#timothy nolen

[operafantomet]

Phantoms wearing “damaged eye” contact lense

ROW 1: Michael Crawford, West End (and briefly Broadway)

ROW 2: Timothy Nolen, Broadway (possibly only promo photos)

ROW 3: Jonathan Roxmouth, World Tour (old and new look)

ROW 4: David Shannon, West End (though only randomly), and Masachika Ichimura, Tokyo (as Mr. Y in “Love Never Dies”)

ROW 5: Kalle Sepp and Koit Toome, Estonia (non-replica)

ROW 6: Stephen Brandt Hansen, Estonia (non-replica), and Joel Zerpe in Sweden (non-replica)

ROW 7: Ramin Karimloo, Italy and Monaco (non-replica)

[phantomofrueplumet]

RIP Timothy Nolen. Looks like he may have died all the way back in August. It's sad how there are no articles or obituaries online and it wasn't brought up until now, the only thing I can find is his name listed on a memorial page in the SAG-AFTRA magazine. He was 82.

(For anyone who does not know, he was the 2nd Phantom on Broadway, and 4th ever principal Phantom in the world), taking over for Michael Crawford in 1988 until early 1989.)

[behindthemirrorofmusic]

Timothy Nolen, the second first cast Phantom on Broadway passed away in August. For some reason there was no mention of this loss in theatre media.

So here are a few images to remember his run as The Phantom on Broadway.

[muma-kitty]

timothy nolen being an unhinged little freak <3

[wheel-of-fish]

Can we add Timothy Nolen to the watch list? I heard he recently passed away, how sad.

Oh, that's sad to hear! Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any videos of him—just audio.

[glassprism]

Hullo! I appreciate you and the knowledge and care you put into the Phantom community so much! I was wondering- how often do Phantom actors wear a contact on the deformed side? I've been seeing and loving pictures of Jonathon Roxmouth with his, and I'm aware that it originally was a thing with Michael Crawford, but are there any rules/consistencies that you've noticed?

Hello, thanks for your kind words!

For your question: it's not too common, and the main trend I've seen is that it's happening more frequently, and more often in non-replicas than in replicas.

The contact lens / false eye effect was used by Michael Crawford and his immediate successors, Dave Willetts in the West End and Timothy Nolen on Broadway (though Nolen seems only to have been photographed with it, not actually using it) before it was eliminated for the next couple of decades. The next guy to do it was David Shannon, but I think that was more so because he had just been in Sweeney Todd and the contact lens was available for him to use and he was used to it. The color was also completely different, yellow with a red rim compared to Crawford's smoky blue and white lens.

After that, you mainly see it in non-replicas and, funnily, random productions of Love Never Dies, but again, mostly in the last decade or so. Operafantomet has a great photoset here. Roxmouth is the latest in that trend and he apparently does it as a specific homage to Crawford.

Otherwise, I think I'd see it as the productions willing to get a little looser with how the show looks. Whereas the 1990s and 2000s were fairly strict about how the show should look, how it should be blocked, how many non-replicas there should be, etc., the last decade seems to be a loosening of that, which might be why we're seeing more non-replicas, more modified and restaged productions, and more creative liberties being taken here and there in replicas (albeit this is still a throwback to the past). The greater usage of the false eye is just a result of that.

[sweeneysondheimmusical]

Elaine Paige and Timothy Nolen as Mrs Lovett and Sweeney

[sondheims-hat]

Some Sweeneys.

