#Phantom in Daegu

[lucygold95]

POTO (Daegu) POSTER BOOK (2023-4)

Part 1: 조승우[Cho/Jo Seung-woo], 최재림[Choi Jae-rim], 김주택[Kim/Gim Joo/Ju-taek].

Part 2: 손지수[Sohn/Son Ji-soo/su], 송은혜[Song Eun-hye].

[roadtophantom]

Kwon Ga-min with Cho Seung-woo and Hwang Gun-ha

[fadinglandtragedy]

August 12, 2023 Seoul

Cast : Kim ju-taek, Sohn ji-soo, Hwang gun-ha

[first review]

[second review]

KJT Phantom will be the Phantom's favorite Phantom…

Once you hear him sing *in the theatre*, it's the point of no return. I guarantee it. I've heard a lot of Phantoms sing over the years, but when you sit in a theater and are surrounded by KJT's voice, you realize that there really isn't a singer who can top him...

i mean, really! The first thing I thought of while listening to his MOTN was the story of Zeus and Semele, where Semele asked Zeus to show her his true colors, and Zeus showed up in his most humble attire, but she burned to death. I can't help but feel that...He has a voice that is beyond human, but he is singing at a level that we humans can handle...

The only thing I wish is that he would have connected the strength of his voice (absolute majesty) to his acting, giving it more weight and emotional control.

I feel like he was heavily influenced by JSW and JDS, and they are actors who fill their scenes with emotional outbursts and added details, which is not KJT's strength as he can fill the stage with his majestic voice… A singing is a singing, and it's true that his musical acting is inexperienced…lol Wouldn't it have been enough if he just stuck to the script without being... greedy?(sorry but i really want to see serious phantom...😂)

Choosing SJS christine as his partner was a great choice. She's thoughtful (she wants to comfort Phantom even in the STYDI), and the desire to reach the angels of music is desperate. but she's human after all… Like Semele, her Christine is not the right vessel to receive the KJT Phantom, so it seems that she will not be able to survive by his side. It's not that Christine isn't good enough, it's that the Phantom is more than humans can handle.

Her portrayal of Christine is very sweet, but at the same time, you can really feel her fear of the Phantom as an absolute. That's why I feel like KJT and her fit together like puzzle pieces...

And! This time I realized, when the managers praise her prima donna debut, she hears it from the room and smiles proudly! So cute omg

As for HGH Raoul, looking at him makes me think about how different he is compared to the SWG Raoul I saw just before.

HGH Raoul is young. He seems to have a lot of anger, but it can also be seen as passion. He finds it difficult to understand Christine, but at the same time, he doesn't always wrap his arms around her but helps her face the trials she has to face under his protection.

like, In TWISTED EVERY WAY, SJS Christine shrinks back in fear, but he doesn't let go of her hand and pulls her to face reality. It wasn't that he was cold, this seemed to be his way of loving.. Helping her do something she doesn't want to do but needs to do (face the Phantom as a man).

The biggest difference in SWG Raoul is that in the rooftop scene, He turns his head with Christine as if they heard the phantom's 'Christine...' together. HGH Raoul doesn't understand the confused Christine at all, but SWG Raoul definitely notices something is very wrong.

HGH raoul will be an eternal stranger in the world of the phantom and christine, but she will no longer be in that world.

The terzetto of these three was staggering. The final lair is…🤯 Andrew Lloyd Webber should see their show. I’m deadly serious. If he sees this, he'll stop the… some ridiculous non-replica productions and focus on finding good actors. This is what the original POTO was all about. To move the audience through song. To make them stop breathe and focus on the show…

I didn't think their acting was special. But with their singing alone, they made the scene suspenseful and compelling.

+ KJT grabbed Raoul's arm as he was putting the lasso on and started singing, teasing him (백마 탄 왕자님아!/Prince charming!), and it was a small funny scene where HGH Raoul got annoyed and brushed it off lol

I loved the rest of the cast, but as always, it was Piangi and Andre who stood out for me. I'm obsessed with PHR Piangi, and I'd feel like I hadn't seen a full show if he didn't hold that high notes🤣 (and he does that in every show I've ever seen!)

