Elton's savaged Broadway show to close

Elton John’s critically panned Broadway vampire musical is to close after just 39 performances.

The Warner Brothers production Lestat, which cost more than £5m to make, will play for the last time on Sunday afternoon.

It opened on April 25 to savage reviews and has since seen box office takings decline steadily.

Last week it grossed $448,525 (€349,265), playing to only 53% capacity at the Palace Theatre.

Elton wrote the music for the show inspired by Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, while collaborator Bernie Taupin penned the lyrics.

Lestat, which also played 33 previews, was branded a “musical sleeping pill” by the New York Times.

With its “loud and boring” music it was “a musical only the chief accountant of a blood bank could love“, the New York Post decided.

It only managed to garner two Tony nominations – one for Carolee Carmello, who plays Lestat’s mother, in the featured actress category, and the other for the lavish costumes.

The news of Lestat’s imminent demise comes after it was revealed that a sitcom to have been executively produced by Sir Elton has been rejected by American TV networks.

Him and Us, was to have followed the life of a gay rock star and his entourage, with Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall and Little Britain actor Anthony Head starring.

Lestat is Sir Elton’s third Broadway musical.

Aida and The Lion King were both successes, and he also wrote the music for current London hit Billy Elliot.