#The Phantom of the Opera Reviews

[jessfandrawer]

...Only small actors. - Konstantin Stanislavski

[fandom]

This is the way.

Ted Lasso's AFC Richmond went on the road and the guys (and gals) had quite a night out. The Mandalorian wrapped up its third season and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It's safe to say Team RWBY had quite the adventure during the finale of RWBY's ninth volume. The latest SpaceX launch was "successful" in that it did successfully launch before promptly exploding. Also exploding is whatever is happening with Twitter Blue. Phantom of the Opera, Broadway's longest running show in history, performed its final act. If you haven't read the latest issue of the Jujutsu Kaisen manga, you should probably filter some tags to avoid spoilers. Finally, can someone explain what's happening in the QSMP? We'd appreciate it. This is Tumblr's Week in Review.

Ted Lasso

The Mandalorian

Elon Musk

Succession

RWBY

The Owl House

Jujutsu Kaisen

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Artists on Tumblr

Obey Me! Shall We Date?

Star Wars

Stranger Things

The QSMP Minecraft Server

Misha Collins

The Welcome Home ARG

Phantom of the Opera

Luz Noceda | The Owl House

Wally Darling | The Welcome Home ARG

Din Djarin | The Mandalorian

9-1-1

[opera-ghost]

[dross-the-fish]

Why do you dislike Musical!PoTO?

I've heard that there are better versions than the ones I've seen (a couple of clips of boots on youtube, the 25th royal albert hall performance and the 2004 movie) so take my ranting with a grain of salt. I've said it before and if you've followed me you probably know by now that I don't care much for Andrew Lloyd Webber, I feel like he's very hit or miss and for every Jesus Christ Superstar he writes there's a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (pure shit, irredeemable, possibly the worst musical I've ever had to sit through) Something about Webber's music rubs me the wrong way, it seems like it's trying to be tongue-in-cheek but it just comes off as smug. Characters tend to feel extremely one-note. I HATE madam Giry in the musical. They kind of gave her the Daroga's role and it DOES NOT WORK. She says something early on in the film about how she thinks of Christine as a daughter but she doesn't do a fucking thing to protect her from Erik for the bulk of the musical? Like, you know what's going on, you know who her teacher is but your complicit in helping him deceive her? Why are you protecting him? It's not that you don't think he's dangerous, you clearly know he's capable of murder. I also hate how they handle Carlotta, she's not really a major character in the book and her singing is lacking not because she's bad but because she doesn't have any passion for her performances and she's wonderfully ruthless and calculating about ousting her competition. The depiction of a spoiled past her prime, primadonna who also can't sing and is too old for the roles she cast in is just another example of ALW being needlessly mean spirited. In the book she was actively manipulative about trying to kill Christine's career. There was something really villainous about the way she would use her popularity and her friends in high places to bribe the managers with flattery and gifts. She made newspapers stop giving Christine publicity to prevent her from getting her name out, then she filled the opera house with her own fans and supporters to outnumber anyone who was there for Christine. This woman has been in the game for a long time and she knows how to play it, probably because she's worked for years to build up her career and isn't ready to hand it over to some nobody from nowhere who happened to pop up on the one night Carlotta couldn't perform. You could write Carlotta with so much nuance and give her layers, make her an INTERESTING antagonist and ALW just doesn't. He goes for the low hanging fruit. The laziest trope he could have picked. Spoiled, vain and no actual talent. Given how much creative control over the movie he had I'm going to count that as his official adaptation of the musical and it takes everything I already don't like about the musical and makes it WORSE. Also I said before ALW writes music like someone who enjoys rock but doesn't actually understand it? "We needed somebody who has a bit of rock and roll sensibility in him. He's got to be a bit rough, a bit dangerous; not a conventional singer. Christine is attracted to the Phantom because he's the right side of danger." -Andrew Lloyd Webber on the character of Erik for the 2004 film. Honestly, no? No he doesn't, he has no rock and roll sensibility. Not in your musical, not in the book, not in the movie. What are you talking about Andy? That ridiculous guitar riff during the song The Phantom of the Opera? Because that meshed about as well with your hokey showtune style as eating cole slaw with your Chinese takeout. You CAN do it but you really shouldn't. "The film looks and sounds fabulous and I think it's an extraordinarily fine document of the stage show. While it doesn't deviate much from the stage material, the film has given it an even deeper emotional centre. It's not based on the theatre visually or direction-wise, but it's still got exactly the same essence. And that's all I could have ever hoped for." – Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andy you're full of crap. Go home. That said there are moments and songs I really like. Wishing you Were Somehow Here Again is heartbreaking and I like to think that she's talking about Erik and the broken pedestal of their relationship as much as she is her father. I don't know if that was intentional but I like the angle of Christine feeling heartbroken at the loss of a friend and father. But well, ALW ships Erik and Christine so of course that angle is never really considered. We get one moment where Christine is upset and says she gave Erik her mind blindly and one where she admits to being frightened of him before the performance of Don Juan, but I feel like as much as Christine is verbally resistant to him and clearly terrified of him the musical doesn't really validate her and takes every opportunity to build up the sexual tension between her and the phantom. The supporting characters don't really help either, Madam Giry is complicit in Erik's manipulations, Raoul seems largely dismissive and more focused on hunting down Erik when he finally believes her than protecting Christine (AllI Ask of You is a nice song but Raoul's actions and attitude before and after make it feel a bit hollow). In some weird ways I get why people watch the musical and think Erik is the better choice despite...the stalking, kidnapping and murder. No one is really committed to protecting this girl, not even the people who claim to love her. I can easily see how she'd still feel a need to cling to her angel of music even after the mask comes off given how completely ALONE she seems while surrounded by people who allegedly care about her. I also don't like how Raoul is depicted. Maybe it's the actors but I feel like he and Christine don't have chemistry and half the time he seems annoyed with her. Especially Hadley Frasier feels like he's ten minutes from being completely done, he has no patience. I don't buy that this is a man who ran into the sea to fetch her scarf or would run into a dangerous underground lair to rescue her but I do buy that he's going to become a drunken asshole in 10 years so I guess what they did with him in LND is predictable even if it is completely stupid. If you made it to the bottom of this rant congratulations, I hope that explains why I am not among the musical's phans and why I don't like how much it eclipses the book or other versions. I do think it's good but overrated and the flaws are more than I can over look. And yet I still seek it out from time to time, I still like the parts of it that I like and that I think do work. It's like a toxic ex I can't fully break up with, which I suppose is kind of fitting given the subject matter.

[phantomtrader19]

(HALF*) 2024/25 cast REVIEW 31.08.2024

Spent 2 shows yesterday at phantom which I haven’t done in a while! Planned this couple months ago to see the new cast however I had covers for Raoul, Mme Giry & Piangi and all swings on too! There was a lot of people off!

First off it felt so strange to not see some cast members who had been there since 2021!

Ensemble was made up of all 5 swings being on which is a first for me I think?

Overall lovely performances from all, new corps de ballet were gorgeous as always!

For the Principals I’ll start with Millie Lyon as Meg who was brilliant - lovely youthful voice, feisty characterisation and a BLONDE wig! I’ve missed the blonde wig! Fantastic Meg looking forward to seeing her much more.

