#POTO UK TOUR

[glassprism]

2012 restaged UK Tour trailer vs. 2024 restaged Vienna revival trailer

UK Tour cast: John Owen-Jones, Katie Hall, Simon Bailey, Angela M. Caesar, Andy Hockley, Simon Green, Elizabeth Marsh, Vincent Pirillo, Hannah Cadec Vienna revival cast: Anton Zetterholm, Lisanne Clémence Veeneman, Roy Goldman, Milica Jovanović, Thomas Sigwald, Rob Pelzer, Patricia Nessy, Greg Castiglioni, Laura May Croucher

[marleneoftheopera]

First lair photos from the 1st UK Tour. These are from 1998 and should feature Scott Davies and Zoe Curlett.

[angelofmusicals87614]

Tim Morgan as the Auctioneer

From the Phantom of the Opera UK Tour (1994 Manchester)

[oudexnz]

Some gareth that didn't appear in Tumblr！ha！snooky！！（Most of them are phantom of the opera）

And some Twitter.❤️

[operafantomet]

Hello! Do you happen to know who picked out the appliques for Phantom's cloak in mainly the Broadway production? I've done my own research and my own recreation, and it seems any of them are vintage appliques. Was it just all completely random?

I think many costume supervisors and costume makers has kept Maria Bjørnson's vision of antique pieces alive, where possible. Some Phantom cloaks are still decorated with antique jet beading, often sourced from scattered or ruined Victorian mourning pieces. But finding good pieces has become increasingly rare, so modern substitutes seems just as common.

For a costume display in the World Tour they wrote that:

"The cape is fine wool with antique jet beading"

This was true for the elder Aussie style as well as the UK. Probably elsewhere too, depending on the availability. One way to identify vintage or antique jet beading is that they use fairly small beads and with lots of hand-embroidered details, often in an openwork-pattern. The thread and/or fundament will often also have faded to brown. Here's typical examples of jet beading, in the cloaks of John Owen-Jones and Scott Davies in West End:

And the back of Ben Forster's West End cloak:

Last, but not least, Tim Howar in West End Live:

But many Phantom cloaks has also been fitted with either vintage or more modern sequin and bead appliquées. I think it's harder to separate what's new and what's antique in these. Here's some examples from the US where I'm not sure whether we're talking old or new (or maybe it's a mix).

The sequins may give a clue, as newer ones are often bigger and synthetic, while older ones tends to be smaller and maybe made of an early metal-plated synthetic material - or even metal if they are really old. But I would have to study them up-close to tell for sure.

There are also versions with mostly black tube beads, where the direction of the beading is what makes them glitter and sparkle from all angles. Here's Jonathan Roxmouth's cloak in the World Tour:

A cloak used in the Restaged US Tour:

And the collar of a vintage Golden Angel cloak, worn by Davis Gaines on Broadway:

I don't know exactly where Sam Fleming and other US costume supervisors sourced their materials, other than hunting vintage stores, antique stores, flea markets, the fabric NYC district etc. Anything that would make goodies surface, basically. It is in sync with the preferences of designer Maria Bjørnson, as she did favour vintage pieces when possible. Hence vintage materials are still often seen as accents and decorations on the POTO costumes. But vintage pieces have become increasingly harder to come by, so layering modern materials to create a similar effect is also common.

I hope that answered your questions!

[angel-with-paper-wings]

Seeing POTO Live: Part 1 (An Unexpected Journey)

On Monday May 20th 2024, I was fortunate enough to see The Phantom of the Opera live on the West End in London. It’s safe to say that I left as a changed person.

For my own posterity’s sake and in case anyone is interested, I want to give a little background about how I was able to see the show, because the story is a little crazy. I still can’t believe it happened. For my commentary and thoughts on the show itself, see Part 2 of this post.

