The hottest new rock star is the Vampire Lestat with help from Bowie, Iggy and Freddie
This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
In early June, hundreds of fans dressed to the nines were in attendance at a rock star’s sold-out show at New York’s Beacon Theatre.There was lace everywhere and leather too.
Chains dangled from belt loops and wrists.Some attendees arrived with dyed crimson hair, others with orange or pink.Sheer black outfits that looked pulled from the pages of a gothic romance novel were draped on bodies.
If “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” had collided with a modern concert, it might have looked something like this.Then a man took the stage.Was it Lestat de Lioncourt, the immortal vampire-cum-rock star, or was it actor Sam Reid?Moments earlier, attendees had watched the first episode of AMC’s “The Vampire Lestat,” the rebranded third season of “Interview With the Vampire” that premiered earlier this month.
This season adapts Anne Rice’s novel of the same name, which is told from the perspective of Lestat, played by Reid, and transforms him into a touring musician.Now Reid, dressed in black with his chest partially exposed beneath an open jacket revealing a scar, stepped on stage and into the role of Lestat in front of the audience.As he moved across the stage, phones shot into the air.
Fans screamed.People sang along to a slew of songs, and for a moment, the line between actor and character seemed to disappear.At first glance, the assignment to turn Lestat into a rock star seemed straightforward.
The vampire at the center of Rice’s beloved novels has flirted with music before.In 2002’s “Queen of the Damned,” he emerged as a leather-clad nu-metal frontman capable of commanding massive crowds.
But bringing Lestat into the present introduced a different challenge.Rock music no longer occupies the same place in popular culture.
Fame is fragmented.Audiences are skeptical of celebrity.
Social media can build a star overnight and tear them down just as quickly.Yet �...