Martin Ball as Firmin is an absolute triumph! Hilariously pompous and arrogant and such a grumbly kind of voice he was a standout last night, he seemed to play the role like he was tipsy drunk the majority of the time and he was just not interested in all the dramas going on. Great chemistry with Adam which I admittedly thought may have been difficult to achieve after Matt Harrop but I absolutely loved his take on the character!

Hywel Dowsell was on for Piangi, last time I seen him he was second cover and was on for the first time in 18 months! Lovely nuanced performance with little ad-libs and added acting pieces - really enjoyed!

Victoria Ward was on for Mme Giry I’ve seen her once before and I really enjoyed her and even yesterday she was such a standout! Beautiful voice and again such nuanced acting and more motherly to Meg!

Joanna Ampil as Carlotta was very different to what we’ve seen before, less operatic and more ever so slightly belty sometimes her voice got a little lost in the music, still some gorgeous top notes but I just was hoping for a little more oomph from her voice. acting wise was generally great but I did hope for a little more over the top like Carlotta should be, looking forward to seeing how she grows into the role over the next year!

Enjoyed Michael as Raoul - super strong voice and some great acting choices! I’ve now seen him as many times as I’ve seen Joe! (6 times) Joe is admittedly more my cup of tea acting wise but I enjoyed him nonetheless.

Lily was on fire yesterday, gorgeous voice and acting was out of this world, a top tier Christine by miles! My only slight gripe is her last note in think of me I’m not sure if the orchestra is rushing her or something else but it’s very short, her other high notes are held much longer but I just wish she got to hold it slightly longer as it felt super rushed, 8th time seeing her and always finding new things I love about her Portrayal! Her chemistry with Dean was also insane!!!

Now for Dean, I heard the opening night audio and I’ll admit I wasn’t crazy about his voice and didn’t hear too much acting albeit through audio so my expectations were mid however, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY that was how a Phantom should sound his voice literally vibrated the auditorium and was just ridiculously gorgeous!!! Acting wise he was more gentler with Christine until the final lair when he let loose. I’ll go out on a limb and say from all the Phantoms I’ve seen he may have been my favourite in line with Earl Carpenter - vocally 100% my favourite he reminded me of Colm Wilkinson, Tim Howar & Killian Donnelly in some musical points. a firm favourite!

Really great cast, will be back to catch the full principal cast so I can see Helen Hobson as Mme Giry!

Aiming to see Eve with the new cast too as I last saw her nearly a year ago and must’ve caught an off show as she wasn’t sounding great but after hearing more recent audios she sounded as beautiful as her debut! Would also love to see Zoe on as Carlotta as she has a voice that lifts the ensemble to new heights!

I do have audios from the 2 shows yesterday, please message me to trade but disclaimer that my replies are not great rn as work has been super hectic!

[crazyfangirl100]

Succession Characters as Musicals because I’m a burnt out theater kid:

Okay I’d first like to say that I haven’t listened to some popular musicals and this is only based on the ones I’ve listened to so lemme know if others fit better ✌🏻 ✌🏻 ✌🏻

Kendall- Tick Tick Boom

Roman- The Lion King

Shiv- Kiss Me Kate

Connor- The Phantom of the Opera

Tom- he thinks he’s Cinderella but he’s actually Mean Girls (thinks he’s marrying into the royal family after working but he’s actually bribing and sneaking his way to the top)

Greg- Dear Evan Hansen or The Producers

Logan- Chicago

Ok lemme know if you want a part twooooo!

[thesongofpurplesummer]

What are some of your controversial opinions about The Tony Awards or Olivier Awards? (Shows/People that should have won)

[meilas]

by request, I am rating Jon Robyns’ pants tonight

Rating: pajama pants

These pants are comfy, but not terribly interesting to look at. They aren’t super tight, but neither are they super loose. These are the pants you wake up in, and spend the entire day in because they’re so comfortable. And if you have to run out to the bank or the grocery store, you don’t bother changing because they’re better than your laundry day pants.

[andreai04]

He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar.

[lordkryze]

The Phantom of the Opera

is not the only book written by my all-time favorite journalist, Gaston Leroux. While he didn’t write as many books as Agatha Christie and isn’t as famous as Conan Doyle, his detective novels are, in my opinion, the most interesting and unique. I’ve just finished reading The Mystery of the Yellow Room, and I have to say, I liked it even more (is that even possible?) than The Phantom of the Opera. The characters, the story, and—most importantly—the style of his writing kept me up for three sleepless nights, just to uncover the secret of the room.

Do you know the feeling when you crave something similar, but not quite the same? That’s what I’m going through right now. Why couldn't he have left us a hundred more stories with the same flow?

[annaskellington]

A Recounting of Phantom of the Opera: Middle East/European Tour

Hello everyone!

I had the opportunity to see Phantom of the Opera: Middle East Tour/European Tour 3 different times during its run in Lisbon and I’m here to do a review/recounting of everything I saw on the show that was different from normal and worth noting. This is a mixture of what I saw on stage and my opinions on it. You are valid to have your own opinions and if the show is coming to a city near you, I definitely recommend to check it out!

Keep in mind, this is a non-replica. Stephen Barlow is the director and Andrew Riley did the costumes and set design. I have only seen one other production of Phantom and it was the Italy run they did with Ramin Karimloo, also a non-replica, therefore I use it quite a bit in my comparisons (as well as the original) simply because it’s the only one I’ve seen live other than this one.

Extra details: The chandelier is in the audience instead of on stage. There are screens on the sides of the stage with the subtitles. On the first night, it only had the subtitles, but on the following nights, it also had a house-cam being livestream into those screens. There are two Portuguese members on the cast: Francisca Mendo – a ballerina and Lara Martins – Prima Donna. I mention them quite a lot since they were the main attraction of the performances.

The Phantom - Nadim Naaman

Christine - Georgia Wilkinson

Raoul - Dougie Carter

Prima Donna - Lara Martins

Auction House

There is only old man Raoul, the auctioneer and an ensemble member on stage - the one holding the items. The auctioneer is pointing at the audience when the items are being bided which makes it slightly awkward when you look at where he’s pointing and it is just random audience members. Seeing old man Raoul by himself is also weird for some reason. Overall, the lack of people is really odd during this scene.  

Overtude

“A little illumination! Gentlemen!” and then the chandelier just lights its light bulbs and just stays like that for a long while. Nothing is happening. Then finally the curtains open and you see the Hannibal cast getting ready and into positions and then finally, Lara Martins starts singing.

Hannibal

On opening night there was a flub: Christine isn’t on the stage at all for most of Hannibal. When the managers start saying their lines of “Meg Giry, Madame Giry’s daughter, promising young dancer”, Meg starts dancing closer to Madame Giry and she hits the staff on the ground and asks “Christine Daae, where is she?” and Meg replies “I don’t know mama!” which leads to the “Daae? Curious name…”, but Christine only enters the stage much after.

However, on the following nights, it proceeded as normal with “Christine Daae, concentrate girl” to which Meg says “Christine, what’s the matter” and leads to “Daae? Curious name…”.