So, at the time of this post’s writing, my parents and I just finished a vacation to various places in the UK that we’ve been planning since June of last year. We were scheduled to spend our last two days in London, so while making a list of all the things we wanted to see in the city, we briefly discussed seeing a West End show. However, when I went to look at tickets to see Phantom (because I was already a phan at the time so of course it was already on my bucket list), the website was only showing tickets available through March 2024. For some reason, my brain assumed this meant that the current West End run was only doing shows through March and then they would take a break for summer or whatever (idk how theaters work, so it sounded plausible to me at the time 😅). So we ultimately decided to not make plans to see a West End show, and I gave up hope of seeing Phantom on the West End for the foreseeable future.

That is, until a week before our vacation.

Out of curiosity I checked the website again, and I saw that there were now tickets available for a 7:30pm show on Monday May 20th, the day we were scheduled to arrive in London after sightseeing in Oxford in the morning. A little bit of hope returned, but I still didn’t get too excited because there was a lot we wanted to see in London and not much time to do so. I didn’t make seeing Phantom a priority because my parents weren’t as interested in seeing it as I was, and it didn't feel right to me to force all of us to go on an expensive outing that only I would enjoy to the fullest. So I again put the possibility of seeing the show out of my mind, and we enjoyed the start of our vacation.

Monday afternoon rolled around, and my parents and I were on the bus ride to London with our tour group after sightseeing in Oxford in the morning. Our tour guide told us we were due to arrive between 4:30-5:30 but that London traffic was very unpredictable and it may take even longer. My family and I had planned on walking over to Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace that evening, and I off-handedly mentioned that we should stop by Her (now His) Majesty’s Theatre for a picture of the POTO decor and stuff. They asked me to check if any seats happened to be available for the performance that evening. I highly doubted it, but to my utter shock, there were still six seats available: three in the balcony that were close together and three on the ground floor in the stalls (the area directly in front of the stage). I was THRILLED, and my parents (the absolute angels they are, no pun intended) noticed this and suggested that we try to get the tickets to the show and see Buckingham Palace the next day. However, because we still didn’t know exactly when the bus would be arriving in London, we decided to wait until we reached our hotel to make sure that we had the time to get to the theatre in time.

The entire ride to London, I could feel the adrenaline and excitement pulsing through my body, and yet it still didn’t feel real yet. Sometimes I struggle with appreciating big events like this in the way they probably should be appreciated because I just get stuck in a state of shock that lasts until the event is over, and by the time it’s over I feel like I missed it. But this time, I told myself that if my prayers were answered and it all worked out, I would make a point to appreciate it to the fullest (and that’s what I am doing by making these posts).

We were BLESSED with easy traffic (a rarity in London, according to our tour guide) and got to our hotel at 4:30pm. I checked the availability of seats in the theatre again, and the same six seats were visible on my screen. However, when I went to purchase the three balcony seats for me and my parents, it said that one of the seats I wanted to buy had already been taken. I refreshed the page, and there were now only four seats available: one in the balcony and three in the stalls (ground floor). The ones in the stalls had two next to each other about four rows from the stage (these were EXPENSIVE, like £175 each), and one on its own DEAD CENTER in Row L, which is a couple of rows below the balcony (so not directly under the chandelier but close). My parents (again, angels) told me to get the lone seat in Row L and see the show on my own, and that they were fine with walking around London by themselves for the evening.

So I booked the ticket. We walked 40 minutes from our hotel to the theatre. The entire time, I still couldn’t quite believe it, and my shock was making me delusional—I was convinced when I got there they would say that my online ticket was invalid or that someone had already bought my ticket in advance. But it was all okay. The kind ushers let me in without issue, I bought myself a programme and a water bottle, and I made my way to my seat an hour ahead of showtime. I wanted to make a post telling you guys what was happening, but Wi-Fi didn’t work in the theatre (probably for the best). It was easily the best money I’ve ever spent.