Len Cariou (1979), George Hearn (1980), Dennis Quilley (1980), Ross Petty (1982), Timothy Nolen (1984), Leon Greene (1985), Lyndon Terracini (1987), Bob Gunton (1989),  Alun Armstrong (1993), Constantino Romero (1995), Steven Page (1998), Kelsey Grammer (1999), Peter-Coleman Wright (2001), Brian Stokes Mitchell (2002), Bryn Terfel (2002), Mark Delevan (2004), Paul Hegarty (2004), Michael Cerveris (2005), Jason Donovan (2006), David Hess (2007), Johnny Depp (2007), Jeff McCarthy (2009), Rod Gilfry (2011), Gregg Edelmann (2011), Michael Ball (2011), Andrew Lloyd Baughman (2014), Jeremy Secomb (2015), Brian Mulligan (2015), Benedict Campbell (2016), Norm Lewis (2017), Hugh Panaro (2018), Jett Pangan (2019), Josh Groban (2023). 

[marleneoftheopera]

Timothy Nolen and Patti Cohenour (that is her right?), Broadway.

[ulrichgebert]

Wir hätten natürlich als Gedenkmaßnahme, erstens hat es sich ja sowieso gerade aufgedrängt, und zweitens ist Kunst nicht einfach, und man braucht Ordnung im Chaos, Sunday in the Park with George anschauen sollen, haben es uns dann aber doch lieber wieder, auch angesichts der sowieso vorgesehenen Shepherd’s Pie (without actual shepherd, though) für die gemütliche Variante Saturday evening in the meat pie emporium with Patti and George entschieden. Ich meine mich an ein Interview zu erinnern, in dem Stephens schwärmerische Gesprächspartnerin die außergewöhnliche, völlig neuartige, nie dagewesene Form von Musiktheater pries, die Sondheim für Sweeney Todd erfunden habe. Darauf Sondheim: “Es ist eine Operette.”

[sweeneytoddblog]

UHMMMM..... DID YOU KNOW ELAINE PAIGE PLAYED MRS. LOVETT IN 2004 BECAUSE I SURE DIDN’T

AND THAT YOU CAN WATCH THE WHOLE SHOW

I LOVE THAT WOMAN

AND IS THAT TIMOTHY NOLEN AKA JUDGE TURPIN AS SWEENEY???

AM I READING THIS RIGHT????

^Act 1, Part 1

[gdelgiproducer]

Fan cast the following musicals: 1. Into the Woods 2. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 3. Little Shop of Horrors 4. The Rocky Horror Show 5. Sweeney Todd 6. Hedwig and the Angry Inch 7. Tommy 8. The Wiz

Two things:

My system does not operate on command.

I am not so interested in many of those shows that I could pull off a dream cast on the fly.

Please bear the above in mind when asking questions like this in the future. Thank you!

Having said that… I do have an idea for number 5, based on a remark Chris Bond made in his foreword to the mass market paperback edition of the Sweeney libretto.

In reading it, my attention was drawn immediately to two things: one, the unusual notion that an author would be so excited by someone’s adaptation of their work that they would willingly direct a later production of said adaptation (at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1981, in this instance), and two, a little idea he had for costuming the ensemble. I’ll quote the relevant portion:

…when I have directed the show I have always shifted the emphasis of the first two scenes of Act II by having grotesquely frock-coated and crinolined figures in half-masks as Mrs. Lovett’s customers and Sweeney’s anonymous victims because I don’t want people involved with them. Visually, this ties up with the dumb-show rape of Sweeney’s wife in Act I, and I like the idea that the pie shop and barber shop have become a chic venue for the gentry to attend – the white folks slumming it in Harlem, so to speak.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I read that last turn of phrase (bold for emphasis mine) and immediately pictured the barber shop culture of the Harlem Renaissance era, and thought about the reviews that a racially charged cast might receive. Pair that with Sondheim’s ideal rendering (an environmental staging that kept the show close to the audience with smoke and streetlamps and fog rising from the floor “and somebody would pop up beside you and scare you to death”), perhaps specifically using Bond’s pared-down approach (cast of ten, orchestra of five), and you’ve got a compelling show.

