He's there, the Phantom of the Opera...
I saw "The Phantom of the Opera" tonight.
I burst into tears during the overture. Meg was right - it packed a punch. But still, it caught me completely off guard. I was just sobbing, it was so familiar, I'd heard it so many, many times before, those familiar pounding organ notes, but nothing compared to hearing an orchestra play it live not fifty feet from where I was sitting, half obstructed by a pillar, ready to dive into the aisle if I thought I'd miss a single thing.
Things I Loved:
-Christine. Their Christine, for most of it, was very, very good. She was timid and daydreaming and excitable and pure and holy and innocent, and not at all stupid or whiny and she never once did the infamous Doe Eyes expression of the 2004 movie. She particularly strong for "Think of Me", "Angel of Music", "Phantom of the Opera", "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again", and "Wandering Child." "Think of Me" was probably my favorite song for her, she was clearly so lovely and so brave. There were parts in the second act where she acted a little too much like an abused girlfriend with the Phantom and got all craaaaaaaazy with "Twisted Every Way", but all in all her acting was good and her voice was wonderful. She hit notes I thought only Sarah could hit. When I got her autograph after the show, she was bouncy and beaming and barely came up to my shoulder. Quite liked her.
-The Ensemble. The entire background cast was very strong and had no problem doing all their roles perfectly. The dancers were appropriately fluttery and girlish and bounced all over Christine after her "Think of Me", all the extra actors hung out in the background and were afraid/respectful of the Phantom and reacted to all the goings-on with correct apprehension or amusement, and the choreography was solid and beautiful. A solid extra cast is such an important background to a play, and this one was good.
-MADAME GIRY! Madame Giry ROCKED MY EFFING SOCKS OFF. I mean, she's fricking Madame Giry, so it's hard for her not too, but she was really very good. She banged her stick and I jumped. Her singing was also exceptional, very distinguishable and clear and beautiful.
-Meg Giry. Meg Giry. Was. ADORABLE. And her relationship with Christine was so PERFECT, she was so concerned and watching over her and following her around with this expression of "Dear, where are you going, please come baaaack..." Her interaction with Raoul was also so good - she seemed to be giving him the "Right! Christine needs a protector, and you're it, so man up!" speech at one point, which I loved.
-Andre and Firmin. So, so funny. These guys got the stuffy producers down perfectly and made 'em hilarious too. Andre was particularly good.
-Costumes, set, lighting, effects. All the elements of production were amazing. The candles rose out of the lake and I gasped, the chandelier fell and I squeaked, Erik threw fireballs and I jumped. Very visually dynamic, clearly a production that is reminiscent of the 1980s version but which has updated with modern technology. And Erik threw effing FIREBALLS. Did I mention that?! SERIOUSLY.
-The singing was all, I am happy to report, excellent. Whatever I may feel about some people's acting, everyone's voice was perfect for the role. There were no Emmy Rossums or Gerald Butlers here, PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE BISCUITS.
-"Think of Me", "Angel of Music", "Phantom of the Opera", "Prima Donna", "Il Muto", "All I Ask of You", "Masquerade", "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again", "Wandering Child"
Things I Was "Eh" About:
-Raoul. I started out not liking him - he was too boisterous, too much the polished immature college boy somehow. Not Aragorn-y wholesome, defender-of-the-weak, why-am-I-here-again? Raoul that I love so well. But he grew on me as the performance went on and he started to chill the fuck out from his overblown hero concept. And his singing was very good. He went the opposite way from Christine - she kind of got a little bit less in my opinion as the musical went on, Raoul rose. She was still far and away my favorite, though. Their relationship was also very cute - a little more, "We are happy! See us FLING our arms about! We RUN to each other!" than I thought necessary, but they managed to convince the audience they were happily in love. Overly so.
-My seat. Back row, almost behind a column. I could not see the chandelier's beginning descent nor the Phantom during "All I Ask of You Reprise". This made me sad. But I was fairly close to the action and could see all the really important very clearly and was never too inconvenienced by said column and got the seat for a reasonable price, so I am satisfied.
-"Stranger Than You Dreamt It" where crazy!Phantom (see next section) actually fit but was still unnecessary. "Notes", which featured Christine's unneccessary descent into crazy. "Music of the Night", "Point of No Return", "Final Lair." All of these featured unnecessarily crazy Phantom (again, below!) and were therefore funny instead of touching or beautiful or tragic, which made me very sad.
Things I Did Not Like:
-The Phantom.