Think of Me (Carlotta)

When Carlotta is talking to the maestro, Madame Giry goes to talk with someone down from the orchestra which I found really fun. Then the thing that interrupts Carlotta is actually a bucket that falls on the left side. Carlotta throws herself on the ground and just lays face flat on the ground which made me laugh so much, everyone is fanning her and worrying about her. Then, when the ex-owner is leaving and usually would say “If you need me, I shall be in Frankfurt” instead he says “If you need me, I shall be in Alentejo” which got a huge laugh from everyone. Alentejo is an area of Portugal, very beautiful but not touristic at all, probably one of the two Portuguese cast members might be from that area. On opening night, the subtitles had the original line but on the following nights, it had been changed to the Alentejo version. Another big change is Madame Giry is acting much more caring of Phantom and his plans. That woman was giving a performance of a lifetime. When the managers are saying “A full house and we have to cancel”, Madame Giry says “Ler her sing for you” but no one listens to her and everyone is starting to leave as well as the managers, but she hits her staff on the ground and says “Monsieur!” and after a few moments of silence “She has been well taught”.

Think of Me

When Christine starts singing, she’s super shy and everyone starts leaving. All of the cast members start exiting the stage whilst complaining and being angry. When she gains courage, they all start coming back like holy shit, she can sing. They close the curtains behind her as she gets to the Raoul part and when Raoul says his lines, there’s a faint applause being heard and she starts bowing which caused the audience to applaud as well muffling Raoul’s part. This happened only on opening night, other nights the audience was quiet as you heard the fake clapping from the stage. But Raoul says his part like usual, the box he’s in is on ground level so you just see his little head peak out.

Angel of Music

“Rehearsals, always rehearsals” – I love that line from Meg Giry, on one of the nights Madame Giry rolled her eyes at Meg. Fast forward to when the phantom tells Christine to look at the mirror. It looked so spooky. Nadim had his hands on the glass and was really creepily moving his hands and face around. When Christine sings the part where she turns her back to the phantom and turns to the audience, Nadim flinched as well. He opens the mirror like a door and she steps inside.

Title song

It starts spinning and shows the other side of the circle is some stairs going down. When it starts, the phantom is at the bottom of the stairs and she’s at the top. He never really allures her or drags her, he just slowly convinces her to go down the stairs. At one point he’s in the bottom with a blue light and she’s at the top with a yellowish light to show their contrast. When it gets to the ensemble singing “He’s there, the Phantom of the Opera”, the stage rotates once more and turns fully blue. They enter the boat and the turn the smoke machines all the way up. Christine does her high notes sitting on the boat, which is definitely a choice, and goes to show it is prerecorded cause there is no way she would’ve been able to do the high notes sitting down. The Phantom also doesn’t really react to the high notes, he’s focused on rowing the damn boat. So, it comes across as the high notes are simply part of the song and not that he was able to almost wrench the high notes from her voice. He says half heartily “sing, my angel of music” because, again, he's not paying that much attention to her.

Music of the Night

Christine spends the beginning still sitting in the boat. At one point, the phantom grabs his music sheet book and hands it to her and convinces her to open it. She does and is like damn, this is actually kinda good. So, he grabs his cloak and lays it on the ground where she goes and sits whilst reading the book. At the end of the song, they just stare at each other and she leans in for a kiss, but he backs away and sings the last note of the song.

STYDI

He didn’t get that angry, at the beginning he does “throw” her to the other side of the lair where she hands up holding the wall for emotional support. He didn’t crawl around since there’s barely any space, he sings those lines just standing up and covering his face. At the end, he sits back at the piano bench and she hands him the mask and he quietly take it.

Bouquet Magical Lasso

The ballerinas are walking from stage left to stage right where the box 5 sits and they’re being really sneaky and scared going towards it. The first girl gets closer when, FNAF style, Bouquet jumps out and snatches her arm and holds it whilst singing the first few lines. He then steps out, after which Madame Giry arrives and as she says her lines she puts her cane in between them and they start wrestling it for some reason. I too would like to get my ass kicked by Madame Giry but it was weirdly violent for her character. You never see the Phantom and Christine returning.

Notes I/Prima Donna

As the song starts, one of the ensemble members comes on stage and starts sweeping the floor, I love it. When the managers are reading the notes, there are two ensemble members on stage, one of them is trying to take a peek at the newspaper and one of the managers gives it to him so he reads it with other cast member. Not sure why, but cute addition. Whilst the Phantom reads the note, the light inside Box 5 lights up and Madame Giry is always looking at it. When the note reads “leave Box 5 empty” the lights flicker causing Raoul to get closer to inspect. After they read the note, the managers start singing Prima Donna. When Carlotta says “Precious little ingenue”, Raoul goes in her direction to I don’t know, defend Christine or smack Carlotta. Raoul gets close to Box 5 and starts inspecting it whilst Madame Giry is trying to protect Raoul (and the Phantom I guess) and pay attention to the managers at the same time. Raoul eventually looks back and starts singing his lines alongside Madame Giry and Meg Giry, they are forming a little circle on the left. Eventually the rotating stage starts spinning and Carlotta starts walking on it whilst cast members are walking around. They then place some spiral stairs on stage that Carlotta climbs. Then randomly, as we near the end of the song, a pink background drops and petals start falling from the sky. It’s cute, but random, especially cause the ballerinas show up and start dancing but Prima Donna isn’t a diegetic song, the other characters aren’t meant to be hearing it, but maybe in this production Prima Donna is an actual song that they perform? I have no idea and if I think too hard, I’ll get a headache. I just know that when the Phantom says his last threat “So it is to be war between us” – both Madame Giry and Raoul look super spooked out and worries as they run off stage leaving Carlotta alone on stage. The curtains fall behind her and on opening night Lara got a standing ovation.

Poor fool

Carlotta doesn’t “pretend kiss” her husband. She’s doing her “Adieu” note when the husband shuts her up by banging his walking stick on the ground. Instead of kissing, they just snarl at each other. Later on, during “a toad, madame?”, one of the cast members brings the throat perfume/spray for Carlotta, like in the Italy Tour production which serves as an explanation to her sudden toad voice. “She’s singing to bring down the chandelier!” but the chandelier just flashes its lights, doesn’t shake around at all. When the managers are bringing the ballet, one of the cast members is getting a chair to take offstage but ends up in the middle of the ballerinas, so he does ballet with them and the chair is still in his arms, it was actually peak comedy. Also, Bouquet is the actual actor and he’s hanging there and you can see all the wires holding him up, you never see Phantom attacking him so when one of the managers turns to Madame Giry after she gives him the “I told you” eyes, whilst everyone is running and screaming, and says “It’s an accident, simply an accident!”, it actually could be.

All I Ask of You

Christine goes to the stairs and starts using them to go up which is super odd. I guess they’re meant to be a different staircase in the Opera but it’s definitely weird seeing her using the stairs that we just saw the Phantom using to go from the mirror to the lair and now she’s using to go from the theatre to the halfway point which is the rooftop. Which means if she went even higher on the stairs, she would end up…higher than the roof? They sing the first part of the prelude on the stairs. When Raoul says her name the first two times, Christine starts going down the stairs while holding Raoul’s hand, but then the Phantom says her name the third time and she gets really scared and runs through the door that is in the middle of the stairs. She’s gone and the stage starts spinning slowly and you see Raoul take out the box with the ring from his pocket and look at it, then you see him run through the door as well to join Christine. They sing their song on the very tight space that is the top of the dome and instead of kissing, during the instrumental part, Raoul goes on one knee and takes out the ring to propose. She’s super happy and jumping around whilst smiling and then they sing the final bit of the song and finally, at the end, they kiss.

