Kathleen, Ariel and I hauled our sniffling selves to “Dance of the Vampires” last night, now in previews on Broadway. Based on Roman Polanski’s “The Fearless Vampire Killers,” it stars Michael Crawford as Count Von Krolock and Rene Auberjonois as Professor Abronsius.
If you have any interest in Michael Crawford, Rene Auberjonois, vampires (dancing or otherwise), or a fun evening of theater, you should definitely go. Soon. Because if you have an interest in what the NY Times will say, they’ll probably hate it.
They will probably say that there’s a few songs too many (there are.) That certain aspects of the book never really come together (also true; a story arc involving a flamingly gay vampire, for instance, draws laughs but ultimately goes nowhere). That the show starts out strong in terms of a tongue-in-cheek tone, but gets patchy after the first half hour (‘fraid so.) That composer/lyricist Jim Steinman’s songs are for the most part unmemorable. Well…yeah.
That’s the most depressing aspect, really. Early on in the show, Steinman–who wrote songs for Meat Loaf–slides about sixteen bars of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” into the middle of Krolock’s first song. It draws huge laughs as the audience slowly tweaks to the self-referential digression. But when kicking off Act II, they do a full blown rendition of “Total Eclipse.” It’s great to hear. They do a terrific job with it. The problem is that it really points up the fact that no other number in the show can touch a song he wrote at least two decades ago, because that’s the song you’ll come out humming.
The thing is, all of these thoughts occur *after* you’ve left the show (which is, of course, when reviews are written). *During* the show you’re having a great time. The songs are bouncy (if forgettable), and some of the lyrics are genuinely hysterical (particularly an early song about garlic and Auberjonois’ Gilbert & Sullivan-esque patter song about Logic.) And it may very well be that legions of Crawford fans alone will be sufficient to keep the show going.
Furthermore, this *was* still previews, keep in mind. Trims and fixes may yet be made. Such typical preview glitches as effects misfiring or poor sound mixing or mikes going out will presumably be cured by opening night; perhaps other aspects will be fixed as well.
But just in case they’re not, go anyway. If nothing else, it’s the first genuine Grand Guignol to hit Broadway since Sweeney Todd. And there’s just not enough Grand Guignol out there to excuse supporting it when it meanders along.
PAD
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Actually most of the “Dance” score is recycled Steinman material, much of it from his ‘lost’ musicals he wrote in the 70’s while under the tutelage of Joe Papp. The finale is a reworking of a song he wrote called ‘Tonight is What It Means To Be Young’ for the Streets of Fire’ soundtrack and Crawford’s big song is a reworked version of a Meat Loaf song called ‘Objects in the Rearview Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are” (which in itself was a fleshed out reowrk of a previous Steinman tune called ‘Surf’s Up.’)
I haven’t seen the show yet, though. Hopefully in the spring when the trek from Ohio to NY isn’t as likely to be stopped by blizzard-like conditions I’ll give it a look.
This is why I hate living in the south. Something like this pops up and I’m nearly 900 miles away. (sigh)
Anyway, I hope that they release a cast recording because I would definitely want to check it out. (Of course they could have already done that and I’m just out of the loop.) Darn it all I actually dig Steinman’s music even if it is a bit overblown at times. Maybe that’s why I like it. I don’t know.
BTW- Anyone got a head’s up on if Steinman is actually going to write the score for the supposed BATMAN musical?
DAnce of the Vampires is being aimed for an April release of the cast album.
Last I heard there was a draft of the Batman musical in the can and they were waiting for a director to sign on before they went into rewrites. Since then they’ve hired Tim Burton to direct but Steinman’s busy with Dance so it’s probably on the backburner until Steinman’s committments to that show are finished.
PAD-
Still waiting on this week’s Buffy review 🙂
And BTW – Supergirl #75 – amazing issue !
I’ve read that Warner Brothers wants Batman the Musical to hit broadway by 2004. Seems the WB really wants to compete with Disney on the Broadway front.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Peter. Elayne and I will be going to see it on December 4th for our anniversary. I’ve been a big Steinman fan for a long time, I think it makes a great soundtrack for drawing superhero comics. Steinman has always recycled his tunes and this one seems to have quite a few. For anyone interested in the music but unable to get to New York you can go to http://www.danceofthevampires.com and they have some nice mp3s you can download of the demos. No Crawford on them but they’re fully produced versions of the songs. There’s about an hour’s worth there.
I’m just hoping that I don’t keep flashing on Michael Crawford as “Frank Spencer” a television character that was totally unavoidable in the UK in the 70’s.
Robin-
Don’t worry. You won’t. With the make-up and the costume, he doesn’t look like himself. I had forgotten how short he was. They put him in some serious boots with heels to make him taller than the female lead.
Kath
Thanks for the link, Robin. Time to go visit that one and download everything I can find there.
I’m not much of a NYC visitor (as I avoid it at all costs), but I love Steinman’s music and any chance to hear his music is one I’ll take.
Heck, I’ve got the soundtrack to the very forgettable WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND sitting here just for his music. The best stuff to come out of that musical were the two additional tracks that Meat Loaf did from it for one of his song collections. (“A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing To Waste” is a great piano tune…)
-Augie
I actually enjoyed “Whistle” which I saw in the West End, Steinman only did the lyrics though. The music is Lloyd-Webber. I wonder what their original collaboration on “Phantom” would have been like if Steinman hadn’t been contracted to go and record the second Bonnie Tyler album.
I found another download page for demos
http://www.carpe-jugulum.com/mp3.htm
I haven’t checked them all yet. They seem to be mostly the same tracks but there’s stuff from other works too. Have fun. 🙂
I can’t believe someone mentioned Frank Spencer. I actually taped several episodes of “Some Mothers” off of BBC America a couple of years ago. 🙂
Now I just have to find them…
And there’s always more Steinman goodness at http://www.jimsteinman.com!
My wifeand I are going this Tursday (Halloween) for our first wedding anniversary. We got married las Oct 31 at castle Dracula in Transylvania, Romania. If anyone is interested they can check out pictures or my wife’s memoirs of the wedding by following links at http://www.dractour.com. I will let you all know what we think of “Dance” this Friday.
I thought I would throw this in for a goof.
Most of you probably know this, but for those they may not it might shed some new light on Steinman’s music. On the Meatloaf STORYTELLERS CD, the Loaf reveals that most of Steinman’s music is for a musical called NEVERLAND (at least that’s what it sounded like to me), which is a futuristic Peter Pan. Apparently Steinman can write a song today or have written a song 30 years ago and it is for this musical, “HEAVEN CAN WAIT” being one of them.
Also according to Meatloaf Steinman sees himself as Peter Pan and sees Loaf as Tinkerbell. Interesting visual there.
Anyway, I downloaded the demos to DANCE and they sounded promising at least. I’m just glad that I’m not the only Steinman fan out there.
And I’m an idiot. Just checked the Steinman web site and there is a whole run down of Neverland. Here I thought it was something that was never done. Oh well.
IF you go to the Steinman page, (or one of the big fan pages) there’s a version of the play with songs put in order…
It’s basibly Peter Pan by way of Mad Max. The story idea is interesting, but I find the ending weak.
But it would be neat if he could get it produced.