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Stream THE VAMPIRE LESTAT’s Cover of ‘Dancing with Myself’
Ever since The Vampire Lestat’s cover of Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself” released into the world in the incredible trailer for The Vampire Lestat, The Vampire Lestat’s loyal fans, the Fledglings, have been absolutely CLAMORING for the full version of the cover. And now, we are happy to announce that you can indeed stream The Vampire Lestat’s version of “Dancing with Myself” via all of the rock star’s artist profile pages. And yes, it is worth your four minutes. Excuse you if you even questioned that. And even if you have heard many versions of “Dancing with Myself” before, you’ve never heard The Vampire Lestat‘s version, honey. And it is a rocking good time.AMC
The Vampire Lestat himself couldn’t be reached for any type of comment about this song today. Perhaps he has grown tired of hurling insults at Daniel Hart. But we bet if we could get a quote from him about his cover of “Dancing with Myself, Lestat would say, “This is just a joyful homage to an icon, darling.” He probably wouldn’t get into how desperately lonely he himself is and how, even though he’s constantly adored, he feels like he’s dancing with himself. Could it also be a certain other Vampire’s pointed disinterest that has got Lestat down? “Never,” Lestat might declare. But we know he wishes Louis would say nice things about his music.
We, ourselves, are obsessed with The Vampire Lestat’s cover of “Dancing with Myself.” It just puts us in a good mood. It makes us want to dance. And we love the juxtaposition of that with the angst behind the music. True Lestat. Listening to this rock ‘n roll cover of “Dancing with Myself” is like revving up a really fast car and zooming off. We literally feel the wind in our hair. And we love when the beat breaks down toward the end.
Do yourself a favor and press play, like with all of The Vampire Lestat‘s music, you won’t regret.
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The Vampire Lestat SLAYS with Second Single, ‘All Fall Down’The Vampire Lestat debuts on Sunday, June 7, on AMC and AMC+. The synopsis for the season shares, “In the new rock and roll centric season, the Vampire Lestat goes on an electric multi-city tour while being haunted by “muses” from his wild and rebellious past. As his band’s popularity and star power rises, so does Lestat’s influence over vampires and humans alike, leaving others to contend with Lestat’s power in the face of the Great Conversion, an unnatural surge in the vampire population. In addition to Reid, The Vampire Lestat stars Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, Eric Bogosian, Delainey Hayles and Jennifer Ehle and is executive produced by award-winning producer Mark Johnson, creator, writer and showrunner Rolin Jones, Hannah Moscovitch, along with Christopher Rice and the late Anne Rice.“
The post Stream THE VAMPIRE LESTAT’s Cover of ‘Dancing with Myself’ appeared first on Nerdist.
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What RFK Jr. Doesn’t Get About Paid Family Care
While testifying in support of the Department of Health and Human Services’ budget before Congress this week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attacked home-and community-based services, a Medicaid-backed program that provides over seven million disabled people the support they need to remain out of institutions.
Specifically, Kennedy singled out the fact that some states allow some family caregivers to receive payment through Medicaid, a system Kennedy alleged is “rife with fraud.” Kennedy indicated that he’d like to dismantle those programs in favor of unpaid work, implicitly by women, in the home—already the predominant model for many households, and a far from sustainable one.
I spoke with Calli Ross, a parent and advocate who fought for paid caregiving for minor disabled children in her home state of Oregon, about what RFK Jr. doesn’t understand—or want to know—about these programs.
Most states allow parents of adult children with disabilities, family members of children with disabilities, and family members of the elderly to be paid for providing attendant care.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now saying all of this should be considered “natural supports” and unpaid labor. And the underlying rhetoric is that this labor should be provided by women.
Tensy is my 11-year-old little boy who was born with a genetic condition that makes him more susceptible to illness. At age one, he developed chronic lung disease. At four, he had his first cardiac arrest, going 33 minutes without oxygen to his brain. He recovered fairly well but with limited mobility. He requires 24/7 ventilator support for his lungs, uses a feeding tube, and is a wheelchair user.