All I Ask of You Reprise

The Phantom shows up and he’s on the lower half of the dome, sort of hard to explain but basically on the ledge of the dome. He sings the song and when Christine and Raoul are singing, Nadim says “No... Please Stop...” in a very painful way, I liked it. He was begging them to stop hurting him. Then he runs away and the curtain falls and the cast members are doing their bows when the chandelier starts flickering its lights and falls in a vertical line. I might be remembering this wrong, but it wasn’t that it was super fast, it was more the fact that it wasn’t slowing down that made me think like wow. But it falls and I would say that ends up maybe 3 meters of the ground, not low enough for people to stand up and touch it, but much lower than I was expecting.

Masquerade + Notes II

It’s set in this hall of mirrors which is quite cute. When Christine and Raoul are singing their part of “secret engagement”, there is a dancer in the middle doing a solo performance and everyone is looking. When she finishes dancing, they all start clapping and scare Christine. Immediately after, it is revealed that there were two ballerinas painted in gold hiding in plain sight holding the candles and they basically jump out of the wall spooking everyone and start dancing. The Red Death costume looks a lot more like the 2004 movie, he shows up on the mirror of the back wall and the wall moves towards the front of the stage before he starts singing. He just goes back through the mirror whilst there is smoke, no special effects really. They remain in the hall of mirror until the end of Twisted Every Way. Funny enough, when Christine sings “Stop it, I’ll drive myself mad!”, Raoul is the only one that gets her a chair and stays, the rest of them just leave. Also, before that, during Notes II, Madame Giry enters the scene with her back turned on the group and looking off stage really disquieted, we can assume the Phantom has just given her the note and when the Phantom is talking about Christine in the note “No doubt she’ll do her best…”, she tries to go to Raoul who has his back turned on her but all of the cast on stage block her path and form a circle around her, really menacing.

Don Juan rehearsal

On opening night there was a bit of a failure on the production team as you could hear in the background them moving the set around. Usually you hear it only faintly, but in this scene, they were switching the hall of mirrors for the stairs with the rooftop and you could hear the sets being moved around. One of the cast members even looks off stage when it gets very loud. On other nights it is not as noticeable. For some reason, when Madame Giry enters the stage alongside the chorus, she brings this stick with a lamp (sidenote: on the second viewing, it was someone else that brough the stick with the lamp, unsure of what happened there). It adds to the ambience. When she says “Can you be certain of that?”, the light starts flickering and they all look scared at it. Also, it takes a lot longer for the piano to start playing by itself. After Piangi fails “those who tangle with Don Juan” for the last time, it takes half a minute for the piano to start playing. During this period, you hear Piangi say “I’m doing my best, but I don’t understand” to which Carlotta replies “Don’t listen to them, Carlo”, right after you hear Madame Giry say “You sang it quite beautifully mademoiselle, I’m sure it will do more than justice to the role” and Piangi says “it is no beauty! No music!” and finally the candles on the piano burst creating smoke and the chorus all raise their music sheets absolutely shaking in their boots and sing the lines correctly. It ended up being more funny than spooky, but the Madame Giry light flickering did add an extra flair.

Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again

Yet again, on her way to the rooftop, Christine uses the same stairs of the title track. She uses the door in the middle to access the rooftop but instead of being at the top of the dome where she and Raoul sang All I Ask of You, she is on the ledge where the Phantom sang the reprise. It’s definitely weird that she sings this song on the rooftop and not on the cemetery, doesn’t look like she’s singing about her father at all. But there is some fake snow falling so I’ll take my wins where I can. Trigger warning: suicide. However, when she gets to the ledge, she goes to the very edge and starts looking down almost like she wanted to throw herself off it? In the Italy Tour, they also had Christine doing this but right before All I Ask of You. What is their obsession with having Christine wanting to end her life? It’s a tad weird. Georgia sang it beautifully though.

Wandering Child

The Phantom shows up on the top of the dome, so their positions are switched from what they were in All I Ask of You. Raoul shows up as well on the opposite side of Christine on the ledge. Nadim only says “Come to me, angel of music” once and then it’s just like a full minute of Raoul being like “Leave her! Can’t you see she’ll never be yours!” and Christine looking at the phantom in silence. A tad awkward. Then Christine starts backing away into the ledge and when she’s about to fall, Raoul runs towards her and even the Phantom starts sliding down the dome to get to her. That was cool, ngl. Then when the Phantom is taunting Raoul, Dougie actually starts climbing the dome? Which makes sense why the Phantom then replies “That’s right, that’s right, keep walking this way”, I just found it odd that he was actually going to the phantom. For a moment I thought we would get a fight like in the restaged version, but we don’t. Christine jumps up and grabs Raoul’s pants to pull him down making him almost fall and they run away together whilst the Phantom screams “don’t go, don’t go!”.

Point of No Return

There is a table, everyone. The Phantom starts singing behind the curtain still and Christine figures out it’s him immediately. Which I think makes sense, she’s been hearing his voice for ages. In the Italy Tour production, Ramin was imitating Piangi’s accent and voice so it’s understandable if she didn’t figure it out, but the OG production always had that small issue. However, with her figuring it out super early, she immediately backs away and is super scared of him. They go around the table, Christine always making sure she is far away from him. At one point she turns to Raoul and the managers, but I guess they don’t see her or don’t figure out why she’s scared because they’re just there enjoying the show. They look like that Pikachu :0 image when she removed his hood. The problem with her figuring it out means that the song is no longer sexy nor alluring. The phantom is just singing and she’s scared. After she sings her part of “I’ve decided”, she gets on top of the table and starts crawling all sexy towards him. When she gets to him, she starts rubbing her hands all over his chest and homeboy is stressed. She calmly removed his hood and two police with guns immediately get on stage. On Box 5, Madame Giry and her daughter peak out and are looking really scared for Phantom, they enter Box 5 expecting him to be there and are confused for a moment when they don’t see him which then leads them to look super stressed out at the Phantom (my personal headcannon is that Madame Giry went there to warn the Phantom to run away before the guards could shoot him whence why she looked so scared when it was too late and he was already on stage, she’s also holding Meg to her chest super tightly). Phantom then sings his part and when he reaches the “Anywhere you go”, he removes his own mask very calmly. The only person that reacts to his face is Raoul who is taken aback by it, Christine doesn’t flinch nor move. They don’t have him putting a ring on Christine, but he does go down on one knee. Side note: on the last night I saw it, which is the night I’m unsure if it was Georgia Wilkinson or Bridget Costello singing the role, Christine was fully nodding her head at the Phantom as he sang the All I Ask of You lines, she was fully ready to be with the Phantom and stay with him, she was nodding and smiling which made the Phantom smile as well, I don’t remember at all Christine doing this on the other nights (the nights where I’m certain it was Georgia playing the role). The curtains, however, open to reveal a very dead Piangi with a sword sticking off his chest and everyone starts screaming, Erik looked absolutely devastated at the interruption. The Phantom snatches Christine’s hand and starts running away from everyone just as Raoul jumps from his box to the stage and starts running towards them. They are able to flee, so Raoul picks up the mask and rushes towards Madame Giry who is now one of the few people on stage looking very sad at dead Piangi. Carlotta at the same time comes screaming onto the stage saying to the managers “How could you let this happen” and rushes towards Piangi to cradle his body.

