I have to admit that I have never seen a bad musical… until today. I saw Lestat in its pre-Broadway run in SF. The music was pretty insipid, the plot condensed all of Rice’s Chronicles of the Vampire books into five acts and was practically all exposition, the characters lacked serious development. Overall, just plain bad. I wish there was at least one highlight, but I can’t think of even one. A few people even walked out, we were certainly tempted.
On the other hand, dinner at Coco500 was great. Coriander seared Ahi, celery soup, gnocci entree, a ribeye steak with wine reduction and arugula, and dessert of bread pudding and CocoBanana (individual slices of banana dipped in Venezuelan chocolate – a far cry from MagicShell) were all outstanding. It was our waitress Tara’s first night on the floor and despite being visably nervous, she did great and the waiter Joge(?) who was coaching her was knowledgable, friendly, and quick to help in out. Great service from both of them. The decor was simple but hip, wood and white walls, with soft accent and pendants lights over individual tables. When the restaurant was crowded everyone had to raise their voices to be heard. Overall an excellent dinner though. Not far from the train station and SBC Park.
I was at the Saturday, Jan 21st, 2 p.m. show of Lestat. (Is that the same one you attended?) I agree the show was bad. After reading the review in the Chronicle I had very low expectations, and the show had trouble meeting them!
Still, there were a few small highlights. I liked the special effects and scene design, although the costuming was uninspired and it looked like the 18th and 19th centuries were just one long bad hair day. The bad hair was actually distracting me (and not in a good way) from the bad writing. They tried to condense far too much material, hence all the exposition.
The lead actor playing Lestat was serviceable, and the two main female characters (Gabrielle and Claudia) both had a fun song to do (“Crimson Kiss” and “I Want More”) but generally the musical numbers were rather stale, except for the finale. Although it was great to listen to, it made very little sense in the context of the story. I really expected a lot better from John and Taupin.
Frankly all the other main actors (Louis, Armand and especially Nicholas) could be replaced, but perhaps some of that is just the bad writing.
I think they need another 6 months or so to totally rework the show if they want to make any kind of successful Broadway run. If not, I doubt it will last more than a month or so.