YYS Andre makes me laugh every time he's in the box seats. Not to mention the way he watches Christine nervously and then claps in ecstasy, or the way he freaks out when Carlotta throws Christine into bed in Il Muto, He is so Scene stealer.

In Il muto, everyone laughed when Carlotta tried to pull up Christine's skirt, but it didn't come off and SJS was dragged away. I didn't notice because I was looking elsewhere through my opera glasses...🥲 I'll admit that POTO has a very pretty stage to watch from the upper seats, but I think the first floor is the best for watching the actors.

[ballerinadellamusica]

Phantom productions announced to run this year:

Daegu, South Korea - closed 4th February

Madrid, Spain - closed 26th May

London, UK - currently booking until 2025

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Eastern Europe & Middle Eastern Tour) - closed 10th March

Vienna, Austria - currently booking 2025

Sofia, Bulgaria (EE&MET) - closed 21st April

Yokohama, Japan - closed 11th August

Budapest, Hungary - last show 13th May, Next shows November

Shenzen, China (World Tour) - opening 2nd July, booking until 4th August

Xi’an, China (WT) - opening 13th August, booking until 18th August

Helsinki, Finland - opening 24th August, booking until 23rd October

Sofia, Bulgaria (EE&MET) - 29th August to 5th September

Shanghai, China (WT) - opening 27th August, booking until 13th October

Suzhou, China (WT) - opening 22nd October, booking until 3rd November

Lisbon, Portugal (EE&MET) - 15th - 27th October

Basel, Switzerland (EE&MET) - opening 6th November, booking until 22nd December

Chengdu, China (WT) - opening 12th November, booking until 24th November

Beijing, China (WT) - opening 3rd December, booking until 29th December

Love Never Dies productions announced to run this year:

Shenzen, China (Tour) - closed 7th January

Quingdao, China (T) - closed 21st January

Nanjing, China (T) - closed 4th February

Harbin, China (T) - closed 3rd March

Tianjin, China (T) - closed 10th March

Taiyuan, China (T) - closed 17th March

Xi’an, China (T) - closed 31st March

Changsha, China (T) - closed 14th April

Zhuhai, China (T) - closed 21st April

Xiamen, China (T) - closed 28th April

Wenzhou, China (T) - closed 5th May

Hangzhou, China (T) - closed 12th May

Zhengzhou, China (T) - closed 19th May

Beijing, China (T) - closed 9th June

Magdeburg, Germany - closed 7th July

[glindaupland]

The Phantom of the Opera | Seoul, South Korea | October 8-14th, 2023 [REVIEWS]

Wow it's about time I posted these reviews that I kept lying about (this week! tomorrow! in 10 years!) Better late than never?

In this post I'll drop a few general things about the production, but the performances are analyzed in my reviews linked here. I recommend reading those all in order since I revisit points about actors I've made previously along the way to avoid repeating myself. Also leaving a disclaimer that these performances are from October so there are some changes in what the actors are doing now (with the exception of Jeon Dong-seok since he left in November) Apologies in advance for my wordiness, but this is more of a "release my feelings for my sake and if anyone else likes it that's cool too" kind of thing? Listen - I wrote a lot of notes on my performances there. So just go in knowing this is the more coherent version of my insane looking notes app!

Before I start I want to thank a few lovely friends who helped me out with this trip because it wouldn't have gone as well as it did without them!

