongs to Allison Fischer, who is making her Broadway debut as the lethal waif
Lestat and his new second-act friend, Louis (Jim Stanek), adopt—to their dismay—when
the storyline suddenly switches centuries (18th to 19th) and cities (Paris to New Orleans).
Stanek, a former Forum "Hero" and a survivor of Indiscretions, was plainly pleased to be
back on Broadway playing the last in the line of Lestat's lovers. "I love this character and
the story we tell," he said, "the family unit and the family dysfunction and the family love
that is in this little vampire family. My character begins and ends with the little girl, as far
as I'm concerned. When she comes into our lives, everything changes. I love that I get to
share the stage with Allison Fischer and Hugh Panaro. This is her first Broadway show,
and I expect great things from her—with this show and with future shows that she does."
Also making their Broadway bows—the hard way, it turned out—were the other men in Lestat's life: Drew Sarich as the combative Armand and Roderick
Hill as the love-battered Nicolas. Both their characters went through radical changes in the big trek East.
"My role has changed a lot since San Francisco—a lot," said Sarich, "like 180 degrees in a
different direction! In San Francisco, we went in the direction of a Satanic priest—sort of a
Satanic Javert—then, when we started working on it here in New York, we started
discussing Armand's past as a prostitute so we said, 'Let's go the streetwalker avenue.'" Continued...