I probably don’t have to tell you how damn lucky and fortunate I am in every aspect to have been able to afford a last-minute ticket to see the show I love in such a great seat. I wish I could have shared that luck and fortune with all of you and had you there with me so we could all enjoy the incredible performance (and trust me, it was INCREDIBLE). Since I unfortunately can’t do that, I want to try and do the next-best thing—in my review post (Part 2), I will be sharing my notes from the show that I wrote during intermission and when it was over that describe the details that I noticed about the performance as well as my own commentary/reflection. I hope you all enjoy sharing this experience with me and feel like you were there in spirit, because I know you all were!!!

Thanks and have a wonderful day,

Angie ❤️

[angelandmadman]

Thanks for the tag @jennyfair7 @hop3isaprison

Last Song: I don't know which song, but definitely a swing song from the UK 1940s Radio

Favourite Color: Black or green

Last Book: I just started Ulysses

Last movie: Ah, yes... It was Space Truckers, but in the Schlefaz version (a German show where they comment on and make fun of bad movies, kinda like MST3K I guess) Seriously, don't watch this movie! 😵‍💫

Last Game: Kingdom Death Monster 💀

Last Show: Binging season 6 of What we do in the Shadows 🦇

Sweet/Spicy/Savoury: Savoury

Relationship: Married

Last Internet Search: The Tangerine Dream tour?

Current Obsession: PotO, music from the 1930s/40s (I blame Fallout)

Looking forward to: hanging out with friends more, my next holiday (and the one after that. Fingers crossed, perhaps I'm going to Perros-Guirec)

I am tagging @masksonmasks @spookytimediaries @mothreign @lhenn and anyone who wants to participate. No pressure!

[love-little-lotte]

I Watched 🎵Siiiiiix!🎵 in Manila!

A bit of a late post, but hey, better late than never! Last October 10, my friends watched the International Tour of Six during their stop in Manila. The tour was only for a very limited period—only three weeks!—but we were very determined to catch this iconic pop musical live no matter what.

I know most musical theatre fans who are chronically online are familiar with Six, but for those who aren't, Six is a one-act musical retelling of Henry VIII's six wives in a pop concert setting. It started out as a concept album by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss while they were studying in university (how cool is that?!) It's currently running in the West End and Broadway and had shows and tours all over the world, including Australia, Canada, South Korea, and more.

I first got to know this musical way back in 2019 after seeing clips on YouTube, and I became intrigued by this very pop-y and modern musical. As someone who loved The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, I was an instant fan of the musical. The music is very upbeat and the lyrics are witty. It's not your traditional musical, but that's what makes it charming and unique. It's also one of the shows that's very interactive with the audience and even encourages them to take videos of the last song as if it's a real concert.

When I learned that the International Tour was going to make a stop in Manila, I immediately told my friends who were also fans of the show. This would be the second musical we would watch together after Hamilton last year. Seeing Six with them was definitely a blast! After all, a musical about women empowerment with an all-female cast and crew is best enjoyed with your closest girlfriends.

Like most international musical productions that tour in Manila, Six is staged in The Theatre at Solaire. I'm pretty impressed with the photo-op backdrops they had this year with Six. It was closest to what I experienced during The Phantom of the Opera tour in 2019.

The best one was the throne set where you can also wear a crown from any of the six queens. I chose the red one (Cleves!) because it went well with my outfit that night haha. There was also a sparkly background that was kind of similar to this POTO one in 2019. (And yes, that's an Aragon headband from the merch shop that I'm wearing!) While in line for the throne set, there was also a quiz to help you determine which queen you are most alike. Sadly I didn't take a photo of the results but I got Catherine of Aragon, which I'm quite happy about!

Another highlight of the evening was when I discovered that my seat for Six was the same as my seat for POTO five years ago! It seems like the theater must have made some changes during the pandemic, including renaming the rows and seats. Imagine my surprise when I found out that B15 (my seat for Six) was the same as C17 (my seat for POTO). Luckily, I wasn't alone this time and had my friends with me!

As for the musical, it was very fun and I enjoyed every minute of it! When I'm watching a show, I'm usually not tempted to sing along—but with Six, I was literally biting my cheek to stop myself from belting along with the queens. I was bopping my head and clapping (when appropriate!) but my god, was it hard not to get on my feet and just start dancing as if I were in a real concert. Props to the cast for keeping that energy for the entirety of the show!

