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Since the first Interview<\/em> episodes, Jones and Hannah Moscovitch, both playwrights, have imbued the series with a kind of meta-argument for the power of art in times of tremendous turmoil. These are dense, literary shows packed with references to all manner of highbrow art and pop culture\u2014compositions inspired by the poetry of Baudelaire<\/a>, visual nods to films like Trainspotting,<\/em> dialogue that gestures toward figures as disparate as pioneering Black American jazz pianists, medal-winning British ice dancers, and Post Malone. But in keeping with its protagonist\u2019s difficulty staring at his feelings head-on, The Vampire Lestat<\/em>\u2014and the marketing that preceded its premiere\u2014doesn\u2019t start with ballads or sensual odes to far-reaching love. The new show leads with up-tempo earworms that magnify Lestat\u2019s ego, his spiral into all the expected vices, or his petty musings about Louis. Before we hear the cracks in Lestat\u2019s voice, we see him peacocking onstage; before L\u00e9lio, we see Harlequin. \u201cRolin was always like, \u2018Serve more cunt, serve more cunt,\u2019 and I was a bit like, I don\u2019t think you know what is in your mouth<\/em>,\u201d Reid said with a laugh. \u201cLet me do the serving of the cunt, and you can just deliver the writing.\u201d<\/p>\n The music starts to shift beginning with the third episode, when Lestat becomes overwhelmed by the apparition of his abusive maker and other ghosts, including Claudia, whose killing he\u2019d been forced to witness firsthand. \u201cI think episode three is probably the greatest primer for, Did you wanna know what Sam Reid could do?<\/em>\u201d Jones said, pointing out that the five to eight years before Interview<\/em> saw Sam getting \u201cvery close to a lot of big things a long time ago and someone went for the star, whatever\u2014I would just love all those casting directors or all those directors or the suits from studios, I\u2019d love to just send them episode three and go, You dummies, you dummies<\/em>. My good fortune<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n And again, during a crushing confrontation in the most recent episode, which finds Louis and Lestat once again reuniting on shaky emotional terrain, we see the latter address the gulf between them with one of the season\u2019s most poignant songs: Standing onstage before Louis and the character whose noxious influence caused that evening\u2019s fight, Lestat pivots from a high-energy rendition of Billy Idol\u2019s \u201cDancing With Myself\u201d to belting the heartfelt lyrics of \u201cBrutal Love,\u201d a jagged, vulnerable ode: \u201cShow me that bitter star \/ I want it \/ Gimme that brutal love \/ I want it all.\u201d When Reid performed the song in New York last month, no one in the crowd looked more ecstatic than Anderson, who swayed and sang along joyfully to the Loustat ballad as his counterpart inhabited the tortured rockstar onstage. In the weeks ahead of the performance, Anderson, who also makes music under the alias Raleigh Ritchie, was confident in his costar\u2019s ability to hold the entire theater in the throes of Lestat\u2019s musical catharsis: \u201cHe\u2019s born for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n