#restaging

[operafantomet]

Lisanne Clémence Veeneman and the Corps de Ballet in the Restaged Tour in Vienna

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

You know

I don't have a lot positive to say about the re-staged version of the ALW musical.

But I will admit I do kind of like the fact that Raoul barges into Christine's dressing room as she's undressing.

I like this because, on the surface its very ha ha, so awkward uwu, but it also highlights how very scandalous this very action is.

In 19th century theatre culture (especially in France) there's only one reason a man (the patron of the Opera, who is the main financial backer of the establishment) goes into a singer's dressing room with a bottle of champagne. Whether that is Raoul's intention doesn't matter: he's a man of society, he's the responsible one here, or he should be.

But setting that aside, this really makes me think about how Raoul is never thinking about Christine in a circumspect fashion. He is not thinking about the fact that this is a private area he is entering uninvited--a private area that is private for the very specific reason: at any point, Christine could very well be naked or otherwise in a state of vulnerability and/or undress behind that door. He does not knock, or announce himself. He either is not thinking about this or does not care. Both are bad.

(And yes I am conscious of the fact that Christine is not only undressing, but undressing in front of the mirror; the mirror that Erik is, in all likelihood, hiding behind, even as she does so).

To Raoul, as much as (perhaps even more so than) to Erik, Christine is an object. An object to be, by turns, admired, pitied, placated and protected.

Perhaps I find this so interesting because in the book, Raoul is shown to invade the sanctum samctorum of Christine's dressing room without her knowledge or consent several times.

"When you were pitying him the other night, the night of the masked ball. When you came into your dressing room, didn't you say 'Poor Erik'? Well Christine, there was Poor Raoul who overheard you!"

"That is the second time you have listened at my door, M. de Chagny!"

"I was not at your door! I was in the dressing room! In your boudoir, mademoiselle!"

An interesting contrast to Erik, who, in spite of abducting Christine, holding her against her will etc. always knocks three times on her door before entering her bedroom in the house by the lake, and gives her his word that in that apartment and in her dressing room she is assured of privacy from him.

"How can you believe yourself safer here in the theatre?" Raoul asked. "If you can hear him through the walls, then he can certainly hear us."

"No. He gave me his word that he would not be behind the walls of my dressing room again, and I trust Erik's word. My dressing room and my room in the house by the lake are mine exclusively, and are sacred to him.

Also very interesting to me is that on my fourth read of various English translations of the book [1911, 1911 restored, 1990 Lowell Bair, and 1996 Leonard Wolf] there is never any indication that I've noticed that Christine's mirror is two-way glass. It does not slide to the side as depicted in movies/ the musical. The mirror is built into the wall itself and turns with the wall on a pivot like a revolving door. There is never any mention of him looking at her through the mirror, only listening and speaking to her through her walls.

[marleneoftheopera]

Linda Balgord has passed away. Among her credits, she portrayed Madame Giry on the Restaged US Tour and Broadway from 2013-16.

May her memory be a blessing.❤️

[boin-de-bindery]

The Witch With Sunlight in His Hair - boinin

Burned out on casebinding, I decided to give pamphlet binding a shot! I'd picked up this lovely reflective gold paper, but I only had one copy so it was a no-go for endpaper. Still, it was too pretty to let languish in my paper stash—so I decided to print out one of my own fics that features sunflowers and magic.

This is a short BachIsagi oneshot that gave me the opportunity to figure out how to format AO3 tags and metadata. I decided to omit the author's notes, but retain the summary information and tags. I printed it as four signatures... why, you ask? Because I'm an idiot. That ended up making this (a) two sheets per signature, a trivial amount to fold and sew given the length of this fic and (b) not a pamphlet bind. I sewed the signatures together with a simple stitch and glued on the cover paper with PVA. So this is closer to a perfect binding overall.

It turned out adorable, at least to me. It's just a lil guy! 🐝 I got along much better with the heat transfer vinyl this time around—I really love the bee graphic, which was one of the freebies on Cricut Design Space. I did mess up the signature imposer by leaving fold lines on, which are visible when you open the pamphlet. Not enough of a reason to reprint everything IMO.

It's nice getting to hold something I've written and published ✨ Though tiny next to my other binds, it adds some welcome sparkle to my shelf.

[kittysmittens]

important TO ME at least

[glassprism]

Do you have some least favorite final lair kisses or least favorite return of the ring scenes?

I don't think I have any least favorites because, for me, I don't think there's many ways to play this scene "wrong". Well, maybe during the kiss Christine could slobber her tongue all over the Phantom's face or something, but even then I wouldn't make it my least favorite, because it's entertaining! Heck, it'd probably be my ultimate favorite for the sheer hilarity.

The same goes for the returning of the ring scene; I'm pretty open to any and all interpretations, so short of Christine, I don't know, hurling the ring back at the Phantom's face whilst singing, "Sayonara, sucker!" I don't have any individual least favorites that I've seen. At worst, they're unmemorable, but that's also the majority of kiss and ring returning scenes.

No, I think my least favorite ring returning scene is from a specific production, and that is the scene from the restaged tours (the kiss scene is fine). If you don't know, in that version, after chasing Raoul and Christine out, the Phantom cries over his torn up music sheets (clearly the most important thing in his life) and sings, "Christine, I love you" to the audience. Unbeknownst to him, Christine has returned to his lair to return the ring, but the Phantom does not see her as his back is to her. Rather than facing him, Christine simply places the ring down on his table and leaves. The Phantom then turns around and sees the ring and cries some more, I guess, before diving under the bed to hide from the incoming mob.