Also, I love that the touring company we had was from the UK because I honestly can't imagine experiencing Six without the iconic British accents. Don't get me wrong—I like the Broadway cast and listen to the OBC live recording a lot, but the British accents just make the show feel more authentic and the deadpan jokes are more hilarious.

I was also very lucky to catch three alternates and three principals in our show. If I remember correctly, this was the first show with half of the main cast and half of the alternates. My friends are also fortunate enough to meet all six queens at the stagedoor! Even though 3/4 of us are huge introverts, we were able to thank the queens for a great show and told them how we loved their performances.

Our (chaotic but precious) stagedoor photos (check image description for their names and the roles they played!):

(And yes, you can tell that 😃✌🏽 is my favorite pose!)

Milly Willows, who played Aragon, was the major standout in the show for me! Her energy was so infectious and lively. Maybe it was her performance, the Aragon headband that I was wearing, or the result I got in the quiz earlier, but I think that Aragon's my favorite queen out of the bunch. Yna Tresvalles was mischievous as Boleyn and her small stature, compared to the other queens, helped in the quirky Boleyn she's portraying. Erin Summerhayes, who played Seymour (a.k.a: "the only one he truly loved"), also gave a heartfelt rendition of "Heart of Stone." She also sang for us a lil bit on the stagedoor! Lorren Santo-Quinn was playful as Cleves and looked so pretty that it was hard to believe Henry divorcing her because "she didn't look like her profile picture." Lizzie Emery was snarky with her little quips and comments as Howard. Her "All You Wanna Do" was also very fun yet harrowing. And, of course, Eloise Lord, who played Parr—the voice of reason in the end!—brought the house down with her profound version of "I Don't Need Your Love."

Here's a little sneak peek of their Megasix from my friend's video:

And that's all for my Six in Manila post! It was a memorable experience and I had such a great evening. Can't wait for the next musical (Hadestown next year, please please please!)

[andrewlloydwebber]

I notice POTO Vienna doesn't have an alternate Christine, do you think Lisanne Veeneman will do all the shows unless sick or on holiday?

the restaged productions (and many other productions over the last 5-7 years) seem to not give as much attention to the alternate Christine as much. in the three, soon to be four productions of the laurence connor nightmare direction, the only alternate to get an official stage photo was olivia brereton in the restaged uk tour.

some of the us tour alternate/understudies (more on that later) had some side of the stage performance pictures taken by matthew murphy, but those were never printed in the brochure or put on posters. and i don't remember anything of bridget costello either in australia.

meanwhile, broadway, west end, and old us tour alternates usually had a few stage photos taken and at least one of them included in the brochure and a poster outside the theatre.

the restaged US tour christines also had weird schedules, at one point no one could publicly post or answer questions about when they were going on, sometimes there was a "first cover/second cover" situation where one got preference over the other, I remember reading stuff from one of the understudies "[the principal] just takes off any two shows she likes and I do them, any shows I miss or additional shows the principal takes off are covered by the other understudy" (i think i'm paraphrasing celia hottenstein when katie travis was principal but i don't fully remember). and then some time (a couple of years/cast changes) later, suddenly there wasn't as much rhyme or reason to it and both were considered "understudies" with no alternate.

and of course the restaged tour "alterstudies" all perform in the ensemble when not playing christine, as opposed to previous replica productions such as broadway and old us tours, which for the most part have the christine alternate do 1-3 shows a week with a generally set schedule and having the day off when not performing and no additional role besides christine. plus there's 1-2 understudies with a regular ensemble track or swing role.

the vienna revival lists 2 cover christines performing regularly as "princesses", leonie kappmeyer and lillian maandag, but no indication that one is "christine at certain performances" or "first cover". i doubt lisanne clémence veeneman will do 8 shows a week, but i'm not sure how they will arrange who covers her off shows and what dates the 2 covers will perform. at first i wondered if leonie kappmeyer was first cover because she is listed first on the website cast list, with lillian maandag the next person listed, but then i realized the ensemble is listed in alphabetical order by last name, and it's just coincidence that leonie and lillian are next to each other. i guess we'll find out

