From 2002-05, the musicals Dance of the Vampires<\/a>, Dracula<\/a> and Lestat<\/a> all opened on New York\u2019s Broadway \u2013 and all three were epic flops. <\/p>\n While the vampire musical has found success internationally, it\u2019s never had a moment in the sun (or rather, out of the sun) on Broadway. But where Lestat (2005) killed off the vampire musical, TV\u2019s Lestat is resurrecting it. The series has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and The Lost Boys is one of the hottest tickets on Broadway. Here\u2019s what they\u2019re doing right \u2013 and where their predecessors went wrong.<\/p>\n Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires, 1997) was a smash hit in Vienna before the show travelled to Broadway in 2002. The lavish original production featured a grand gothic castle, thrilling power-ballad music by Jim Steinman and a brooding lead vampire, Count von Krolock. <\/p>\n It also involved some problematic politics and a culturally specific sense of humour. With these challenges, Broadway\u2019s production team couldn\u2019t agree on a direction. While some wanted to remain faithful to the original, others wanted to appeal to American audiences with a \u201cMel Brooks-ish\u201d comedy<\/a>. With the latter coming to fruition, Austria\u2019s grand romantic spectacle became pure slapstick.<\/p>\n To its credit, the production did offer some narrative improvements, but the Broadway revamp misses something crucial: a balance between the serious and the camp. While the original featured plenty of humour, crucially, Krolock remained the \u201cstraight man\u201d. When Broadway\u2019s vampire became a clown, the tapestry fell apart. It lost the gothic wonder and emotional integrity that made Tanz a great musical. <\/p>\n As Lestat says in episode two of the new series, \u201cfacts are irrelevant \u2013 feels are everything\u201d. \u201cFeels\u201d, after all, are the fundamental principle of both vampires and musicals. Both are certainly known for their passion. On a more base level, both create visceral effects through their excessive spectacles. The \u201cfeeling\u201d evoked by horror (and live musicals) is immediate, an experience Linda Williams relates to \u201cbody genres\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n Historically, excessive \u201cfeeling\u201d and surface appeal have been shunned by critics of the gothic for lacking substance or moral meaning. But defenders of the gothic like Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick<\/a> argue that surface affect and its associated \u201cfeels\u201d are valuable in themselves. And just as this principle applies to the gothic, it is also true for musical theatre. <\/p>\n The megamusical \u2013 a term that describes large-scale shows such as Les Mis\u00e9rables and Cats \u2013 runs on spectacle. Mesmerising scenery and technical innovation are paramount. The centrepiece of The Lost Boys is its flying vampires (something Dracula also had, although the rest of the show failed to match the whimsy). <\/p>\n The Lost Boys looks and feels like an 80s megamusical, retaining that grandeur that was fatally cut from Dance of the Vampires. Its Tony wins<\/a> for performance and design, and losses for writing, suggest its focus on style over substance \u2013 but rather than indicating failure, this seems to be the subgenre\u2019s recipe for success.<\/p>\n Dracula is a successful musical in Europe and Asia, but like many vampires, it had a difficult conception. The Broadway production suffered from static blocking, gratuitous female nudity, and, according to critics<\/a>, \u201csoberly eschew[ed] any temptations to campy indulgence\u201d. <\/p>\n Dracula himself showed no emotion. Actor Tom Hewitt, who had previously starred in Rocky Horror, clearly had a camp vampire bursting to get out, but the production demanded constraint. It was a musical made for the straight male gaze.<\/p>\n The show was later revised in Switzerland, Austria, and South Korea. It gradually borrowed elements from the camp masterpiece Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula (1992), from Eiko Ishioka\u2019s costume design to the iconic bleeding cross scene. <\/p>\n Mina\u2019s Seduction was re-blocked into a romantic scene where Mina has more control of the situation. The female nudity was removed, but Dracula was framed as a Twilight-esque heartthrob. The sexual dynamics were transformed: this was now a Dracula for the female gaze. And since women are the primary demographic of musical theatre, and of popular vampire media, this gradual shift directly correlated with its gradual success. <\/p>\nDance of the Vampires<\/h2>\n
The Lost Boys<\/h2>\n
Dracula<\/h2>\n
The Vampire Lestat<\/h2>\n
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