Now, it pains me to say this, because I absolutely adore Erik and he is my favorite and I love all his songs. But this Phantom was AWFUL. Which is sad, because I met him after the show, and he was so nice and agreeable and let me get a picture of him and smiled at me so kindly and was really very sweet! I just wanted to ask him, "Sir, why on EARTH did you decide to portray the Angel of Music as Edward Cullen and the Joker's bipolar, abusive love child?!" He dragged Christine everywhere around the stage, he raged at points that should have been poignant, there was no quiet, dignified elegance to him, no ancient timelessness. He was mean and crazy. He was played like a legitimate lunatic who happened to also be a brilliant musical genius, but who was mostly a lunatic and who liked to kidnap girls and drag them underground to be CRAZY with him. And that should have broken my heart, but fortunately it just made me crack up silently in the back row. When the Wax Figure leapt at Christine, he didn't really catch her fully, just by the arm, and then let her go to fall to the ground, and looked at her like, "...Whoops." I DIED back there. During "Point of No Return", he was writhing so hard when Christine touched him that it looked like he was having a seizure. And at the end, during Final Lair, when he should have been terrible and breaking my heart, he was following Christine around trying to put her veil on for her and giving her this look like, "Now don't be difficult or this'll get all tangled and dirty and WHERE will I find another veil at this hour of the night for our wedding??"
The result of Crazy!Phantom was unintentionally and unfortunately hilarious. I will try not to let spoil the rest of the performance for me.
-Christine and Erik's relationship.
This is supposed to be the most moving, incredible, transcendent love story of all time, yes? In my book, it is. This is The Love of Eternity. Why then, I ask you, did the Phantom practically yank Christine around by her hair and Christine react to him every time with bug-eyed shock as if he electrocuted her? It was a cross between the Phantom drugging Christine out with his voice everytime she heard him sing and Christine trying to flee from him like a startled deer while he did his best to get a grab on her hair and pull her back to the cave. It wasn't romantic. It was creepy. And again, kind of funny. The real disappointment was the kiss. Christine actually did very well - went for it unashamedly and with such desperation. The Phantom's hands, meanwhile, pretty much went "BWAH!" behind her head and just froze like he wasn't sure whether to push her away and check himself for cooties or go OMNOMNOM instead. He opted for NOMMing.
-I can't really say I disliked any of the songs. I mean, it's Phantom. I had a problem with the acting that went with the songs, but the music itself is just...guh. Yeah, loved it.
So it was good and I have now seen my favorite musical on stage in its original theatre in London and I feel very happy and content and would like to go to bed.
Bonus! Got signatures from tonight's cast, including Christine, Raoul, and the Phantom. I really don't know WHY the Phantom had to do such an awful job. He was the nicest man. So unfortunate.
Cheers!
~*~
I burst into tears during the overture. Meg was right - it packed a punch. But still, it caught me completely off guard. I was just sobbing, it was so familiar, I'd heard it so many, many times before, those familiar pounding organ notes, but nothing compared to hearing an orchestra play it live not fifty feet from where I was sitting, half obstructed by a pillar, ready to dive into the aisle if I thought I'd miss a single thing.
Things I Loved:
-Christine. Their Christine, for most of it, was very, very good. She was timid and daydreaming and excitable and pure and holy and innocent, and not at all stupid or whiny and she never once did the infamous Doe Eyes expression of the 2004 movie. She particularly strong for "Think of Me", "Angel of Music", "Phantom of the Opera", "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again", and "Wandering Child." "Think of Me" was probably my favorite song for her, she was clearly so lovely and so brave. There were parts in the second act where she acted a little too much like an abused girlfriend with the Phantom and got all craaaaaaaazy with "Twisted Every Way", but all in all her acting was good and her voice was wonderful. She hit notes I thought only Sarah could hit. When I got her autograph after the show, she was bouncy and beaming and barely came up to my shoulder. Quite liked her.
-The Ensemble. The entire background cast was very strong and had no problem doing all their roles perfectly. The dancers were appropriately fluttery and girlish and bounced all over Christine after her "Think of Me", all the extra actors hung out in the background and were afraid/respectful of the Phantom and reacted to all the goings-on with correct apprehension or amusement, and the choreography was solid and beautiful. A solid extra cast is such an important background to a play, and this one was good.
-MADAME GIRY! Madame Giry ROCKED MY EFFING SOCKS OFF. I mean, she's fricking Madame Giry, so it's hard for her not too, but she was really very good. She banged her stick and I jumped. Her singing was also exceptional, very distinguishable and clear and beautiful.
-Meg Giry. Meg Giry. Was. ADORABLE. And her relationship with Christine was so PERFECT, she was so concerned and watching over her and following her around with this expression of "Dear, where are you going, please come baaaack..." Her interaction with Raoul was also so good - she seemed to be giving him the "Right! Christine needs a protector, and you're it, so man up!" speech at one point, which I loved.
-Andre and Firmin. So, so funny. These guys got the stuffy producers down perfectly and made 'em hilarious too. Andre was particularly good.
