Tons of stuff
Well, I'm back from the city, and I've seen Phantom on Broadway now.
Well, the theater was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I was imagining some giant monstrosity, but it was actually smaller, significantly smaller, than Proctors, the local theater around here. The stage was deeper though, I think... which is probably why they have to expand the stage at Proctors to accomodate the upcoming visit of the Phantom tour (it's staying here for a month, Feb. 2006! Stage expansion is going on now). It had the same sort of feel as the Palace, another theater a little farther away from me - like it was once a regal, beautiful sort of place, but it's seen a lot of wear and tear over the years and is kinda faded. That was okay though, it fit pretty well with the show. I was well overdressed compared to most of the attendees, but then, most of the attendees were part of a high school group, and one of them was even wearing flipflops, so I hardly felt bad about it. I did, however, opt not to put on my tie. Anyway... about the actual show...
It became apparent immediately upon entering the theater itself how they planned to work the 'refurbishing' of the theater set at the beginning of the show. There were several large set pieces on stage, among them the chandelier, covered in drab grey drapes, and the proscenium of the stage was similarly covered. A few flys of curtain material were hanging at awkward angles, all to give the appearance of general disrepair. The auction scene was a little more ambiguous about the Raoul/Giry dynamic... I don't believe they ever actually mentioned if it was Giry, by name, at the auction. I like that little touch in the movie. (Except that she is SO not walking around like that, in better health than he, when she is easily 10 or more years his senior. That still drives me bonkers.) I have to say, the Auctioneer looked like nothing so much as an undertaker. Black hat, black clothes, pale face, bored/grim expression, monotone voice. Interesting interpretation. The chandelier wasn't nearly so pretty as the one in the movie, but then, it has to be much more functional, and isn't made of Swarovski crystal. It was still an impressive piece as it swung out over the audience and up to the ceiling, as the proscenium was cleared by stage hands (dressed in period costume, nice touch) pulled away the drapes from the nearest box seats and the flys rose, setting the stage for Hannibal.
It was then that I had a pang as I realised I was stuck listening to Carlotta. No fast forward, no skip to the next track. The actress was fine, in fact, she made the part pretty funny. It's just that I never like listening to Carlotta. They let her get through quite a lot of her aria (Think of Me) before they FINALLY dropped the backdrop. Loved the addition that had been made to the "These things do happen" dialog afterwards....
Andre: These things do happen...
Carlotta: 'These things do happen'?? You've been here five minutes, what do YOU know? For the past three years....
Piangi really hammed it up, too, trying to get onto that elephant during Hannibal. I was very intrigued to find that Think of Me had been nearly completely rewritten from EITHER of the versions I am used to. The only verse that was familiar was the "seasons change" verse from the movie. Their Raoul was fantastic, though at the very beginning, when he's in the box watching Christine, I thought he overacted a bit. It was funny how he leapt up to shout BRAVO! and then looked sheepishly at the other box occupants (Andre, Firmin and a lady, might have been Carlotta, but I wasn't paying THAT much attention to her).
During Angel of Music, I got my first real exposure to Meg. Ugh. I did not like her AT ALL. She reminded me of one of those 'perfect', over perky, overachieving little snots from high school. In fact, she seemed a lot like a high schooler playing at being a broadway star. Drove me nuts. The two of them, Christine (we got the "alternate" Christine) and Meg, seemed to rush through the song as a whole. I did think it was interesting how they have the ballet girls rehearsing in dim light off to the side of the stage the whole time.
Raoul was WAY too happy to see Christine during Little Lotte. I still liked him anyway. It didn't hurt any that he was a pretty damn attractive man. Looked like a young David Duchovny with Liam Neeson's nose or something. He was a good singer, too, and as the performance went on, he quit overdoing things nearly so much.
The mirror trick was pretty nifty, course, once you know it's done with one way glass, it's kinda easy to figure out... but still. Stupid movie, spoiling the trick. (Silly me, after seeing all those cop shows, to not have figured it out BEFORE the movie...) I have to say, it was easy to tell they were using doubles for most of the descent into the lair. For one thing, there is NO WAY that they could have gotten from down by the mirror to up in the walkways that fast. For another, the Christine didn't look ANYTHING like the actress. But then, I was 10 rows away. I'm sure she looked fine in the Mezzanine. I thought, personally, that it looked kind of silly, the two of them running back and forth over the same piece of 'bridge' over and over, the only difference being how it was tilted. Oh well, apparently that's just me. The boat/bed was pretty cool though. It moved way faster than I thought it would.