And man, I just don't like this interpretation. First, it deprives us of that emotional, final face-to-face moment between the Phantom and Christine. Second, we lose out on the endpoint of the Phantom's arc from seemingly mystical, manipulative being to a sad, broken man; he's no longer the Angel of Music, no longer the Opera Ghost, no longer trying to force Christine's hand, entrance her into loving him, or manipulate her feelings, he's just a lonely man, telling her that he loves her. (Though the restaged tour overly humanizes the Phantom so much that it probably doesn't even matter much.) And third, Christine loses out on that final moment of choice, of agency. She doesn't get to look at the Phantom and decide, once and for all, "No, I can't stay with him, whatever I feel." Instead she avoids the entire moment, dropping the ring and fleeing. Her arc is all about seeing behind the Phantom's many masks and personas and finding the strength to face him, but then at this moment, maybe the most important moment of all, she's robbed of it. Blargh.

Anyway this turned into yet another "I hate the restaged tour" post so I'm going to stop. I actually do enjoy some aspects of it, I swear! But boy do I not like how they blocked some scenes.

[cantikdaae]

why does the vienna restaged star princess look more decorated than the current west end star princess? i have so many questions

Vienna picture from here, London picture from here.

[jeremyonthelair]

So after ten years of watching the show only from bootlegs, I eventually got chance to see it in person, started with the Chinese and then the Korean production this year. And luckily it was the Brilliant Original in its entirety in Korea.

Playout is always one of my top favourite moments from the musical, so I made this compilation as a memory of my very first experience.

And this way, my 2023 Phantom Journey came to a curtain call.

--------------------

This video is to pay tribute to the Brilliant Original Production itself, to the original creative team as a whole, and to the genius designer Maria Björnson in particular, whose vision has been testified by a standing ovation from phans all over the world throughout the years.

This compilation contains:

• My recordings from the 2023 Chinese Production in Shanghai, and the 2023 Korean Production in Seoul

• A clip published on Weibo by @天酱_

• A clip published on Twitter by Conductor Yang Juin (Musical Director of Phantom Korea)

Available on YouTube at:

[lucygold95]

POTO gif - Josh Piterman & Amy Manford

[original-character-championship]

Bracket C Round 1

Poll 16

Restag Davenport (@blurryumbrellas) vs. Tooey (@faerieorbitars)

159. Restag Davenport (@blurryumbrellas)

He/Him

Restag should win because why not? He's an attention whore and needs something more to fuel his ego. In all honestly though, it would be just so silly funny if he did win :)

Restag is a 42 year old guy, he can do some silly magic things sometimes. He sports traingular glasses with a deep red tint, longer fluffy hair with a bang in front, a streak of white following suit. Along with his dark pants and red button down, Restag wears a sleeveless black turtle neck muscle shirt of sorts, a gold heart necklace around his neck which he holds close to him. He also sports a gold hoop earing on his left ear. In addition to facial hair, Restag has two hand scars in the shape of X's as well as scars on his face, one going up on his right side, and one down on his left.

160. Tooey (@faerieorbitars)

He/Him

So Tooey is my MC/Yuu for Twisted Wonderland (the game with Disney villains as anime boys) and I thought it would be funny to make my MC be twisted from Audrey II from Little Shop and I was right it’s very funny. You know that classic shonen/isekai protagonist trope where the main character convinces everyone in this strange world to believe in the power of friendship? Well Tooey is like that except he’s secretly trying to eat them all the whole time but in a comical double twist he accidentally gets it to work on himself too. Talking about teamwork and collaboration and spending time with these guys all the time accidentally got him to process his own loneliness and changes him for the better before he gets the chance to do anything bad. He’s so cringefail that he has the teeth to back up his badness but doesn’t use them because he thought these guys were too funny to eat. And I didn’t even write him a liar revealed scene or anything he just keeps it to himself. He is so silly with it.

About 5’9”, brown skin and reddish-brown eyes. Dark brown voluminous curly hair with green tips. His lips have a slight purplish tint to them, and his teeth are all completely sharp. He has very slight dimples. The inside of his mouth is purplish and distinctly plant-like, with a muscular looking leaf for a tongue. Usually wearing a disheveled NRC school uniform, with no jacket; just the shirt with a loose collar, copper-y vest half buttoned, a loose tie, and black Doc Martins with embroidered red and purple roses.

[britishchick09]

when phantom closed last year i hoped they'd tour before coming back to broadway...

and i just might be right!!! :D

[operafantomet]

Corps de Ballet photographed in the Restaged Tour in Vienna, photo by Robert Meyer through Ema Amaral

[lot666achandelierinpieces]

Quentin Oliver Lee.

To commemorate his performance, after news of his passing. The Phantom of the Opera (25th Anniversary Tour)  San Francisco - September 5, 2018 (Eve) - MaskedLion’s Master Quentin Oliver Lee, Eva Tavares, Jordan Craig, Trista Moldovan, David Benoit, Edward Staudenmayer, Kristie Dale Sanders, Phumzile Sojola, Emily Ramirez AUDIO GIFT

[marleneoftheopera]

Granted the lighting and angle are certainly helping, but this might be the best the restaged chandelier has ever looked.

[vvstual]

i’m only halfway through it but the way this article talks about how hybe (and likely other companies) manufacture personalities and relationships and devise ways to increase parasocialism is kind of scary

[icantrecallaskysoclear]

Me, every single time Raoul proposes to Christine:

💞