In 2024, he had a second cardiac arrest caused by a seizure. This led to the loss of his smile, facial movement, and any purposeful physical movement. He is still able to communicate using an eye gaze device and experiences a full life because he is supported in his home and community.
Calli Ross with her son, Tensy.Courtesy of Calli RossIn Oregon, like other states, a state assessment determined that to live safely at home, Tensy requires 744 hours of nursing and attendant care each month. These supports go far beyond typical parenting. They include tracheostomy care, manually resuscitating him during seizures, and full support for all activities of daily living.
Because Oregon passed the Children’s Extraordinary Needs waiver in 2023, parents of the highest-needs children are allowed to work up to 20 hours per week providing these supports, care that is clearly above and beyond typical parenting. Similar policies exist for adults with disabilities and the elderly, run by states but supplemented by federal matches. The few states that allow parents of minors to be paid are funded under the same principle.
Our program is incredibly small. Only 155 children can participate [at a time], and the waitlist is thousands long. That bill is named for my son: Tensy’s Law.
These are hours someone else could be paid to work—if the workforce existed. And by someone else, I mean anyone off the street who is 18 or older without a felony. But even that low-qualification workforce doesn’t exist. There is a well-documented national caregiver crisis. Many families are being forced to leave the workforce, rely on state aid, or institutionalize their loved ones at a much higher cost to state and federal systems.
As the baby boomer generation ages, the number of family caregivers is rapidly increasing. Without the infrastructure to support this care economy, the system as a whole will fail. We cannot expect women to leave the workforce en masse and provide the care needed for our aging and ill family members. We cannot expect families with children with disabilities to survive on GoFundMe and prayers.
Tensy is one of the 155 in children in Oregon, with a waitlist in the thousands, allowed to choose his dad as his paid caregiver for 20 hours a week. That is the cap, currently, in our state. (Even then, due to administrative delays, my son wasn’t able to benefit from having his dad as his paid caregiver until January.)
It isn’t much, but because of this help, we are able to afford a wheelchair-accessible vehicle. My husband is able to take more time from his job to provide Tensy the care he needs to thrive. As his parents, we are the most knowledgeable and most able to care for our son. But without support, we cannot keep him home. And that’s the reality everywhere.
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The Minds Behind THE LOST BOYS Talk Musical ’80s Vampires
One of the most iconic vampire movies of the ’80s, and of the most iconic ’80s movies, period, is Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys. The perfect blend of horror, comedy, and hair product, the film also had a killer soundtrack, emblematic of the MTV era. So it makes sense that forty years later, it would find new life as a musical on Broadway. The stage adaptation comes from two-time Tony-winning director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending) and the equally Tony-winning set designer Dane Laffrey (Parade), who have been working together since their college days. Nerdist got the chance to chat with both creatives on the eve of The Lost Boys‘ big Broadway premiere. Matthew Murphy
NERDIST: Michael, you have an incredible resume for directing theater, and you just recently won a Tony. You probably could have done anything as your next project. So, given the infamous track record of vampire musicals in the past thirty years or so, what made you say, “I’m gonna be the one to do it right!”
MICHAEL ARDEN: I think it was just about the tone of the thing. It’s got something for everybody. I mean, it never takes itself too seriously. It has gothic themes, but it also has high comedy. And ultimately, it’s about a family and young people searching for belonging more so than about vampirism. So I thought that could be something that really sang. We’ll see if we can escape the curse!
What’s your relationship with the original 1987 Joel Schumacher movie? And was there a particular scene that stood out to you in the film that made you say, “I see this as a musical?” Or was it the whole thing?
DANE LAFFREY: Fascinatingly, neither of us had seen it when we were approached about it, and we had missed it. It was just not a film that either of us had seen. So, I think we confronted it first, not as “Oh, we’ve known and loved this for years and years.” It was more about, well, “What could this be? Does this have the inherent ingredients that could lend itself to successfully existing in this form?”