Okay. Now. About the Phantom. We saw Hugh Panaro. I did not like him. He's supposed to be all that, but he's not. And the reviewer who said he was a "creamy baritone" is smoking something crazy, cause he sounded JUST LIKE Crawford part of the time (and I don't think anyone would say Crawford is a baritone). To the point where when he launched into Down Once More, I thought... hey, are they cheating and playing the original cast recording? Now, he didn't sound like him ALL the time. Just at certain points. Still, no way was that guy lower than a tenor. Not to mention there was nothing "creamy" about it. "Brassy tenor", maybe... He played the part like he was Jim Carrey. That is NOT a compliment. I HATE Jim Carrey. It was his weird grinning grimace (NOT the makeup, trust me. 10 rows back, remember?), his wierd body movements and his insane grin/laughter default emotion for the character that just all reminded me of nothing more than Jim Carrey. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I'm going to keep an eye on it, and if the guy who plays Raoul now moves up to Phantom, I'm going again, cause I'm sure he'll do a much better job. Hugh did do two little touches I liked - after grinning and giggling his maniacal way through Stranger than you Dreamt It (wtf? what happened to beaten, broken, heart-rending-pain Phantom?) he knelt, curled up in a ball next to Christine and started rocking. God. That was SAD. If he had just done a less Crazier-Than-You-Dreamt-It Phantom before that, it would have had the audience sobbing. (If Gerry had only done that in the movie.. oh man, not enough tissues in the world...) And at the very end, when he's singing to the monkey box, he sort of shakily put his hand over its face on "hide your face so the world will never find you". Again... damn that's heartbreaking. But in a wow-thats-good-drama way. (Course, he'd just Jim Carrey'd his way through the Final Lair... so it was hard to get all choked up about it.)
All that having been said... the rest will have to wait till tomorrow... I need to get up early and it is quite late.
Well, the theater was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I was imagining some giant monstrosity, but it was actually smaller, significantly smaller, than Proctors, the local theater around here. The stage was deeper though, I think... which is probably why they have to expand the stage at Proctors to accomodate the upcoming visit of the Phantom tour (it's staying here for a month, Feb. 2006! Stage expansion is going on now). It had the same sort of feel as the Palace, another theater a little farther away from me - like it was once a regal, beautiful sort of place, but it's seen a lot of wear and tear over the years and is kinda faded. That was okay though, it fit pretty well with the show. I was well overdressed compared to most of the attendees, but then, most of the attendees were part of a high school group, and one of them was even wearing flipflops, so I hardly felt bad about it. I did, however, opt not to put on my tie. Anyway... about the actual show...
It became apparent immediately upon entering the theater itself how they planned to work the 'refurbishing' of the theater set at the beginning of the show. There were several large set pieces on stage, among them the chandelier, covered in drab grey drapes, and the proscenium of the stage was similarly covered. A few flys of curtain material were hanging at awkward angles, all to give the appearance of general disrepair. The auction scene was a little more ambiguous about the Raoul/Giry dynamic... I don't believe they ever actually mentioned if it was Giry, by name, at the auction. I like that little touch in the movie. (Except that she is SO not walking around like that, in better health than he, when she is easily 10 or more years his senior. That still drives me bonkers.) I have to say, the Auctioneer looked like nothing so much as an undertaker. Black hat, black clothes, pale face, bored/grim expression, monotone voice. Interesting interpretation. The chandelier wasn't nearly so pretty as the one in the movie, but then, it has to be much more functional, and isn't made of Swarovski crystal. It was still an impressive piece as it swung out over the audience and up to the ceiling, as the proscenium was cleared by stage hands (dressed in period costume, nice touch) pulled away the drapes from the nearest box seats and the flys rose, setting the stage for Hannibal.