[marybeatriceofmodena]

Hello - I saw an ask about Mackintosh and you asked if someone knew anything about him and John Owen-Jones. I think the anon was referring to him not inviting JOJ and Rebecca Caine for a Les Mis celebration and not casting JOJ for neither Les Mis 25 and POTO 25. He also blacklisted Rebecca Caine. Imo JOJ deserved and should have played the phantom in the RAH concert. I think he only cast JOJ for the POTO Restaged Tour because otherwise no one would go see that rubbish production. I also think it was blatant sexism of his part not casting Rebecca Caine and Frances Ruffelle for the 10th anniversary concert of Les Mis when he did cast the three original male leads.

Sorry for the rant.

Um, I knew about the beef between Rebecca Caine and CamMack but she does show up in Les Mis celebrations, mainly because it would be a bit weird to not invite her? Look no further than the 20th anniversary celebration. As for the 10th anniversary, the lady playing Cosette was Judy Kuhn, who was in the original cast for the Broadway production and is a an amazing performer in her own right, while Lea Salonga was a rising star at the time and they probably went for her in order to also attract the audience that were fans of her through Miss Saigon. They made an effort for the 10th anniversary concert to have people from various productions in it - Colm Wilkinson and Michael Ball were from West End, Judy Kuhn, Lea Salonga and Michael Maguire were from Broadway, Philip Quast from Australia (and not one of the original three male leads, that was Roger Allam), and so on. So I'm not sure what you mean by "blatant sexism". There's also the fact that both Rebecca Caine and Frances Ruffelle were on tour for other projects, so maybe they felt like doing that instead of doing Les Mis all over again.

And you can think JOJ "deserved" to be in the Les Mis 25th anniversary concert or the POTO 25th anniversary concert all you want, don't get me wrong (I would have preferred him to Ramin myself tbh), but maybe he wasn't in the Les Mis concert given he was in the UK tour at the time (so, you know, busy), and maybe he wasn't in in the RAH concert because he was in the West End production of POTO (so, again, busy). While we're at it, why was it Sierra Boggess instead of Sofia Escobar? Why was it Hadley Fraser instead of Killian Donnelly? And the list goes on.

As for the restaged tour, I'm not a fan of it by any means, but I think it's not about trapping poor JOJ into having to perform it, but more about CamMack casting people who had already played the roles and who were generally well-liked by the audience - not just JOJ, but also Earl Carpenter, Katie Hall, Simon Bailey. The idea when you're having a supposedly revamped tour is to attract people to come and see it, and putting in well-known names usually helps with the box office, right? You know it's not usually a sign that the product will be bad, right? Josh Groban was stunt casting for The Great Comet of 1812 but that doesn't mean that producers thought the product was going to be bad and that Groban was going to be the only thing attracting audiences, ya know. A big help? Yeah. But not a sign that they didn't trust the product at all.

Side note, and I apologize in advance if I'm mistaken, but if you're one of those people who's been constantly sending asks to other POTO blogs about JOJ, for the love of God, please leave me alone. I'm not going to gift stuff with JOJ and especially not with all the badgering going on.

[glassprism]

Has there ever been an incident where an emergency replacement in POTO spoke another language? Just found out this happened to Casi Normales!

As in, they were in a production where it's not only not their first language, they don't speak the language at all? Because there many multilingual actors out there! I'm thinking especially of Mercedesz Csampai, who is an absolute freak - born in Hungary, studied in Sweden, continued in the UK, and has further performed in Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Oh and she also knows French and Italian. She was in the Russian production of Phantom, which happens to be one of her native languages, but you could plop her anywhere in Europe and she'd probably be able to get by.