Thank you to @lucygold95 for helping me so much with planning over the past months and for giving me the best time in Busan. Thank you @capitanogiorgio for all the shenanigans we went through and the most special time going to the 1500th and meeting Yoon Young-seok. Thank you to @fadinglandtragedy for the fun talks and the good advice before my trip! The best part of things like this is making friends of course! : )

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS:

| October 8, 2023 | October 11, 2023 | October 12, 2023 | | October 13, 2023 (M) | October 13, 2023 (E) | October 14, 2023 |

STAGE & THEATER

This was as close to the original staging as possible. So I was able to take it in one more (or I guess 6 more?) times post-Broadway closing. The Charlotte Theater is a lot smaller than the Majestic so every view was pretty solid in my opinion, even the second to last row. I took a video of my view from 4th row under the chandelier during the exit music on October 11th so you can see! The angel and chandelier are shown halfway through. I'd say 5th row was almost the cut off for the chandelier drop (that was my spot next day) Broadway seats in this area were always too expensive for me so I'm glad I was able to grab these spots for this production

There were photo zones you can take pics at which you've probably seen. One was a large rose wall, the other was the cute statue of their mascot 오유령. People also take forever lining up for the cast boards for photos and yes I was one of those people. Here's a comparison of the cast boards from the second season (pictures I found when reading old reviews on Naver) and the cast boards now (I forgot to take a photo of one on the top floor though)

I found this review where someone took more detailed clean photos than I did if you're curious about the layout and decorations!

MERCH AND GIFTS

The tickets had these designs! If you booked on Yes24, you received a special envelope and a ticket holder with the face of the Phantom performing for that show

I only didn't receive a second Ju-taek because that was booked on another site - Interpark (bottom middle ticket). I also received paper masks with printed autographs every day I went to commemorate the 200th performance of the run/100th for Seoul and the 1500th overall Korean performance. We used them for the curtain call photos on those two dates (with Jeon Dong-seok then Kim Ju-taek). There are multiple versions of the program book and at the time of writing this I have all except the Daegu one. The first Busan program book was pretty bare and only had the teaser pictures - the same was the case for my Les Mis program book in Busan. -There are different photos in each one, so to me it was worth grabbing them all. My third version signed by Kim Ju-taek is currently on display as you can see below! (The writing says "내 노래를 날게 해 주오 - Make my song take flight") Once again thank you to Lucy for this! 🥹❤️

Here's some of my POTO merch (including a spare cupsleeve from the coffee shop next door, I also had a keyring, but I forgot to show it) RIP to the second program book I sacrificed for scans I still have the pages stored/displayed though! I'm not wasteful! I'll have more to post soon after sharing these reviews

TRANSLATION

Let me emphasize this: my Korean abilities are limited, so don't look to me as the expert on this at all. But I'll still share my notes and perspective as an outsider who's studying The lyrics have changed quite a bit since 2001-2. There are still lines kept or songs that are mostly similar. MOTN had a lot of similarity to 2009-11 even with its changes, STYDI was identical to 2009-11, but Angel of Music was pretty different from even the last season, etc etc. The Phantoms all have unique lines sprinkled here and there, mainly in MOTN (this happens sometimes in Korean musicals). You get some things like random single line changes in some parts depending on the actor or different order/wording of the same lines as well. Just tiny diversions from the script. This is the case for the Christines and Raoul to a lesser extent. Additionally, actors are often permitted to do some occasional improvisation/ad libs. Some unique lines are pretty normal parts of their interpretations now, some appear depending on the feeling of the performance, some are one time only events. I'll mention some of the actor-specific ones and such in their actual reviews, but I have been trying to mark down all of the differences like these for example

Of course, some things obviously have to be adjusted to make sense because of cultural / linguistic reasons. So one example would be the "Wrote...written" line in Notes I. Firmin speaks rudely and informally, but quickly tries adding a more respectful ending particle 요 after Raoul and André give him a shocked 'what did you just say?' kind of look. So "대체 뭘 썼다고 하는 건데...요!" is pretty much like "What the hell are you saying I wrote?" André would look so embarrassed by this each time 🫣

퇴근길 / STAGE DOOR

Stage door doesn't really work the same as it does in places like New York, London, etc. Most of the time if an actor comes out it's more like a quick greeting or chat with the fans. Some actors (not in this case) might sign or take photos in designated spots, but it really depends and it's not so common. It's gotten more restricted ever since COVID as well. 퇴근길 -> "way home from work" is literally what this is called. Dong-seok did wave at us a few times happily after the 200th performance, Gun-ha briefly came out to thank fans after the 1500th while Ceci and I waited to meet Young-seok who had agreed to meet us. I did not have the time (or strength) for the Seung-woo mob, but he usually greets fans after shows.

