Podcasts
Return to Room 217: Behind the Red Curtains of ‘The Shining Opera’ [The Losers’ Club Podcast]
Forty-five years ago, Stephen King invited Constant Readers to The Overlook Hotel with his 1977 novel, “The Shining”. Since then, the best-selling ghost story has haunted pop culture with an iconic film by Stanley Kubrick, a chilling miniseries by Mick Garris, and even a sequel novel and film in “Doctor Sleep”.
In 2016, however, the story found a new life when Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell adapted King’s work into the most unlikeliest art form: the opera. Spanning two acts and an epilogue, the inspired production premiered at the Ordway Music Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota to critical acclaim.
Now, the spine-tingling opera returns for five chilling nights at The Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado, only a gasp away from where the story originated at the nearby The Stanley Hotel. In anticipation, Moravec joins the Losers today to discuss the rare process of going from page to stage and the slight adjustments he made this time around.
Stream the entire conversation below. Want to see it yourself? Well, good news: Constant Listeners who wish to attend can save 25% off tickets by using promo code LOSERSCLUB (all one word) when they pick up tickets at operacolorado.org. Act soon as the doors to the Overlook re-open from February 26th to March 6th!
For further adventures with the Losers, join the gang over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon), where commentaries, exclusive interviews, and countless bonus episodes await you.
Aaliyah Innocent.
May was a busy subgenre-switching month. After kicking things off with disaster “slasher” The Poseidon Adventure (listen), we watched American Giallo The Fan (listen), then wrapped things up with Vincent Price’s horror comedy Theater of Blood (listen).
Now, in honor of Pride Month and the return of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire (renamed The Vampire Lestat for S03), Trace and I had to check out the straight-washed second attempt to bring Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to life.
Back in 2002, director Michael Rymer pitched Hollywood on his vision for Rice’s second Chronicle book, The Vampire Lestat. Instead, the suits opted to adapt the third book, Queen of the Damned (likely due to the ancillary opportunities of the soundtrack, written entirely by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis).
In the film, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens from slumber to reinvent himself as a leather-pant-wearing rocker. Lestat’s very public vampire persona attracts the attention of Talamasca novice Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), as well as the vampire’s maker Marius (Vincent Perez). But the nu-metal has the greatest impact on Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens and promises to take over the world if her old foe Maharet (Lena Olin) doesn’t stop her.
Whose side will Lestat join? Will Marius help his fledgling or abandon him to public sacrifice? And does anyone actually care about Jesse? (Please note: that last question is rhetorical.)
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Episode 389: Queen of the Damned (2002)
Practice your Egyptian accent and bare that midriff because we are talking the troubled “adaptation” of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002).
Directed by Australian Michael Rymer, this one was doomed by the suits before it was even greenlit (which happened AFTER all of the songs were written by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis). It’s a bit of a clusterfuck.
Plus: praising everything Aaliyah (RIP); critiquing everything Stuart Townsend (aside from his abs and leather pants); a soft queer reading of Marius; and bemoaning boring protagonist/audience surrogate JESSE.
Cross out Queen of the Damned!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling Ben Stiller’s horror-adjacent dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), in anticipation of its 30th anniversary!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 495 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 5 & 6, Backrooms, Passenger, Leviticus, an audio commentary on the original Scary Movie (2000), and the return of our Requel Tier as we begin our episode coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.