Final lair

Down once more they go down the stairs. As the Phantom finishes his “Why?”, the door in the middle of the stairs (that they used to get to the rooftop) opens and Raoul and Madame Giry step out. At this point I have no ideia how this is possible, I’m going to assume that the Phantom ran with Christine to the mirror and somehow Madame Giry knew about something on the lower floor that had access to the door at the stairs. Much like the Italian production, Christine is wearing the PONR dress during the final lair, unlike in Italy, she doesn’t even grab any sort of wedding dress, it is never explicitly said that the Phantom wants her to marry him (remember, he never gave her a ring during PONR). Christine sings her lines sitting on the boat, much like the first lair she refuses to exit the boat and this is not a Phantom that will drag her or be violent so he just lets her make a fuss inside the boat. During the line “Joys of the flesh” Christine shakes her head and turns her back to the Phantom disgusted.

Raoul randomly shows up on these stairs that we have never seen before that are behind the lair set, I was only able to see these stairs on the opening night when I sat on the left side of the audience, on the other nights those stairs were completely obstructed. Raoul is singing his “Free her!” lines whilst on the stairs still, which is odd like nothing is stopping you from getting down and seeing her. At this point as well, Nadim got absolutely mad man and he was laughing nonstop, at one point he randomly pulls out a knife from his pants. It did not look like a knife at all, I thought it looked like a light bulb and my brother thought it looked like a wand, so do with this information whatever you will. Eventually the Phantom says “Be my guest sir” and Raoul finally descends the stairs and goes to the set. I half expected him to pretend to be swimming before he stepped into the set, since he has to walk on the “water” for a bit, but he doesn’t. He has to pass in front of the Phantom before getting to the boat and he’s so scared and nervous. He hugs Christine and she starts getting the paddles to get the fuck out, but oh no, the Phantom knows his way around a rope, so Raoul gets choked by the rope that the Phantom used to dock his boat. Finally, Christine exists the boat and goes to Raoul and I guess realized that the Phantom has impeccable rope tying skills because she just stares at Raoul completely dumbfounded instead of undoing the rope. Finally, Nadim gets violent. He snatches Christine and pushes her away towards the right side of the stage (Raoul is on the left) so he positions himself in the middle. Fun detail, when the Phantom sings “This is the point of no retuuuurn”, he puts one foot on top of the piano stool and ends up looking like a model taking a very awkward picture. She screams “tears of HATE” on his face so he ends up sitting on the stool and at this point, Nadim is shaking so much. The Phantom is just in absolute shambles.

When Christine sings “You deceived me”, she sits on the stool and picks up the music book, sort of offering it up to him. When he finishes saying “You try my patience”, he snatches one of the music sheets from the book and cripples it in his hand, something he immediately regrets and tries to straighten the music sheet again (fun side note: on the second viewing, Nadim ripped the page out but it fell on the ground so he couldn’t catch it, it ends up looking more violent than it did the other times since it just looks like the Phantom is super pissed). As Christine sings “Pitiful creature of darkness”, the Phantom is trying to fix the sheet and straighten it out again. She puts her hand on his shoulder quite soon and he’s looking at her as she finishes the “You are not alone” part. Christine then gives him a very brief kiss and, after pulling away, starts putting her hand on his scars and trying to look into his eyes – their foreheads almost touching. The Phantom straightens himself before going for a huge hug. She hesitates for a bit, but then hugs him back until the end of the instrumental part. The Phantom uses the discarded knife that was on the stool to cut Raoul’s ropes and, whist screaming for them to go, pushes the boat away. Not before Raoul, who I’m guessing had the mask in his pocket (men’s pockets am I right?) tries to return the mask to which the phantom pushes it away. He then falls on the ground whilst screaming and sees the monkey music box so he crawls towards it and sits crossed-legged on the ground cradling the music box whilst winding it up, he looked so much like a little traumatized kid, like hugging the monkey was a coping mechanism.

The joke, however, was on me because I ended up the one being traumatized since there was no ring return at all. He’s crying and hugging the box and I’m looking around wondering if I’ll see Christine mimicking swimming on her way to the Phantom or showing up on the stairs to drop the ring from above, but no. In fact, there was no ring to be returned since he never gave it to her during PONR. The Phantom just cries for longer whilst the instrumental of the ring return plays out and randomly says the “Christine, I love you” which came absolutely out of nowhere, nothing triggered him to say that. They start singing All I Ask of You and it causes the Phantom to stand up and place the monkey on the stool. When he first heard Christine, he smiled, I think he thought she was coming back for him, but then he heard Raoul and looked really sad. He sings his final line and, where in the instrumental he would usually hide, the Phantom just picks up the music book and looks to the audience while the set slowly slides away from the audience into darkness. We see old man Raoul on the left holding the Phantom mask, we see Christine in the Masquerade outfit on the right holding a ballet pose and, for last, we see the monkey music box on top of the stool. And that’s it.

Opinions

It’s a totally different production and obviously, comparing it to the original will lead to overall disappointment. This Phantom isn’t so much intoxicating and alluring as usual, instead he has a rather more human approach to the matter. It seems like he truly just wants someone to sing his music, he’s in love with Christine, yes, but it isn’t that he’s infatuated – he’s simply in love with the idea that someone so beautiful and talented would care about his art. That’s all very well, but, unfortunately, it’s where the book and lyrics really come to ruin the experience. Some lines that he sings are really out of context in this Phantom – “touch me, trust me” and “joys of the flesh” are some of the examples where they don’t really work anymore. Christine also ends up losing some of her agency when it’s not her removing the mask from him during Point of No Return, but in my opinion, I like that he removes his own mask since this Christine is not really dragged around the way other Christines are. Raoul also played a much more naïve part in this story. It’s not a matter of being mean to Christine or gaslighting her, this Raoul just truly is blind. More often than not when it comes to the Phantom, he’s trying his best to protect Christine but ends up ignoring her in the process, which leaves Christine alone in the matter, needing to fend for herself – which in my opinion is why they had Christine doing what she did before Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.

In regards to the actors, Nadim is really good but in the Final Lair, he switched too much. He started straight up laughing in Raoul’s face and waving a knife around when, at no point, was he shown to be that sort of angry Phantom. Nadim also has a very sweet voice, he played Raoul for many years and, it’s not that his voice isn’t fit for the Phantom, it’s just hard to explain. His Phantom feels, at times, imitations of other Phantoms without being able to shine on his own. He had really amazing moments, the standout for me being Wondering Child where he truly let his voice shine through and my god, I felt it in my bones. He was screaming out his care for Christine and explaining to her how much she hurt him and meant to him, it was truly amazing. I was able to wait for him at the stage door on my last time seeing it and he was super kind, he thanked us for waiting and apologized for having taken so long (he took about 20 minutes, we waited almost an hour for Ramin in Milan), so I really want to recommend everyone to check his Phantom out and form opinions by yourselves because I think he truly has the potential.

