Vampire Series ‘True Blood’ Is Becoming a Musical, With Heavy Queer Undertones, Natch
For seven seasons on HBO, True Blood — the story of persecuted vampires (and later werewolves and fairies) living in small-town Bon Temps, Louisiana — ruled the late-night cable airwaves. Fans of the sexy, sultry show have gone a good four years with not a peep from naïve waitress Sookie Stackhouse and hunky vampires Bill Compton and Eric Northman, but serious creator Alan Ball recently spoke out about the upcoming True Blood musical.
As Deadline reports, Ball made an appearance at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles this past weekend, a fest devoted to pop culture of all sorts. Speaking after a 10th anniversary screening of the series’ pilot episode, Ball spoke about the True Blood musical and remarked that he’s heard it’s “pretty good.”
The True Blood musical, composed by Nathan Barr (who has written music for True Blood and The Americans), is currently being workshopped, meaning it will be a while before it makes it onto a stage.
Ball says of the musical, “It tells the story of vampires coming out of the closet. Ultimately it really departs from the book, because people aren’t ready, and they’re too bigoted and they end up going back in to the closet.” This differs from the book and the show, which didn’t have vampires retreat back into the closet.
Alan Ball also made headlines from the festival by remarking on a few Hollywood names who auditioned for the show but didn’t make the cut. Can you imagine True Blood with Benedict Cumberbatch as Bill, or Jessica Chastain as Sookie? They were both at one point in the running, as was Jennifer Lawrence, for the role of Jason Stackhouse’s were-panther girlfriend.
At the Vulture Festival screening, Ball also paid tribute to actor Nelsan Ellis, who portrayed one of the series’ most beloved and most openly queer character, Lafayette. Ellis sadly died last year at 40.
No word yet on whether the Lafayette character will be appearing in the True Blood musical, but we can’t imagine him not being included when his character was one of the show’s most popular.