I literally asked Yoon Young-seok directly on Instagram if Ceci and I could meet him and give him gifts because I figured it didn't hurt to try! When he agreed, my anxiety was not necessarily about meeting an actor, but more about my ability to express my thoughts in another language. But he was truly the sweetest guy and incredibly patient. I think he got that I understood everything he said, but that replying was a whole other challenge. I'm glad I was making enough sense that he was able to get my points and helped me finish sentences if I looked stressed about it 😂 I basically told him I had been planning this trip since the cast announcement because it was too perfect to miss and that I came for 6 shows. I really like to listen to his Phantom on the cast recordings and I thought he made the shows I had seen so far so much fun.

We both said where we were from (the US and France) and he was amazed. He was also shocked when I pulled out my original Korean cast recording (I still laugh thinking about the way he said "와, 세상에!" like "Wow, oh my god!" and enthusiastically took it agreeing to sign when I was mid-way asking him haha) I also thought it was funny when he asked Ceci if she saw his Phantom last season. We wish! But she mentioned she had gone to Busan a few times and he looked very touched and appreciative that we went to multiple performances 🥹 This poor man was tired he signed our things with November (11.13) though and he also spelled Ceci's name wrong first time, but it was the 1500th show though okay. And if he says it's November...who are we to question him? Ceci should also legally change names so he isn't wrong. Anyway, ramble over you can find the art we made for him in this post

OTHER

Here's just bonus fun I had that I will manage to connect to POTO despite it not being POTO because I love doing that. I mean I went because I like these musicals as well (otherwise I would've been foolish enough to go see Ben-Hur but I have, uh, standards for my plots sorry to Park Eun-tae 😭), but it's fun to point out these things. I'm happy to share my show experiences in a different post if anyone's interested in my thoughts on those

Rebecca

I went to see Rebecca, mainly focused on seeing a scheduled date for 이지혜 Lee Ji-hye (Ich) and 장은아 Jang Eun-ah (Mrs Danvers). The whole cast was fantastic. Some Korean musicals have special encore bits they do where the leads sing a part of a song from the show during bows so that was really fun. Unfortunately, we don't get to have fun at POTO like that haha

Lee Ji-hye was in Y&K Phantom as Christine in the same cast as Jeon Dong-seok (Erik), Yoon Young-seok (Gérard Carrière), and Lee Sang-jun (Cholet). Two other cast members in Rebecca were in Y&K as well - 에녹 Enoch (Maxim) who was Philippe and 신영숙 Shin Young-sook (Mrs Danvers) who was Carlotta. Sadly, they had such few shows this season due to a busy schedule, so I couldn't see them (when will trot give Enoch back to musicals). Original Korean ALW Raoul and Y&K Erik 류정한 Ryu Jeong-han was also on rotation as Maxim, but I picked another day for my show so I didn't see him either

Les Misérables

I went to opening night of Les Mis in Busan! It was the Dream Theater, same place POTO played at before. As many of you already know, Choi Jae-rim is playing Jean Valjean at the same time as the Phantom.

I could recognize him easily as the Phantom, but honestly when he appeared at the very start of Les Mis it took me a minute to process that it was him! While I did enjoy his Phantom a lot, I think I enjoyed his Valjean performance a little more. It was only opening night, so curious to see how things develop!

The actor who played Javert that night, 카이 Kai (stage name), was a former Y&K Erik for two seasons too. So many Phantoms!

Frankenstein

On the last day I got to see Dong-seok and Ji-hye once more in a concert for the musical Frankenstein which they have been in together. So have some pics I took without a mask blocking his face!