[lucygold95]

POTO Busan review (centered on actors).

(*I wrote longer reviews in Korean on another SNS before. **It's a long review with bad English grammar, so if you're busy, I recommend you to read only keywords.)

0. I saw POTO Busan performances for the first time on April 30(Both matinée and evening performances). I had saw POTO World tour and London (+ JOJ concert in Korea😄) before and (as you all know) the POTO Korea set was the original version, not the world tour version or the London reopening version. The costumes were similar to the recent London costumes, but have more beads except Star Princess costume. The directing and choreography(except Masquerade) were Broadway versions before COVID.

I finished brief introduction, so I'll talk about actors now. (I know that POTO Korea video bootlegs exist, but most of them were recorded in very early days including previews. And some actors(particularly 조승우 and 송은혜) were sick at the beginning of the Busan run. So later performances were much better than those videos.)

1. Raoul actors

송원근's Raoul is gentle, romantic and mentally mature(He looks younger than his age, but he is actually 40). His Raoul resembles Steve Barton's Raoul in many ways. I think he's one of the standard ALW Raouls. (If you like the original London cast, I recommend 손지수 Christine and 송원근 Raoul pair.) His gentle voice, good romance acting and nice dance skills are his strengths.(He is now a famous musical actor, but long ago he was an unfamous idol/dance singer. He has also been a drama actor since 2013.) + Personally, his stifling acting at The Final Lair was very impressive.

황건하 has a very unique voice for Raoul. He has a very heavy tone. His deep voice color reminds me of Bengt Nordfors's Raoul. However, his Raoul is not as mature as Nordfors's. His Raoul is young(황건하 is 25 years old, so I think that's the reason.) and and full of enthusiasm like the Leroux Raoul. But his Raoul isn't fragile like the Leroux Raoul. His Raoul is weaker than Ramin and Hadley's, but it has a similar sense of mettle.

Doesn't 황건하's impression resemble that of Hadley and Ramin? +I think 황건하's strength is his nice singing skills.

2. Christine actresses

To be honest, Korean audiences gave 송은혜 a better rating than 손지수 on the reservation site during Busan run. On the contrary, I've seen many non-Korean old phans tend to prefer 손지수. If you want to know why, go to 2-4). (* I love both of them similarly.)

2-1) Voice color: Both Christines have quite different voice colors. 💙송은혜 Christine has a clear and very light voice color. Her voice is transparent and light like a shiny glass bead. Her voice color resembles previous Korean ALW Christines (Especially 김소현 Christine) voice colors.(+ Emmy Rossum's voice color a little bit too.) 🤍손지수 Christine has a light(but less lighter than 송은혜's voice), warm and very soft(<-->clear) voice. I think her voice color is very unique! Her voice reminds me of soft and warm angel wings.

2-2) Singing style: 💙송은혜 sang POTO numbers more like musical singing style than opera " .(She majored in opera, but worked as a popera singer/an ensemble in the musical Elisabeth.) I think her singing style resembles previous Korean Christines (Especially, 최현주 Christine's POTO Korea 1st revival run. *최현주's stage name in Japan was 'Sai Tamami'.) and Sierra Boggess (Particularly WYSHA) a lot. 송은혜 has a girlish voice and face(I think both Christines look younger than their age. 송은혜 is 30 years old and 손지수 is 33 years old.), but she is an independent and modern Christine 'compared to the other Christine'. But her voice is light and less powerful than Sierra's, so sometimes I think her singing resembles Amy Manford too(But less operatic way).

🤍손지수 sang POTO numbers in an operatic way. (She is an opera singer.) And her calm and classical singing style is very reminiscent of Sarah Brightman's singing style. (+ Rebecca Caine's West End run.) But warmer and softer than them(I think Caine and Brightman has cooler voice and more vivid voice).

I prefer 🤍손지수's WYSHA🤍 more than 송은혜's and I prefer 💙송은혜's TOM and POTO(I like her cadenza & high notes)💙 more than 손지수's. Personally, 손지수's WYSHA is one of the top five WYSHWs I've heard.

2-3) Character interpretation: 💙As I said above, 송은혜 Christine was an independent and modern Christine 'compared to the other Christine'. Also, her interpretation influenced a lot by 최현주(최현주's Korea run. But I think 송은혜's voice color and face resemble 김소현's.) and Sierra's. But I think her Christine is less stronger than Sierra's. + 송은혜 Christine's love for Phantom is more Erosive 'compared to the other Christine'. ++ I like 송은혜's Serafimo.

🤍In every way, 손지수's Christine evoked the nostalgia of Christines in the 80s and 90s. (Her special voice color that distinguishes it from others, operatic singing style and Leroux-like Christine interpretation.) She was a very soft and warm Christine. She respected and relied on Phantom, her teacher and guardian. And her love for the Phantom was close to the Virgin Mary's agape love for humanity. I really love her classical Christine interpretation!

2-4) Points to be improved: I really love 손지수's classical Christine, but she need to develop her dialogue acting and body acting. She is a native Korean and speaks Korean naturally in her daily life, but on stage, she spoke lines as if she were reading a textbook. She spoke strictly and exaggerated at the same time. I know POTO is a sung-through musical but her Little Lotte dialogue acting was not good. But if you are not a native Korean speaker, it will be hard to notice. (+ Interestingly, her songs contained a variety of emotions and her pronunciation was not strange when she sings.) I think this is why she is preferred by non-Korean phans over Korean audiences. If you want to know her strengths, read the keywords from 1-1) to 1-3).

송은혜's lines and body acting were okay, but often 손지수's facial expressions were better than her. (The interesting thing is that 송은혜 said she has been a phan for more than a decade, but the other Christine – who wasn't a phan – is preferred to her by a global phandom👀(I think it's because 송은혜 is a fan of Sierra and old phans tend to prefer classic POTO over 25th anniversary.)) And neither of them can do ballet professionally.

3. Phantom actors (* I didn't see 조승우

Phantom's performance in a good seat, and his condition was not good at that day, so I'll exclude him from this Busan review.)

전동석's Phantom was a romantic and soft phantom like Kopit's Phantom(* He played Kopit Phantom. But still, his ALW Phantom was stronger than his kopit Phantom). His Phantom seemed to have loved Christine for a long time. Not every performance, but he would often greet Christine (as if he were worshiping her) during the POTO number like the picture below.

And he carefully stroked her face when she fell asleep during The Music of the Night. His phantom reminds me of Earl Carpenter's phantom, who was also a soft phantom and liked to stroke Christine's hair.

* 전동석 sang POTO numbers by mixing musical and opera singing styles.(Although he majored in opera, he has worked as a musical actor for a long time, not an opera singer.) And he sang high notes well.

On the contrary, 김주택's Phantom was a very strict teacher and musician who wants to strongly control his student – Christine who will show his music to the world – 'at first'. He looked domineering and sometimes very dangerous villain. During STYDI, 전동석's Phantom seemed so sad and he couldn't hurt Christine, but 김주택's Phantom was very angry and seemed to strangle(but not kill) Christine if she was caught. But he got shocked and recognized his love to Christine when Christine handed over his mask during STYDI. After that 김주택 Phantom changed a lot. Even his voice changed a lot.