-Costumes, set, lighting, effects. All the elements of production were amazing. The candles rose out of the lake and I gasped, the chandelier fell and I squeaked, Erik threw fireballs and I jumped. Very visually dynamic, clearly a production that is reminiscent of the 1980s version but which has updated with modern technology. And Erik threw effing FIREBALLS. Did I mention that?! SERIOUSLY.
-The singing was all, I am happy to report, excellent. Whatever I may feel about some people's acting, everyone's voice was perfect for the role. There were no Emmy Rossums or Gerald Butlers here, PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE BISCUITS.
-"Think of Me", "Angel of Music", "Phantom of the Opera", "Prima Donna", "Il Muto", "All I Ask of You", "Masquerade", "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again", "Wandering Child"
Things I Was "Eh" About:
-Raoul. I started out not liking him - he was too boisterous, too much the polished immature college boy somehow. Not Aragorn-y wholesome, defender-of-the-weak, why-am-I-here-again? Raoul that I love so well. But he grew on me as the performance went on and he started to chill the fuck out from his overblown hero concept. And his singing was very good. He went the opposite way from Christine - she kind of got a little bit less in my opinion as the musical went on, Raoul rose. She was still far and away my favorite, though. Their relationship was also very cute - a little more, "We are happy! See us FLING our arms about! We RUN to each other!" than I thought necessary, but they managed to convince the audience they were happily in love. Overly so.
-My seat. Back row, almost behind a column. I could not see the chandelier's beginning descent nor the Phantom during "All I Ask of You Reprise". This made me sad. But I was fairly close to the action and could see all the really important very clearly and was never too inconvenienced by said column and got the seat for a reasonable price, so I am satisfied.
-"Stranger Than You Dreamt It" where crazy!Phantom (see next section) actually fit but was still unnecessary. "Notes", which featured Christine's unneccessary descent into crazy. "Music of the Night", "Point of No Return", "Final Lair." All of these featured unnecessarily crazy Phantom (again, below!) and were therefore funny instead of touching or beautiful or tragic, which made me very sad.
Things I Did Not Like:
-The Phantom.
Now, it pains me to say this, because I absolutely adore Erik and he is my favorite and I love all his songs. But this Phantom was AWFUL. Which is sad, because I met him after the show, and he was so nice and agreeable and let me get a picture of him and smiled at me so kindly and was really very sweet! I just wanted to ask him, "Sir, why on EARTH did you decide to portray the Angel of Music as Edward Cullen and the Joker's bipolar, abusive love child?!" He dragged Christine everywhere around the stage, he raged at points that should have been poignant, there was no quiet, dignified elegance to him, no ancient timelessness. He was mean and crazy. He was played like a legitimate lunatic who happened to also be a brilliant musical genius, but who was mostly a lunatic and who liked to kidnap girls and drag them underground to be CRAZY with him. And that should have broken my heart, but fortunately it just made me crack up silently in the back row. When the Wax Figure leapt at Christine, he didn't really catch her fully, just by the arm, and then let her go to fall to the ground, and looked at her like, "...Whoops." I DIED back there. During "Point of No Return", he was writhing so hard when Christine touched him that it looked like he was having a seizure. And at the end, during Final Lair, when he should have been terrible and breaking my heart, he was following Christine around trying to put her veil on for her and giving her this look like, "Now don't be difficult or this'll get all tangled and dirty and WHERE will I find another veil at this hour of the night for our wedding??"
The result of Crazy!Phantom was unintentionally and unfortunately hilarious. I will try not to let spoil the rest of the performance for me.
-Christine and Erik's relationship.
This is supposed to be the most moving, incredible, transcendent love story of all time, yes? In my book, it is. This is The Love of Eternity. Why then, I ask you, did the Phantom practically yank Christine around by her hair and Christine react to him every time with bug-eyed shock as if he electrocuted her? It was a cross between the Phantom drugging Christine out with his voice everytime she heard him sing and Christine trying to flee from him like a startled deer while he did his best to get a grab on her hair and pull her back to the cave. It wasn't romantic. It was creepy. And again, kind of funny. The real disappointment was the kiss. Christine actually did very well - went for it unashamedly and with such desperation. The Phantom's hands, meanwhile, pretty much went "BWAH!" behind her head and just froze like he wasn't sure whether to push her away and check himself for cooties or go OMNOMNOM instead. He opted for NOMMing.
-I can't really say I disliked any of the songs. I mean, it's Phantom. I had a problem with the acting that went with the songs, but the music itself is just...guh. Yeah, loved it.
So it was good and I have now seen my favorite musical on stage in its original theatre in London and I feel very happy and content and would like to go to bed.
Bonus! Got signatures from tonight's cast, including Christine, Raoul, and the Phantom. I really don't know WHY the Phantom had to do such an awful job. He was the nicest man. So unfortunate.
Cheers!
~*~