Ending Note

Thinking back to December 2022 when I said: "Maybe I'll go to Seoul and see Dong-seok once or twice and that's it, I can have my first international POTO" That was funny. That was really very very funny and silly of me to say. 9 performances and 6 of those were POTO! But I'm so grateful and I have zero regrets about it. This is one of the best experiences I've had even if it might look ridiculous to some people to do something like this...I don't care! I hope my crazy essays can help paint a good picture for you!

[nyphantomphan]

Why so green? Am I seeing Wicked or Phantom?

Did POTO Korean producers S&CO do something to make POTO Korea’s proscenium look so gross and green in order to discourage audiences from taking photos? (You bet this did not happen in NYC, London & China!!)

So S&CO in Korea has these extremely strict rules:

(1) Absolutely no curtain call photos/videos allowed.

(2) No designated day(s) for fans to meet & greet Phantom actors at all. Stage dooring for Phantom in Korea doesn’t exist. Actors either (a) stop to wave and bow and then get into a car or (b) walk quickly while smiling and bowing.

(3) No official curtain call photos/videos were ever released except a few seconds in promotional videos early in the production.

So one day, my phriend @jeremyonthelair and I were talking about POTO’s proscenium and how beautiful the angel statue is. But then he mentioned something that piqued my interest right away.

“Did you notice Korea proscenium in Charlotte theater has a green tint on all the golden sculptures? And the strangest thing is I didn’t see the green tint in person!! Only in photos!!”

Side note: Jeremy saw POTO China this past summer and POTO Korea in the fall, so you could say he had something to compare to in a short period of time.

We proceded to share proscenium photos – Jeremy with his China and Korea photos and me with Bway photos.

↑ Jeremy’s Korea photo

↑ My Majestic theatre photo taken on the day of the last public performance

↑ Jeremy’s Shanghai photo

Please note: I did not edit any photos in this post at all (other than a black oval to cover my phriend).

Here I have compiled some Korea proscenium photos as evidence. And for comparison, I also added some Majestic theatre photos provided by me and a fellow NY phan @flagbridge – along with some POTO China photos.

Jeremy’s Korea photos:

1) ↑ Taken with an iPhone

2) ↑ Taken with a Samsung

The weirdest thing is —

3) ↑ Film camera looks fine

4) ↑ Xiaomi phone is less affected, somewhat

Here are some Charlotte theater photos and videos I found online:

1) ↑ Click on the link below to view the video. Yikes, this does not look good!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cz09hP6rh-B

2) ↑ Another one from Mezzanine level

3) ↑ The current Korean Raoul, Gunha Hwang, posted this photo of the stage in Seoul – are these lights what’s turning everything green?

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz0ZmborHIj

The same thing is happening in Daegu, Korea right now:

4) ↑ Posted Dec 23 in Daegu – click on the link to view the video

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1L4dEjBTkj

5) ↑ Another video from Daegu

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1OnYyLJ6ry/

Now here are my Majestic theatre photos:

↑ Taken in April of 2023

↑ Here is another Majestic photo from a fellow NY phan @flagbridge

https://www.tumblr.com/flagbridge/728351820760612864/shows-i-saw-in-2023-part-1-phantom-of-the-opera Let’s take a look at POTO China proscenium taken by theatre-goers:

↑ https://weibo.com/1766731021/4959005917580968

↑ https://weibo.com/3965362386/4967561219803733 My question to @lucygold95 @roadtophantom @fadinglandtragedy who have seen POTO in Korea. Did you see the gross green tint on the proscenium in person? Why do you think this is only happening in Korea?

I’d love to hear other phans’ thoughts as well!

Lastly, I want to thank my phriends Jeremy and @flagbridge for letting me use their photos.