But anyway, I'm sure there has been, mainly because in some productions, like the German ones, they'll have multiple cast members who don't know the language and just learned it phonetically. (I know I remember reading that in one of the more recent Germany productions, I think the Hamburg revival, the language spoken backstage was English because that was actually the common language among them.) There are also productions, like that in Finland, where the entire performance is in English; however, in many of these cases English is studied as a second language, so that might not count for your question. In any case, this should show that it's not just emergency covers who speak another language, it's their regular cast members!

For a good example of this, you can read this post on Raymond Sepe, who had to emergency cover the Phantom in the Hamburg production despite not knowing German and learned all his lines phonetically over the course of four days.

Like, to add to that, the first case I thought of when I read your question was that of Renee Knapp. This was in the early 1990s when there weren't many Phantom alumni to pluck up for emergency covers. She was alternate in the Hamburg production (which was in German) and flew all the way to Australia to emergency cover in the Melbourne production (which was in English). But Renee Knapp is actually American and her native language is English, so it is a different scenario from that of Raymond Sepe's, even if she still had to learn her lines in 72 hours.

But a possible third case and one that's much more recent is John Martin Bengtsson, who played the roles of Phantom and Raoul in Stockholm (Swedish), Copenhagen (Danish), Gothenburg (English), and later Kristianstad (Swedish), and emergency covered the Phantom on the World Tour (English). But I don't know if he doesn't know English at all - as noted above, he performed in Gothenburg, where the entire production was in English.

[marleneoftheopera]

Zoe Curlett, UK Tour.

[dogmouthhorse]

had to turn off my fan to be able to write this post for some reason. anyway. watched umm. poto uk restaged tour today w earl carpenter olivia brereton and simon bailey + and i like 2 see what ppl think after i watch something so i was reading some posts about the restaged + frankly ppl were sooo boring about it. they were like ohh its so aggressive and violent :( like yes. its the phantom of the opera whether alw knows it or not it is a story about abuse+misogyny. and arguably some of the abuse is worse but broadly the restaged tours big difference is that it's not shying away from the abuse. like tbf u can feel how u like w the slap i think it was awesome but that may be a result of specifically simon bailey being the coldest least empathetic and nastiest raoul ive ever seen so. could go either way. but like. the wedding dress+the choking etc. that is the substance of the text. it just feels like ppl r so obsessed w their e/c or whatever that they r trying to willfully ignore the emotional/physical/sexual abuse that is blatantly there but once him forcing her to change is slightly shown onstage instead of just implied offstage it's like. impossible to be ignored. the phantom is an abusive misogynist in this show and he always was + that is GOOD‼️ play with meeeee engage with the text with meeeee

[herlaqueen]

Disclaimer: I have no kind of insider information or the likes, I just have theories based on being a musical lover living in Italy.

The thing about this production, it's not only that it's new but also that the business behind it (Broadway Italia) is pretty new themselves and from what they're saying it sounds like their aim is to change the musical environment in Italy.

You see, musicals are not unheard of here, but for several reasons there's been a trend of having them translated and there are no "full time" musical theatres, so what you often get are short, translated tours. Getting even a 10 days run in the same place was almost unheard of until a few years ago!

Things have been slowly changing, and in the last few years untranslated musicals have become more common, you get smaller theatres becoming part of tours, and longer runs in places like Milan.

However, most of the musicals performed in English fall into two categories: jukebox musicals, where the songs are assumed to be already well known and the spoken bits usually get translated, or international tours of well-known musicals. These musicals are proving to be a success (as an example, last year's Rocky Horror Show in Milan went so well they're coming back next season), and are showing that people are willing to make the effort to listen to something that (gasp!) is not in Italian!

The timing is thus very good for a business that aims to bring more all-English productions to Italy since the ball already started rolling. But, they need something BIG, popular, and very successful as their first show to show that it can be done, you can have a full English musical in a production made especially for Italy and have it bring in people and money. They need to convince the public and the theatres.

