Review of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
One goes to the theater rather than a movie or a book in order to see a variety of interpretations of the character. This wasn't the most emotionally powerful rendition of Phantom that I had seen, but I was very interested in the novel dynamics portrayed by the actors. Phantom of the Opera is a particularly good musical for this because it does not portray any sort of traditional conflict between good and evil (despite its gothic themes), but rather it shows people being people, with all the shades of gray that implies. The characters act out of love, pride, fear, and obsession, but not because an action is inherently good or bad.
But on to my impressions of this particular performance:
- First off, Giry and Carlotta were fantastic, both delivering their lines in crisply and with great energy. When they were not funny they were deadly serious.
- Raoul was surprisingly likable and intelligent (I usually loathe him, but they managed to cut out most of his idiotic lines). It didn’t hurt that I was close enough to the stage to realize how handsome he was, but even so he came off as honestly concerned for Christine’s welfare rather than puffed up with machismo the way he does in less nuanced performances. He also had the good graces to be saved by Christine not once but twice, effectively becoming more of a damsel in distress than Christine.
- The Phantom was not very powerful in this rendition, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. Rather, he came across as an emotionally stunted human being clumsily reaching out to the person closest to him. He had an almost childish attachment to Christine, innocent but also needy and prone to sudden fits of rage. I was particularly moved that he actually seemed AFRAID of her in some scenes, particularly “Past the Point of No Return”. Christine owned that scene, an actress playing an actress who had resolved to make the most out of an uncomfortable situation. She was playing up the sexuality of “Don Juan”, as a good actress would, but you could tell the Phantom was incredibly discomfited by her touch, but also aroused by it. As if he had written the play, fantasizing about such close contact with her but when finally thrust into the presence of a woman reacting to him romantically (rather than fearfully) he lost all of his dark control. He was actually wringing his hands like a nervous teenager as she strutted about the stage. I personally thought it was a fantastic and true interpretation of his character, and while I prefer a Phantom who exudes dark presence, I was very intrigued by this one.
Which brings me to Christine (played by Jennifer Hope Wills). At first there was something off about the way she was being played that threw me. I think it was because I was close enough to see the smile on the actress’s face when she sang “Think of Me” but there was an exuberance about Christine’s (and not the actress’s, if you understand my meaning) that was quite in contrast with the gothic waif portrayed by Sarah Brightman and Emmy Rossum. It grew on me slowly that there was something wrong with this portrayal of Christine, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad performance. It was not until “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” that I fully understood it. What I was seeing was a Christine with a BACKBONE (gasp!) a creature so rare that she is nearly impossible to imagine. In “Wishing” Christine was not a weak child begging for the strength to overcome her father’s death, she was a woman who was honestly sick of the influence his fairytales had had on her life. She had been lured into the Phantom’s trap because of her belief in the “Angel of Music”, and her visit to her father’s grave was an honest attempt to throw off the past. When the Phantom appeared there was some magnetism between the two of them, but then SHE defended RAOUL against the Phantom’s wrath. And it wasn’t the last time she would do this. The Lair scene at the end shows a powerful Christine gathering her courage to defend Raoul, who has become a damsel in distress through his failed attempt to save her. And she succeeds. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As I said above, in “Past the Point of No Return” I did not feel like I was watching a waif achieve her first sexual awakening. In fact, I felt like I was seeing a Christine that had (somewhere in her time with Raoul, off-stage) achieved her maturity and sexual awakening and was owning it when she potrayed Amnita in “Don Juan”, much to the Phantom’s discomfiture. And yet when she felt beneath the cowl and realized that it was the Phantom, she screamed in actual surprise and fright. Again, this diverged from other interpretations, in which Christine is aware that “Don Juan/Piangi” is the Phantom and is purposefully flirting with fire and acting on some of the unrequited passion that lies between them.
I think this version of Christine and the Phantom actually destroyed much of the traditional dynamic of the musical, and it certainly detracted from its emotional punch. Phantom of the Opera is most emotional devastating when there is a deep and unrequited love between Christine and the Phantom, and Christine only goes with Raoul because she is afraid of her more powerful feelings. In that interpretation they are soul mates who cannot seem to ever reach other, largely due to Raoul’s meddling and Christine’s fear of the Phantom.
However, when a mature Christine rejects the Phantom for meddling in her life and lying to her, there is little emotional punch except for her rejection of a lonely man who lacked the ability to reach out to her properly and win her love. She clearly pities him, and regrets that she must do this to someone who has taught her so much, but her resolve does not waiver. At this point the Phantom had killed two men, and though Christine may wish to show him that he is not alone in the world she is not going to sacrifice her life to fulfill his.
All in all, I daresay that Christine stole the show, which is a rare thing to say. It took me until almost the end to comprehend this because I still couldn’t grasp how she was being portrayed differently, or that she was growing in strength throughout. The Christine at the beginning of the musical was naïve, she believed that a wonderful angel had come down to teach her, but by the end she understood it was only a man, a man who had done terrible things and who had deceived her. She learns his story at the end, and develops some pity for him, but it does not dissuade her from her love of Raoul, which was actually convincing in this portrayal. It was a surprisingly feministic interpretation of Christine, perhaps the product of a strong-willed actress who’s own character shown through. Either way, this was the one performance of Phantom that left me dry-eyed, but also the one that gave me the most food for thought.
