Crawford Dances Home with Vampires???

Michael Crawford is reportedly planning to return to the West End, in a transfer of his upcoming Broadway musical, The Dance of the Vampires. The musical comedy, based on Roman Polanski's 1967 shlock horror film and first seen in Vienna, was due to arrive in New York this spring but, following 11 September, postponed its opening until late October 2002. Crawford made headlines last August when the British press reported that he was being lured out of semi-retirement for the part of Count Von Krolock, a seductive and diabolical bloodsucker, with a pay packet of £20 million. This "astronomical" sum, which Crawford has denied, would have made him the highest paid performer in theatre history. The actor has not appeared in a major West End production since he achieved international fame in the 1980s playing the masked lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber's blockbuster The Phantom of the Opera. Dance of the Vampires has been rewritten for the stage, with lyrics by Jim Steinman, best known as the lyricist for many of rock star Meatloaf's hits as well as for collaborating with Lloyd Webber on Whistle Down the Wind. British director John Caird was due to direct but has withdrawn from the project for undisclosed reasons.

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