Lestat is a Broadway musical inspired by Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles.

This was the first theatrical score from the legendary songwriting team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Book by Linda Woolverton, and was directed by Robert Jess Roth with musical staging by Matt West.

The Broadway production opened on April 25, 2006 in the Palace Theater and closed on May 28, 2006.

The show was directed by Robert Jess Roth, who was a Tony Award nominee for his Broadway directorial debut for Beauty and the Beast. The title role of Lestat was played by Hugh Panaro, and starred 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. Jack Noseworthy was originally cast as Armand, but left the production during its first week of previews, and Sarich was moved up to the role. Sarich played the title role for two performances the day before the production's run in New York came to an end, when Panaro was out sick.

Scenic design by Derek McLane, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Jonathan Deans, visual concept design by Dave McKean, and hair design by Tom Watson.

Production History:
The Pre-Broadway version of the Lestat musical was extremely different from the New York version of the Lestat musical. Even though it was the highest earning pre-Broadway play in San Francisco history (beating out Wicked and Cats) the company drastically revised the play. The San Francisco version, performed at the city's historic Curran Theater during the final months of 2005 and early 2006, had far more elaborate stage effects and production values and included projected images illustrating the main character, Lestat's, story.

The Broadway version of Lestat was more interpretive, and used less projections. it also cut quite a few plot elements from San Francisco. The song "Right Before My Eyes" was inserted, "In Paris", a duet sung by Nicolas and Lestat was cut, and "In Paris" was expanded to when Lestat first arrives in Paris and sees Nicolas' work at the theater, the number was called "In Paris Sequence". Gabrielle's solo "Nothing Here" was changed to "Beautiful Boy"; and the play-within-a-play in the Vampire theater, was changed from the number "Origin of the Species", which explaned the legend of King Enkil and Queen Akasha, to "Morality Play", which was about Arman

Publication history:
Lestat de Lioncourt is the narrator and main character of the majority of the novels in Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. The Vampire Lestat, the second book in the series, is presented as Lestat's autobiography, and follows his exploits from his youth in Paris, France and cities surrounding to his early years as a vampire fledgling. Many of the other books in the series also follow his story, such as The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and also Blood Canticle.

Character development:
According to Rice, the character of Lestat was largely inspired by her husband, the poet and artist Stan Rice, and shared his blond hair and birth date of November 7. In a 2003 interview, Rice noted that the character had also taken on some of her own attributes, stating "Stan was Lestat; he was the inspiration. Perhaps it is best to say Lestat was Stan and me. He was Stan and what Stan taught me. Lestat was inspired by Stan, and then I became Lestat." The name 'Lestat' was a misspelling of "Lestan," which Rice believed to be an old French name. According to the characters themselves, who discuss the issue in Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle and Memnoch the Devil, the name is pronounced 'les-t??t' (les-taht) "with a rather French flair."

Physical appearance:
Lestat describes himself as six feet tall. He has blond hair that is not quite shoulder length, and that is slightly curly, which sometimes appears white under certain lighting. His eyes are gray, but they absorb the colors of blue or violet easily from surfaces around them. He has a short narrow nose, and a mouth that is well shaped. His mouth can look very mean, or extremely generous. But it always looks sensual. He has a continuously animated face. Lestat's fingernails (including all vampires in The Vampire Chronicles) look like they are made of glass.

Anne Rice has stated that Rutger Hauer was her original vision for Lestat when the book was being written in 1976.

Personality:
Because of his boldness, enthusiasm, and defiance, Lestat's seniors refer to him affectionately as "the Brat Prince", a title of which he is very fond. He is very vain and concerned with fashion, and will pause mid-narrative to remind the reader what he is wearing. He enjoys performing on stage, which he does as both a mortal actor in Paris, France and a vampire in his rock band called The Vampire Lestat that he forms with a