The idea of a True Blood musical has been bandied about since the vampire drama concluded its HBO run in 2014. Composer Nathan Barr, who worked on all seven seasons of the show, revealed that he’d pitched the concept to show creator Alan Ball, with hopes of “returning to the roots” of the story … in song.
Image: HBO.com
We were amused at the time. But we’d almost forgotten about True Blood: The Musical … until a recent update surfaced in the New York Post. Apparently a work-in-progress production, with the involvement of Barr and Ball, was recently staged under the direction of Pam MacKinnon:
The cast included Ellen Foley (of TV’s “Night Court”), Claybourne Elder (Broadway’s “Bonnie & Clyde”) and Ann Harada (“Avenue Q”). The music is by Nathan Barr, who scored the TV series it’s based on; YA fiction author Elizabeth Scott (who wrote the novel “Living Dead Girl”) is writing the book and lyrics, and I hear Alan Ball, who created the TV show, is keeping an eye on the stage version.
According to the Post, if the show ever makes it to the stage, it will have “plenty of special effects”. The paper’s source reported that the in-progress version was “fun” but overlong (and the piece goes on to tally up all the times vampire-themed musicals have bombed on Broadway). No word on how bloody and/or naked the cast gets, though.