And I believe casting Ramin was part of this plan: being the Phantom in the 25th anniversary means people know his name, have an idea of how he performs and folks might come across the DVD when researching him (which means more folks are likely to come to see something if they can familiarize themselves with it beforehand).

I think they're being very smart with casting in general: Amelia Milo is Italo-American, which means people concerned about enunciation and accents can stop worrying, but her being of Italian descent and a favorite of Andrea Bocelli shields her from folks that would like to see an Italian singer in the role.

And I think that Earl was cast after announcing the Milan dates and seeing how the ticket sales are going (spoiler: quite well) and they made the math and decided they could afford him in exchange for extra press coverage. I believe he's been cast more to attract the international public than the Italian one since someone who's not already into PotO is unlikely to know him. I think doing this so close to his recent London run was a smart move.

I apologize for the length, but I really wanted to explain a bit about the current local musical scene since it's quite different from the USA or UK and I believe starting from how it is and try to change it is what Broadway Italia is trying to do. If they break even but get a very good first show and a lot of positive press out of it it'd still be a success for them, and I think this explains the casting choices they're making.

also need to know what the budget for this production is, getting ramin to reprise phantom AND casting earl carpenter in a supporting role AND a flaming chandelier cannot be cheap

[tomblr1895]

PHANTOM “PHAN” THEORY

These thoughts have been on my mind for a long time now and now I’d like to share a Theory I have had with all of you

Just to be clear this is merely a Theory I came up with a while back. There is no 100% Confirmation that any of this is true, but there is nothing that is denying it either

So Please take what you are about to read with a grain of salt and remember that you are more than welcome to agree or disagree with what you are about to read

With that out of the way, Let’s talk about the Cast for the 2021 Phantom of the Opera West End Revival

Specifically The Role of “The Phantom”

When the 2020 UK & Ireland Tour of Phantom of the Opera was announced, I was very excited for this cast. However, myself and many others couldn’t help but notice an interesting bit included in the announcement:

[Please note: Killian Donnelly will play the role of ‘The Phantom’ in Leicester, Manchester, Dublin and Birmingham. Casting for the role of ‘The Phantom’ from Edinburgh onwards will be announced in due course]

This means that after these stops Killian was going to leave the Phantom Tour and we would be getting a new Principle Phantom

But, who would that be?

I think it was going to be someone already within the Touring Cast

Specifically, one of the Understudies

The Phantom UK Tour had Two Understudies for ‘The Phantom’

James Gant (Auctioneer) who was 1st Cover Phantom

Brad Barnley (Hairdresser) who was 2nd Cover Phantom

However, it should be noted that in addition to understudying ‘The Phantom,’ Brad Barnley was also 2nd Cover ‘Raoul’ so he covers not just one but two roles

James Gant on the other hand only covered ‘The Phantom’

Which means, If they needed a Temporary Principle OR a New Principle Phantom, they could promote James Gant to that position

However, I’m sure many of you are asking, “What about James’ original track as ‘The Auctioneer?’

Something that I’ve noticed about the “Auctioneer” track, mostly recently in the Current London Production is how the “Auctioneer” track seems to be interchangeable among the other performers in the company

Whenever James Gant is unable to perform the “Auctioneer” track, one of the swings will cover Gant’s part in the ensemble while the actual “Auctioneer” part of Gant’s track will usually be covered by James Hume before assuming his normal track as Monsieur Reyer

If Gant and/or Hume are unable to perform, either one of the Swings will cover the full track or the role will be split between “Auctioneer” and Ensemble

In some extreme cases, they’ll have someone who doesn’t even cover the “Auctioneer” track like Michael Robert-Lowe who one day randomly played the Auctioneer before assuming his normal track as ‘Joseph Buquet’

Therefore, promoting James Gant to Principle Phantom would not hinder the Production that much

However, I’m sure you have noticed that means The Phantom Tour would now only have ONE understudy for ‘The Phantom

…….or would they?