Matthew MurphyBecause I think what’s important with any of the conversations about the movie-to-musical pipeline is not just can we successfully present a version of this film, but can we actually elevate this material? Can the musicalization of it become greater than the sum of its parts somehow? Because otherwise, I think just go watch the movie. It’s a great and beloved film, and I think we wanted to investigate how it could be elevated, made to feel timeless and relevant. And the film is 40 years old at this point. But it felt like it had all of the potential. It was ripe with potential for all the reasons Michael just said.
Every Broadway show has a breakout song. So, in both your opinions, which one do you see as being that for Lost Boys?
ARDEN: Oh my gosh. I think there are so many. I mean, we’re talking about my favorite band’s music, so that’s a hard one for me. But I would say “Belong to Someone” is an incredible tune that I think will be around for a really long time. I think “Superpower” is an incredible anthem. I think “Wild” is an amazing song. And I think “If We Make It Through the Night” is an amazing song, and “Now Forever” is classic musical theater. I don’t know. Those are a few of my faves, but it’s hard. Yeah, it’s an embarrassment of riches. It’s been really interesting in this process to be confronted with so much good music as we’ve streamlined the show, making it tighter, better, and shorter. And it’s been interesting because there were no stinkers, just good stuff, which is a significant problem to have.
Matthew MurphyThe original The Lost Boys is both horror and comedy. How did you strike that balance for a totally different avenue of telling this particular story?
ARDEN: I think it’s just about walking that tightrope. You have to play both very honestly. Great humor is played with incredible seriousness, you know what I mean? As horror has to have the same musicality as comedy in some ways. So it’s always making sure that one doesn’t outweigh the other, so that it’s like a good rollercoaster is only good when you do the drop, because you do the climb. So it feels a little like a rollercoaster ride. When do we need to surprise? Horror is about surprise, but so is comedy. So in many ways, they abide by the same rules.
You have a former Elphaba in Shoshana Bean as family matriarch Lucy Emerson. What did having her pedigree in the cast bring to this production for you?
ARDEN: Well, Shoshana has been a friend for a really long time, and somebody who I’ve also just adored on stage and in concert. And to have her be a part of this as the matriarch of this family is just a real treat for me. Having known her when we were at the age to play the ingenues, and now to see her take on this role, and to lead a company with such grace, and to command the stage as she does. There’s no better match of voice and music. It’s really exciting. And I’m really excited for people to see her be funny, and also do incredibly complex, dramatic work. And then also sing as nobody else can. World-class.
The Lost Boys MusicalThe titular Lost Boys and the Santa Carla kids are largely unknowns. Was it important for you to have fresh faces in these roles? Or did it just work out that way while casting these parts?
ARDEN: For me, I thought with this, the show wanted to be the star, but also, this was hopefully a show that could make stars. And so really the only thing that we were looking for was the best, most talented people for the role. That was our guiding principle throughout casting. And we took a long time to cast the show, and I think we found the perfect group of people. They’re not only incredibly talented, but also wonderful human beings and generous. Hopefully, there’ll be household names soon. It’s like I hope people are going to leave discovering the actor, but remembering the character because of what they’re doing, which is the greatest compliment I can give them.
The Santa Carla Boardwalk is almost a character in the film. How did you translate that within the limitations of a stage production?
LAFFREY: I mean, I think it’s an enormous challenge for sure. Not only because, as you say, but it’s super iconic, and it’s sweeping and huge. But also because the production is not solely set there. It is a mode that the space needs to be able to take on. And I think what we’ve had to do is to just handle it with the greatest degree of specificity that we could. So the sort of fewest number of details communicating the most information, and the most visual bang for the buck spatially. So we conjure the boardwalk in the same way we do any of the other things. With elements that redefine a larger container.
Matthew MurphyThe biggest change that I can gather for your version is that the Lost Boys are a rock band and not a biker gang. Was that one of the first ideas you had when translating the film to the stage?