It was then that I had a pang as I realised I was stuck listening to Carlotta. No fast forward, no skip to the next track. The actress was fine, in fact, she made the part pretty funny. It's just that I never like listening to Carlotta. They let her get through quite a lot of her aria (Think of Me) before they FINALLY dropped the backdrop. Loved the addition that had been made to the "These things do happen" dialog afterwards....
Andre: These things do happen...
Carlotta: 'These things do happen'?? You've been here five minutes, what do YOU know? For the past three years....
Piangi really hammed it up, too, trying to get onto that elephant during Hannibal. I was very intrigued to find that Think of Me had been nearly completely rewritten from EITHER of the versions I am used to. The only verse that was familiar was the "seasons change" verse from the movie. Their Raoul was fantastic, though at the very beginning, when he's in the box watching Christine, I thought he overacted a bit. It was funny how he leapt up to shout BRAVO! and then looked sheepishly at the other box occupants (Andre, Firmin and a lady, might have been Carlotta, but I wasn't paying THAT much attention to her).
During Angel of Music, I got my first real exposure to Meg. Ugh. I did not like her AT ALL. She reminded me of one of those 'perfect', over perky, overachieving little snots from high school. In fact, she seemed a lot like a high schooler playing at being a broadway star. Drove me nuts. The two of them, Christine (we got the "alternate" Christine) and Meg, seemed to rush through the song as a whole. I did think it was interesting how they have the ballet girls rehearsing in dim light off to the side of the stage the whole time.
Raoul was WAY too happy to see Christine during Little Lotte. I still liked him anyway. It didn't hurt any that he was a pretty damn attractive man. Looked like a young David Duchovny with Liam Neeson's nose or something. He was a good singer, too, and as the performance went on, he quit overdoing things nearly so much.
The mirror trick was pretty nifty, course, once you know it's done with one way glass, it's kinda easy to figure out... but still. Stupid movie, spoiling the trick. (Silly me, after seeing all those cop shows, to not have figured it out BEFORE the movie...) I have to say, it was easy to tell they were using doubles for most of the descent into the lair. For one thing, there is NO WAY that they could have gotten from down by the mirror to up in the walkways that fast. For another, the Christine didn't look ANYTHING like the actress. But then, I was 10 rows away. I'm sure she looked fine in the Mezzanine. I thought, personally, that it looked kind of silly, the two of them running back and forth over the same piece of 'bridge' over and over, the only difference being how it was tilted. Oh well, apparently that's just me. The boat/bed was pretty cool though. It moved way faster than I thought it would.
Okay. Now. About the Phantom. We saw Hugh Panaro. I did not like him. He's supposed to be all that, but he's not. And the reviewer who said he was a "creamy baritone" is smoking something crazy, cause he sounded JUST LIKE Crawford part of the time (and I don't think anyone would say Crawford is a baritone). To the point where when he launched into Down Once More, I thought... hey, are they cheating and playing the original cast recording? Now, he didn't sound like him ALL the time. Just at certain points. Still, no way was that guy lower than a tenor. Not to mention there was nothing "creamy" about it. "Brassy tenor", maybe... He played the part like he was Jim Carrey. That is NOT a compliment. I HATE Jim Carrey. It was his weird grinning grimace (NOT the makeup, trust me. 10 rows back, remember?), his wierd body movements and his insane grin/laughter default emotion for the character that just all reminded me of nothing more than Jim Carrey. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I'm going to keep an eye on it, and if the guy who plays Raoul now moves up to Phantom, I'm going again, cause I'm sure he'll do a much better job. Hugh did do two little touches I liked - after grinning and giggling his maniacal way through Stranger than you Dreamt It (wtf? what happened to beaten, broken, heart-rending-pain Phantom?) he knelt, curled up in a ball next to Christine and started rocking. God. That was SAD. If he had just done a less Crazier-Than-You-Dreamt-It Phantom before that, it would have had the audience sobbing. (If Gerry had only done that in the movie.. oh man, not enough tissues in the world...) And at the very end, when he's singing to the monkey box, he sort of shakily put his hand over its face on "hide your face so the world will never find you". Again... damn that's heartbreaking. But in a wow-thats-good-drama way. (Course, he'd just Jim Carrey'd his way through the Final Lair... so it was hard to get all choked up about it.)
All that having been said... the rest will have to wait till tomorrow... I need to get up early and it is quite late.