Lestat Adds Butterell to Team; Announces New Dates

Lestat has added a member to its creative team: Jonathan Butterell has "joined the production as creative consultant to provide an objective overview as it undergoes revisions," according to a production statement. To give additional time for the cast to work on these revisions, the show is pushing back its first Broadway preview by two weeks. It will now start at the Palace Theatre on March 25.

Butterell has provided musical staging for Broadway mountings of The Light In The Piazza, Assassins and Fiddler On The Roof. He also choreographed the Broadway revival of Nine. As a director, Butterell directed Michael Ball in Alone Together: Divas at the Donmar at London's Donmar Warehouse, as well as Orpheus Descending and August Strindberg's Creditors for Theatre Project Tokyo. He was associate director for a Royal National Theatre production of Othello and a Royal Shakespeare Company staging of Hamlet. He also co-directed Into the Woods in the West End, Peter Pan at Royal Festival Hall and Sweeney Todd at Opera North.

Lestat, based on Anne Rice's vampire chronicles, tells the extraordinary journey of one man who escapes the tyranny of his oppressive family only to have his life taken from him. Thrust into the seductive and sensual world of an immortal vampire, Lestat sets out on a road of adventures in a quest for everlasting love and companionship but is forced to reconcile his innate sense of good with his primal need to exist. The show features a book by Linda Woolverton and a score by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

Lestat, directed by Robert Jess Roth, recently completed an out-of-town engagement at San Francisco's Curran Theatre. Despite mostly negative reviews for the show, it was a huge hit in California, becoming the highest grossing world premiere musical in San Francisco history.

Lestat stars Hugh Panaro in the title role, Carolee Carmello as Gabrielle, Drew Sarich as Armand, Jim Stanek as Louis, Roderick Hill as Nicolas, Michael Genet as Marius and Allison Fischer as Claudia. It will now officially open on the Great White Way on April 25 a switch from the originally announced April 13 date.