* At first, 김주택 Phantom's voice sounded very heavy and Phantom is in his mid-40s to early 50s, but after STYDI, his voice changed softly and Phantom is in his mid or late-30s except some scenes. (* 전동석 Phantom's voice sounded like he is in his mid-30s. And his voice color was lighter than 김주택's.) Also, 김주택 sang the numbers very operaically(It's natural that he is an opera singer(Baritone). *POTO is his musical debut).

I expected he still had a very scary side during AIAOY reprise 1, but I was surprised that he cried really a lot during AIAOY reprise 1. He broke my predictions several times and gave me fresh shocks as if I had never seen the Phantom of the Opera.

From here, I'm going to compare the two phantom actors. During PONR, 전동석's phantom was very sexy and I am sure his 'Don Juan Triumphant' must be loved by the audience. I saw the performance from the perspective of the Paris Opera audience who enjoyed the show. On the contrary, 김주택 Phantom's 'Don Juan Triumphant' seemed very dangerous. I felt a dangerous criminal go crazy and snuck in. I saw the performance from the perspective of the Paris Opera staff who were nervously watching the performance. And I love 김주택's AIAOY reprise 2.

At the final lair, 전동석 Phantom tended to recite that Christine was the only light to him after she left. I think his experience of Kopit Phantom was melted here. I like the way he emphasized Phantom's love to Christine. From beginning to end, the most important thing to him was Christine. Even during the 'Why So Silent', he thought that 'you' were Christine, not André and Firmin. Anyway, he let Christine go and cried, but he also smiled (like Ethan Freeman's Phantom) because his soul was saved by her kiss. 김주택 Phantom's final lair was scary and nervous. But Christine, especially soft and angelic 손지수 Christine, melted that dramatically with a warm heart and kisses. I think 김주택 Phantom and 손지수 Christine are a really good match for each other. They have similar singing styles(They are both opera singers and studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano.) and the height difference between 김주택(178cm) and 손지수(early 160s) is also appropriate. (*송은혜 is taller than 170cm and she wears Christine's heels on stage, so she has better chemistry with tall phantoms. **The phantom in the image below is 전동석, who is 186cm tall.)

Let's get back to the point. I think 손지수's interpretation of Christine goes well with all Korean Phantoms. But I think 손지수's soft and warm Christine goes best with 김주택's strict and scary phantom. It reminds me of a fairy tale that the goddess of spring softly melts the god of cold winter. + 김주택's Phantom also smiled (like Ethan Freeman's Phantom) at the end.

4. Carlottas, Piangi, Meg and André.

Both Carlotta actresses are young and are not much older than Christine actresses. For example, 한보라 – one of the Carlotta actresses, was born in 1988, and 손지수 – one of the Christine actresses, was born in 1989. So that reminded me of the relationship between Patti sisters(Adelina Patti/Carlotta Patti) and Christine Nilsson(*Both Adelina and Christine were born in 1843). 한보라, in particular, has a light tone like Adelina. (The other Carlotta – 이지영 has a calm voice.)

박회림 Piangi was really good at both singing and acting. The long extension of Hannibal high note at the end of the Busan run was very surprising.

조하린, who played Meg, has a sweet and girlish voice :) I like her Meg, though she sometimes struggled with the high notes. Her dance was great too.

Finally, I admired 윤영석's André. His André really loves music and art. It was really impressive that his eyes were shining when he saw arts. His André was as good as his Phantom in both singing and acting.

[cwpidfangs]

CWPID♡READS🪽

The Phantom of The Opera

(1909) by Gaston Leroux

Another one that I unfortunately couldn't finish reading.

I was super excited to read it because I have recently started to watch musicals and, like I usually do with movies, I wanted to read the book before watching. Unfortunately my experience was not as good and I imagined it would be.

In the beginning, I was extremely interested and excited with what this new story would bring me, but as I progressed throught it, my boredom only grew.

The narrative is extremely repetitive and because of that it is very tiring to read, with very few character and plot development, nothing that makes the story get a good pace and start to become more interesting. Also, the extremely discriptive writing — something that does not attract me at all in books — lengthened the scenes too much, contributing to the boredom. My desire to read until the end because I wanted to know more about the story evolved to the desire to just reach the end.

At a specific moment I thought there would be a plot twist that would make the story interesting for me, but at the end of this brief moment the story went back to its original slow pace and I decided to abandon it.

I was dissapointed because it was a story that really interested me. All I have left is to know if the musical is better and does justice to the massive fame The Phantom of The Opera has.

[beu-ytr]

Resenha de "O Fantasma da Ópera" de Gaston Leroux

com alguns spoilers

O Fantasma da Opera é um clássico francês que eu sonhava em ter oportunidade de ler

Não me considero intelectual e cult o suficiente pra julgar esse livro como fácil em questão de vocabulário, mas se alguém que tem essas qualidades afirmasse isso, eu concordaria rs

Sinceramente, me surpreendi com a pegada do livro. Baseado em uns comentários que vi, eu esperava muito mais principalmente considerando a magnitude dessa obra como um símbolo clássico da cultura pop

Aqui a história é bem mais rasa do que o musical. Deveria se chamar "Raoul de Chagny" devido ao exagerado protagonismo que esse personagem insuportável recebe injustamente, enquanto os personagens mais importantes, a Christine e o Fantasma, mal aparecem de fato e não têm o privilégio de mostrar ao leitor o seu ponto de vista da narrativa

(que sinceramente é o único ponto de vista que o leitor realmente se importa)

a parte da história que deveria ser a mais importante, que é quando a Christine e o Erik se conhecem, é mostrado pro leitor de uma forma totalmente cagada

literalmente a Christine contando tudo pro Raoul no terraço, e o Raoul tipo "mentiraaaa😱juraa??", isso é um saco porque tipo a gente não vê acontecendo entendeu

Eu simplesmente não dou a minima pro Raoul, na verdade acho que ele é o personagem menos interessante da história eu quero mais é que ele se lasque mesmo

O personagem que mais merecia atenção aqui era aquele que nomeia o livro

Erik: o falso fantasma, gênio, arquiteto, idoso, gado, músico, traumatizado, assassino, compositor, estelionatário e BV

Esse cara merecia muito mais holofotes

"ah mas a historia toda gira ao redor dele ele ja tem holofotes" Ok eu sei mas o que eu queria de fato é entender o Erik como pessoa, porque chega uma hora na narrativa que fica tudo raso, fica tipo

"Ah o fantasma é malvado, ele faz isso faz aquilo matou fulano sequestrou cicrano"

Tá mas porquê?

O livro todo parece alguém te contando uma lenda do saci Pererê, tipo "juro que vi"

Eu queria entender ele como personagem, ver o ponto de vista dele nas coisas. Ele tem pouquíssimas frases e pouco aprofundamento, é como se ele fosse um protagonista fantasma

(kkkkk piadista)

Enfim na minha opinião, o livro é mediano mas seria melhor se o fantasma tivesse mais presença na narrativa ou melhor ainda, o livro todo fosse sob a perspectiva dele, isso sim seria interessante de ler

Imagine, uma mente tão zuada e geniosa quanto a do Erik, eu queria mesmo saber o que se passava ali

[phantomato13]

It is once again time for another reviews my brethren, but this time it's a movie that isn't Phantom related - HOWEVER, it's a movie I firmly believe every Phandom Pham should watch! It is called Beauty and the Beast (Panna a netvor originally). It is from 1978 directed by Czech filmmaker, Juraj Herz.