When the understudies were revealed for the UK & Ireland Tour, I was shown that James Hume (Monsieur Reyer) would be an Understudy for Monsieur Andre but, not an Understudy for The Phantom

I was a little disappointed in this cause I thought James Hume would be a great Phantom

However, when the Tour Company replaced the London Company at Her Majesty’s (which I’m still a bit upset about, but whatever) James Hume in addition to being an Understudy for Monsieur Andre was revealed to also be an Understudy for The Phantom

Something interesting to note however, is that James Hume is actually 3rd Cover for The Phantom. James Gant & Ashley Stillburn are 1st and 2nd Cover respectively

I mention this because Hume is the ONLY person in the Cast to be a 3rd Cover for a role. Everyone else is either 1st or 2nd Cover

Credit to @phantomtrader19 for the Cast Program Picture

Why would they have a 3rd Cover for one of the roles, but not for any other role in the London Production?

I think it’s because of what they had planned for the 2020 UK & Ireland Tour

When Killian Donnelly was planned to leave the Tour, James Gant would have been promoted from 1st Cover Phantom to the Principle Phantom. James Hume, in addition to being 1st Cover Andre, would have been the New 1st Cover Phantom for the Tour since he tends to be the one that fills in for Gant as the Auctioneer. Brad Barnley most likely would have stayed as 2nd Cover for The Phantom/Raoul

That is what I think was the plan for the Tour since the beginning, However due to Covid-19, Things DRASTICALLY changed so, when The Phantom Tour Cast replaced the London Cast (which again, I’m still a bit upset about), they decided to just make James Hume a Phantom Understudy along with James Gant & Ashley Stillburn

As for what Killian Donnelly was planning on doing when he left the Tour

I have a Theory

[operafantomet]

NATIONS HOSTING BOTH REPLICA AND NON-REPLICA POTO

United Kingdom: The UK saw the world premiere of ALW's POTO in 1986. They've also since seen the RAH staging (2011), the original UK Tours (1993-2000), the UK Tour Revival (2000), and the West End Revival (2021). It was also in the UK the new Restaged Tour was first launched (2012-2013).

United States: The US was the first opening outside the UK, premiering in 1988, and also had three national tours (1989-2010) and the Las Vegas Spectacular (2006-2012). They furthermore hosted the Restaged Tour (2013-2020).

Austria: Austria was the fourth country to host the original staging (1988-1993). In 2024 they welcomed back the musical, this time as the Restaged Tour.

Canada: Canada was the fifth country to host the original staging, in 1989. The production ran for a whopping ten years, closing in 1999. There were also various Canadian tours (1991-1998), touring nationally and internationally. They later hosted multiple visits of both US Tour and the Restaged Tour.

Australia: Australia was the eight country to host the original staging, opening in Melbourne in 1990 and later turning into a Australian and NZ Tour (until 1998). The musical would return many times as a leg of the World Tour. Uniquely, they also hosted the first out-door version at Sydney Harbour in 2022, as well as staging the Restaged Tour in Sydney and Melbourne (2022-2023).

Spain: The original Madrid production ran from 2002-2004. When POTO returned in 2023 it was in the form of the new "Mediterranean" version opening in Trieste in Italy the same year. The production also visited Bilbao, before returning to Madrid.

Dubai: The first POTO production to hit Dubai was the World Tour in 2019. In 2024 POTO returned, this time as a part of the Middle East Tour, presenting the Romanian/Norwegian production.

Switzerland: The original Basel production ran from 1995-1997. This year POTO returned in the form of the Romanian/Norwegian production, touring the Middle East and Europe.

Sweden: Sweden was the sixth country to host the original staging, in Stockholm for an impressive six years (1989-1995). They also later did a revival (2016-2017). They furthermore hosted the Finnish/Swedish version in Gothenburg (2017-2018), as well as a unique new staging in Kristianstad (2000-2003).

Soon to be added: Belgium (1999-2000 / 2025). Ireland was also meant to host the UK Tour Revival in May 2020, but for obvious reasons that was cancelled. They had previously hosted the Restaged Tour in 2012-2013. (Also, I have not included concert versions)