ARDEN: Well, they’re both. They’re both a rock group and a biker gang. Yeah, actually, it was one of our first ideas. I mean, it’s like what’s a way in a musical for vampires to cast their spell? And it seemed like obviously singing, which they sing both in choral ways, but they are also a rock band. And so we have these musicians, actors, singers, stuntmen, and flyers who play these parts. We just thought that that could be an extension of the musical metaphor, that we could use music as a storytelling, a diegetic storytelling device in this. And I think it’s pretty fun. I mean, who doesn’t want the Lost Boys to be their favorite band? What’s hotter than a rockstar?
When it came to designing the show, how did you keep it looking authentically ‘80s, as opposed to an ’80s-themed, Spirit Halloween party?”
ARDEN: I think it’s the same with the tone of both the horror and the comedy. It’s about honesty without fetishism. Yeah. It’s not like fetishizing the ’80s or making fun of the ’80s. It’s showing its most authentic and sexy version.
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Counting Down the Top 12 Modern Vampire FilmsLAFFREY: And a lot of the work is about a layering of periods that we find ourselves in 1987, but that boardwalk was built at the turn of the century and has been added to. But there’s some extraordinary research from the 30s and 40s of what that place looked like, and then what it looked like when the film was shot, and also what it looks like now and how that has happened. And that’s been something we’ve been very interested in. And there’s not a lot that we’re doing in terms of the environment that feels like on the head 80s.
Matthew MurphyI read that the Sam Emerson character is perhaps queer in this version. Obviously, in the movie, he has that sexy Rob Lowe poster in his room. So you didn’t pull that out of thin air. Was that the genesis of Sam possibly being gay in your version?
ARDEN: I wouldn’t necessarily say that Sam Emerson is queer. He examines what the word “queer” means in the show, and looks at how that word has been used throughout the decades. And so he has a line in “Superpower,” which will be a spoiler: “Mom smiles, but doesn’t get me/Michael can’t protect me/but maybe I can be a hero here/make it cool to be queer.” Because his mom says, “Well, everybody here is a little bit queer, aren’t they?” And he picks that up in terms of being able to put things together, and his idiosyncrasies are actually what saves the day. And so it’s kind of a celebration of queerness that hopefully resonates with a modern audience on a different level than it would to somebody in 1987. And who knows? Sam might have grown up to be queer, but that’s not really what our show is about.
Speaking of queer themes, in the movie, there’s definite sexual tension between Michael and David. It almost feels like the character of Star is just there to “No Homo” the vibes. How did you give Star more agency and characterization for the stage version?
Matthew MurphyARDEN: We wanted to make sure we knew where she was coming from and what her dilemma was, trapped between two worlds. Also, giving voice to women of that time, and anyone now, who has felt trapped. She has a song called “War” where she dissects that. And we wanted to give her an integral part in saving the day because — spoiler alert — the women save the day as much as the men. And that was really important to us, especially when half our writing team is female. Also, Alan Frog, one of the Frog Brothers, is played by an incredible actor named Jennifer Duka, who wants to join the army and uses her last name, Alan. So we wanted to open up the idea of brotherhood as not just specifically for boys, but about a shared interest in a common direction.
What’s been your most unexpected joy in bringing The Lost Boys to life on stage in this way?
ARDEN: For me, it’s been seeing eight-year-olds and 80-year-olds attend, and both be delighted. And I love asking people, “Oh, do you have a favorite character?” And they’re all different. I think the fact that it’s such a diverse audience and they’re all having a blast together is exactly what I hoped to make, and that everyone has someone to identify with. That’s why we go to the theater. So we can see ourselves, and that so many different people can come, so that families can come see this, so that you can be obsessed with the movie and have vampire teeth installed, and come and love it. And you can also be a mom who just wants a fun time out with your kids. Because the more people we can get to come to the theater, I think the more we can hopefully create empathy in the world.
The Lost Boys MusicalFinally, to whichever one of you dares to answer: does the iconic sexy, shirtless, oiled-up saxophone guy get a nod in the stage production?
LAFFREY: More than a nod! [laughs]
AREDEN: Get ready. There was certainly baby oil in the budget.
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The Lost Boys musical is now playing at the Palace Theater on Broadway. You can purchase tickets at the show’s official website.
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