[ronandreams]

GET TO KNOW ME TAG: TOP 5-10 FAVORITE MOVIES

tagged by @tommishelby and @binatalia, thanks! 🥰

1. comet

2. the breakfast club

3. penelope

4. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

5. the phantom of the opera

6. it's a wonderful life

7. the double

8. legally blonde

9. happy death day

10. ruby sparks

I also really love carol, clueless, mean girls, titanic, bolt, coco, tangled, jane eyre 2011, beetlejuice, the proposal, moonrise kingdom, lady bird, and a ton of horror movies lol this is always a hard question for me because i hold sooo many movies close to my heart, it's very hard to narrow down.

tagging, if you want: @hellshee, @angelamcss, @riccis, @joequinns, @favroitecrime, @kuoro , @christopherherondale , @strikingjann , @halseblur, @cavarage, @swkywalker, @fireplceashes, @dykejaskier, @daegu-flowjob, @und0miels.

[sexy-mok]

NEW PICS from CSW's agency X and IG account:

[#조승우 #CHOSEUNGWOO]

<The Phantom of the Opera> in Daegu begins from today 👻✨

Please support and give your big love to Seungwoo 👋🤍

많은 분들의 기다림 끝에 드디어 대구로 찾아온 <오페라의 유령> 👻✨

더욱 깊어진 감성의 조유령과 오늘부터 대구 계명아트센터에서 함께 해요 👋

[midnightfms]

what kind of muses would you like to see?

ooh thank you for the question! i had fun answering this tbh!

i think some fun muse types would be: someone who worked for a traveling circus and has now settled down in daegu to find more permanent employment, a divorcee who is forced to start over somewhere new since their ex received most of the assets from their marriage, a singer who has been trying to break into the industry for years and is just about to give up when they receive a new opportunity, a startup ceo who is looking to make daegu the base of their operations, a celebrity who is coming off the heels of a huge scandal and is now hiding out from naver + dispatch in one of the wonjeom gates mansions, somebody that lived in the countryside all their life and is only just getting to see a big city in all its glory for the first time, a former pro skateboarder who suffered a career-ending injury and now oversees wonhyeong skate park + a frequent and beloved patron of city phantoms bar who always leaves everyone covered in goosebumps by the time they leave!

i hope these help you out, anon!

[lovejaerim]

Recent photo of Jaerim– he looked so exhausted, I mean, his December schedule was crazy and January is insane. Traveling between Daegu and Seoul to play Valjean and the Phantom while rehearsing for a third musical, the Last Five Years 🫠😓

[andrewlloydwebber]

Aidan Banyard, u/s Phantom in the Third World Tour in 2020 (Seoul, Daegu, Taipei)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcrGfteIHbD/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[lucygold95]

POTO 대구(Dae-gu) has started!

[roadtophantom]

Phantom of the Opera Korea Christmas eve curtain call in Daegu with Cho Seung-woo, Song Eun-hye, Hwang Gun-ha, and Music Director Juin Yang!

[glindaupland]

yoonphantom: “You came all the way to Daegu…Thank you, Ki-yeol ^^”

Musical actor 카이 Kai went to go see POTO in Daegu and took pictures with 이상준 Lee Sang-jun, 조승우 Jo Seung-woo, 윤영석 Yoon Young-seok! (He’s credited as his stage name Kai in his musical career, but his name is 정기열 Jeong Ki-yeol)

He was in 3 out of the 4 last seasons of Y&K Phantom as Erik with Lee Sang-jun as Cholet (2015 + 2018-19) and Yoon Young-seok as Gérard Carrière (2018-19 + 2021 - on rotation with 전동석 Jeon Dong-seok who's also in one photo below)

At the time of writing this post, he's playing the role of Javert in Les Mis in Seoul (with our beloved double French man 최재림 Choi Jae-rim - this was my cast combination for the opening night show in Busan~!)

[nyphantomphan]

Phantom ads all over Korea. The Phantom of the Opera opens in Daegu tomorrow December 22nd!

[jonathan-roxmouth]

Jonathan Roxmouth invites Daegu audiences to catch the final leg of the Phantom of the Opera World Tour in Korea at Keimyung Arts Center from August 19 to September 27.