Elton John musical flops
2006-05-24 13:12
New York - They're driving a stake through the heart of Lestat.
The $10m Elton John-Bernie Taupin musical inspired by Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles will close on Sunday after a disappointing run of 39 performances.
The show opened April 25 to negative reviews and has seen its box-office grosses steadily sink since then. Last week, for example, the expensive show, which stars Hugh Panaro as the neck-chomping vampire, grossed $448 525, playing to only 53% capacity at the Palace Theatre.
Lestat didn't fare well with Tony nominations either. It received only two, one for Carolee Carmello (who plays Lestat's mother) in the featured-actress category and the other for Susan Hilferty's lavish costumes.
John wrote the music for Lestat and Taupin supplied the lyrics.
Lestat is John's third Broadway musical, following his success with Aida and The Lion King. The pop star also contributed the music to the current London hit Billy Elliot.
- AP