It's a grimy, foggier retelling of the classic tale except in this one our Beast is a bird-man called Netvor. Just like the original story, Julie (this version's Belle) sacrifices her life for her father by going to the Beast's castle. The Beast falls in love with her while trying to hold back his wild, animalistic urges. The reason I think fellow Phantom fans would love this is because it has a similar concept where the male love interest is afraid to show his face/body to the female love interest. I watched the whole film with English subtitles on YouTube (link). Next to The Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast is one of my top favorite stories ever so don't be surprised if you see more of it on my blog every now and then lol (the 1946 version is also amazing). Here's a link to the Letterboxd page as well!

[fadinglandtragedy]

POTO Korea Review

August 9, 2023 Seoul

Cast : Jeon dong-seok, Sohn ji-soo, Song won-geun

[first review]

This one was my favorite.

JDS is insane. His voice is in the best shape these days, and his performance is very engaging. He seems to be gradually stepping out of the shadow of the Y&K Phantom and steadily building his own phantom. He still can't quite touch Christine and doesn't know how to treat her, but his attitude and mood captures the sassiness of the ALW phantom.

It's been a few days since I saw his previous performance, but I was surprised to see that his movements were more organized. This time I was able to see him more closely from a different angle, he really organized his hair nicely and walked like this :

Now I know why Christine actresses said he was so cool in that moment. Really seductive.

And he kept trying to whisper in Christine's ear at MOTN. It was like... it was the one scene that summed up why Christine couldn't resist the Phantom.

At the Red death scene, I was told it’s an recording, but he broke through the recording and sang it really loudly live. (I think the people in the front row could hear it.) His voice and the recording resonated, which seemed like another Phantom’s trick. and reminded me of the LEROUX Phantom playing with his voice... It was quite fascinating.

PONR… I like that he matches his movements with her in the Christine part.

My favorite scene was the one in Final lair where he was arguing with Raoul behind the bars. The original line, ‘I love her, does that mean nothing?’ was changed to ‘I love her, Why don't you believe in love?’ in the Korean. JDS, who had been bit relaxed, was momentarily unable to hold back his tears. I realized that his Phantom was the one who believed in the miracle of love more than anyone else in this musical…

With that, he started crying a lot... again, and I think it was more than the last performance. He kept showing signs of pulling himself together to hit his lines (especially when he heard ‘I gave my mind blindly’), and I could keep hear him sobbing in the silences. really don't know how he sings steadily in the middle of that… When Christine came to return the ring, he looked like wanted to tell her not to, but all I could hear was a sob.

He's crying like the world is ending, and behind him, Raoul kisses Christine's hand… yes it’s sad but also too beautiful. Can’t deny it.

I know it’s weird, but I like the moment right before he lassoed Raoul the best. His impressive use of elongated limbs reminds me of Leroux's Phantom. Sexy

I'd love to see his phantom on west end stage, if that's possible.. he'd look better in west end makeup

The chemistry between JDS & SJS is really 🤌 They're both settling into their acting, and when JDS shows his charms, SJS responds well to it.

I think Sohn ji-soo is going to be my new favorite Christine… Her dialog is a little awkward, but she's a former opera singer, so she's very good at conveying emotion through song, and also (of course) a good singer.

Overall, she is more passive, serene, and calm than SEH Christine. This time I saw in her a Christine from the 90s and 00s. A very early, almost archetypal Christine. She plays Christine as fragile and vulnerable, but that's what makes her shine in the graveyard scene. While SEH showed us a beautifully radiant prima donna making her debut in TOM, SJS brings a lush sadness to the Wishing.

She seems overwhelmed with how to get through this, but in the end, she moves forward unbroken. So her first step, Wishing, is even more impressive.

Her feelings toward the Phantom are similar to those of a mortal facing the Absolute. In The mirror scene, she fearfully soothes the Phantom, but when his anger is unabated and he tries to reveal himself, she willingly tries to open the dressing room door, despite her fears.(She must have thought he would be at the door. Love this detail!)

She was afraid to face the Phantom in STYDI (on the other hand, SEH didn't avoid his gaze.), but when he turned away in pain, she reached out her hand as if she wanted to hug him.

In the Final lair, she's upset to see herself in a wedding dress, but when the Phantom starts singing (this face, which earned~), she turns toward him as if mesmerized. (This reminds me of Claire Lyon in PONR)

She was clearly afraid of him, but also attracted to him. It's such a natural and obvious Christine’s trait, but it was great to see it again with the chemistry between JDS and SJS. I still remember her reaching for him as he painfully yelled at her to leave…

I saw her respond to being told that she had the biggest role in Don Juan by saying, "me…?". Funnily enough, JDS once interviewed that when phantom said, 'I've written you an opera,' the 'you' was referring to Christine.

I thought that Christine would have instinctively sensed the Phantom's obsession and affection and already known that she would be the one to play Aminta, but her Christine seems to think that his anger is simply a hate of her.

She was a relatively innocent and naive Christine, which seemed to work well with JDS's romantic side.

She and SEH Christine both sing along Carlotta's TOM in small voice, which is a detail I love because it's so cute and shows their desire to sing🥹

Oh and Korean fans call her a hamster… i can understand. She’s so lovely Christine!

I’m not sure about SWG Raoul… his presence was barely felt. I'm not sure if it was tiredness or what, but his performance had very little impact, and I felt like I was watching a character from another musical he was in.

But he was definitely milder than HGH, and I love the detail of him hugging Christine in the final lair, even though he's in a lasso.

I really like LJY Carlotta! Her performance was appropriate and impressive as a prideful prima donna. At the same time, her mean and demanding personality was well portrayed, making her an appealing character. Like the scene in Il Muto where she throws Christine into bed (Andre's panicked reaction is hilarious) or in Don Juan rehearsal where she gently teaches Piangi and gets annoyed with Monsieur Reyer in an instant are good examples.

When she says "she’s crazy," it's no longer sarcastic, but more like she's looking at a mentally ill person with disdain, which, coupled with PHR Piangi's reaction afterward, further emphasizes the relationship between the Phantom and Christine. (It shows how strange their relationship is and that it can't be shared with anyone.)

There were a lot of little funny scenes. The most interesting was the conductor's panicked performance with Andre in the Il Muto ballet scene. It was quite funny to see her panicking, searching for the score, and ruffling her hair.

why do the ballet girls' screams seem to get louder and louder...? 😂

The supporting cast is also working well together, and the performance is gradually becoming more complete. I was actually thinking that this production might not be for me, but um now I just wish I could follow this show and witness every moment..

If you sit in the first row, your neck can get sore, and you can barely see the Phantom on the angel. On this day, JDS was very emotional and the angel was swaying SO much that I wondered what was going on overhead.

There are no tickets left for me right now, but I hope this isn't the last time I see his phantom. I'd love to see it again as a JDS/SJS/HGH/LJY pair if I get the chance🙏