Now, we don't know about you, but our idea of fun is going to a theatre and watching a play about vampires punctuated by needless, narrative-slowing songs by the man who performed Crocodile Rock.
So it's with a heavy heart that we report that Lestat, the much-hyped Elton John-penned vampire musical, is to close after just 39 performances. That's bad news for everybody – Elton John's credibility has taken a knock after the disappointing performance of Lestat, while the rest of us will have to suffer through a billion more cash-recouping Elton John-starring dodgy Post Office adverts.
For someone who hasn't had non-reissue number one record for 30 years, Elton John sure knows how to stay famous. What with all the Madonna-slagging and saying that all photographers should be shot and singing songs about dead princesses and having chocolate statues made of him, Elton John is firmly part of the establishment.
Shame that the same can't be said about Lestat, the new Elton John vampire musical. Based around Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, Lestat featured music by Elton John, words by Bernie Taupin and audience by – no, wait, there wasn't an audience. That's why Lestat got into so much trouble.
It's not as if the legally very polite Elton John has a patchy track record with musicals, either. Aida was a smash of a musical, and The Lion King continues to rake in more money than is really sensible around the world. Even the Elton John-penned Billy Elliot, a depressing musical about some dancing boys based on a depressing film about a dancing boy, is winning rave reviews in London. So what went wrong for Elton John with Lestat?
To begin with, it didn't help that all the Lestat reviews were terrible, and it got worse when that translated into poor box office sales – Lestat cost a total of $10 million, and last week only recouped $448,525 of that back, playing just 39 shows to around 53% capacity. So it looks like Elton John might be flogging off some more of his clothes sometime soon.
Read more:
Elton John's Lestat Closing Sunday – MSNBC
[story by Stuart Heritage]