But on to my impressions of this particular performance:
- First off, Giry and Carlotta were fantastic, both delivering their lines in crisply and with great energy. When they were not funny they were deadly serious.
- Raoul was surprisingly likable and intelligent (I usually loathe him, but they managed to cut out most of his idiotic lines). It didn’t hurt that I was close enough to the stage to realize how handsome he was, but even so he came off as honestly concerned for Christine’s welfare rather than puffed up with machismo the way he does in less nuanced performances. He also had the good graces to be saved by Christine not once but twice, effectively becoming more of a damsel in distress than Christine.
- The Phantom was not very powerful in this rendition, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. Rather, he came across as an emotionally stunted human being clumsily reaching out to the person closest to him. He had an almost childish attachment to Christine, innocent but also needy and prone to sudden fits of rage. I was particularly moved that he actually seemed AFRAID of her in some scenes, particularly “Past the Point of No Return”. Christine owned that scene, an actress playing an actress who had resolved to make the most out of an uncomfortable situation. She was playing up the sexuality of “Don Juan”, as a good actress would, but you could tell the Phantom was incredibly discomfited by her touch, but also aroused by it. As if he had written the play, fantasizing about such close contact with her but when finally thrust into the presence of a woman reacting to him romantically (rather than fearfully) he lost all of his dark control. He was actually wringing his hands like a nervous teenager as she strutted about the stage. I personally thought it was a fantastic and true interpretation of his character, and while I prefer a Phantom who exudes dark presence, I was very intrigued by this one.
Which brings me to Christine (played by Jennifer Hope Wills). At first there was something off about the way she was being played that threw me. I think it was because I was close enough to see the smile on the actress’s face when she sang “Think of Me” but there was an exuberance about Christine’s (and not the actress’s, if you understand my meaning) that was quite in contrast with the gothic waif portrayed by Sarah Brightman and Emmy Rossum. It grew on me slowly that there was something wrong with this portrayal of Christine, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad performance. It was not until “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” that I fully understood it. What I was seeing was a Christine with a BACKBONE (gasp!) a creature so rare that she is nearly impossible to imagine. In “Wishing” Christine was not a weak child begging for the strength to overcome her father’s death, she was a woman who was honestly sick of the influence his fairytales had had on her life. She had been lured into the Phantom’s trap because of her belief in the “Angel of Music”, and her visit to her father’s grave was an honest attempt to throw off the past. When the Phantom appeared there was some magnetism between the two of them, but then SHE defended RAOUL against the Phantom’s wrath. And it wasn’t the last time she would do this. The Lair scene at the end shows a powerful Christine gathering her courage to defend Raoul, who has become a damsel in distress through his failed attempt to save her. And she succeeds. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As I said above, in “Past the Point of No Return” I did not feel like I was watching a waif achieve her first sexual awakening. In fact, I felt like I was seeing a Christine that had (somewhere in her time with Raoul, off-stage) achieved her maturity and sexual awakening and was owning it when she potrayed Amnita in “Don Juan”, much to the Phantom’s discomfiture. And yet when she felt beneath the cowl and realized that it was the Phantom, she screamed in actual surprise and fright. Again, this diverged from other interpretations, in which Christine is aware that “Don Juan/Piangi” is the Phantom and is purposefully flirting with fire and acting on some of the unrequited passion that lies between them.
I think this version of Christine and the Phantom actually destroyed much of the traditional dynamic of the musical, and it certainly detracted from its emotional punch. Phantom of the Opera is most emotional devastating when there is a deep and unrequited love between Christine and the Phantom, and Christine only goes with Raoul because she is afraid of her more powerful feelings. In that interpretation they are soul mates who cannot seem to ever reach other, largely due to Raoul’s meddling and Christine’s fear of the Phantom.
However, when a mature Christine rejects the Phantom for meddling in her life and lying to her, there is little emotional punch except for her rejection of a lonely man who lacked the ability to reach out to her properly and win her love. She clearly pities him, and regrets that she must do this to someone who has taught her so much, but her resolve does not waiver. At this point the Phantom had killed two men, and though Christine may wish to show him that he is not alone in the world she is not going to sacrifice her life to fulfill his.
All in all, I daresay that Christine stole the show, which is a rare thing to say. It took me until almost the end to comprehend this because I still couldn’t grasp how she was being portrayed differently, or that she was growing in strength throughout. The Christine at the beginning of the musical was naïve, she believed that a wonderful angel had come down to teach her, but by the end she understood it was only a man, a man who had done terrible things and who had deceived her. She learns his story at the end, and develops some pity for him, but it does not dissuade her from her love of Raoul, which was actually convincing in this portrayal. It was a surprisingly feministic interpretation of Christine, perhaps the product of a strong-willed actress who’s own character shown through. Either way, this was the one performance of Phantom that left me dry-eyed, but also the one that gave me the most food for thought.