Anthony Hope………Leslie Odom Jr.Sweeney Todd……..Norm LewisBeggar Woman………Audra McDonald*Mrs. Nellie Lovett………Jenifer LewisAdolfo Pirelli………Billy PorterJudge Turpin………George Hearn**Beadle Bamford……..Ethan Slater***Johanna Barker………Adrienne WarrenTobias Ragg………Anthony RamosBird Seller / Jonas Fogg………Eliseo Román

* if one wanted to follow the current “in an actual pie shop” revival’s approach, one could also have Audra double the Beggar Woman and Pirelli; I think it’d be a tour de force** I liked when he did the Judge opposite Michael Cerveris at Sondheim’s 80th, and I feel like it’s an interesting passing of the torch, considering so many other Sweeneys – Timothy Nolen comes to mind – have graduated to the Judge*** I watched him at the Tonys, and I’m sure he’s lovable as SpongeBob, but I just found him the appropriate level of creepy for this

[behindthemirrorofmusic]

Christine-mas continues this week on Behind the Mirror of Music as Dannii Cohen talks to Raissa Katona Bennett.

Raissa Katona Bennett joined the original cast of "The Phantom of the Opera" nine months into it's first year on Broadway. Her Phantoms included: Steve Barton, Kevin Gray, Brad Little, Davis Gaines, Jeff Keller, Hugh Panaro and Timothy Nolen.

She was also part of the LA Production and various touring casts.

Next to her time on Phantom Raissa starred in Cats, Steal Magnolias, Parade, Fun Home, The Fantasticks, Beauty and the Beast and much more. Raissa is also a beloved cabaret and concert performer.

During the interview we discuss her time on Phantom: how she joined the cast, working with Hal Prince, how she sees the relationship of Christine with both The Phantom/Erik and Raoul and much more.

We also discuss Cats, the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and how she and her husband became Dog Fosters.

This and much more.

[muma-kitty]

you are not beating the autism allegations mr todd

[kivircik-kabarik]

Psikoloji Bölümü Ders Kitapları

Psikolojiye Giriş • Rod Plotnik

Psikolojiye Giriş • Edward E. Smith, Susen Nolen-Hoeksema, Barbara Frederickson, Geoffrey R. Loftus

Psikolojiyi Anlamak • Charles G. Morris

Psikolojiye Giriş • Clifford T. Morgan

Psikolojiye Giriş • Kemal Sayar, Mehmet Dinç

Psikoloji ve Yaşam: Psikolojiye Giriş • Richard J. Gerrig, Philip G. Zimbardo

Bilişsel Psikoloji • Robert L. Solso, M. Kimberly Maclin, Otto H. Maclin

Modern Psikoloji Tarihi • Duane P. Schultz, Sydney Ellen Schultz

Psikolojide Deneysel Yönteme Giriş: Vaka Yaklaşımı • Robert L. Solso, Homer H. Johnson

Research Methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information • Beth Morling

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology • Carla Willig, Wendy Stainton Rogers

Exploring Lifespan Development (3rd Edition) • Laura E. Berk

Introduction to Biopsychology (3rd Edition) • Andrew Wickens

Contemporary Clinical Psychology (3rd Edition) • Thomas G. Plante

Clinical Psychology: Concepts, Methods and Profession • E. Jerry Phares, Timothy J. Trull

[glassprism]

I'm reading the book for the first time and Leroux's description of Erik's voice is quite something. Which actors do you think come closest to match that description?

Honestly? I don't really think of actors in the musical (or elsewhere) as comparing to Leroux's Erik. They're kind of separate in my mind, especially vocally.

The reason for this is because in the novel, Erik is described as having this incredible range: according to this post, capable of going as low as a baritone or even bass-baritone but then high enough that Christine apparently uses feminine pronouns around him before realizing who he truly is (a number of people who know more about voices than I ever will have said that Erik may be a baritone who also developed a countertenor voice). (Also, tangential note, I'm rather a fan of this theory that Erik also has an unplaceable accent due to his backstory of traveling all over Eurasia, essentially.) To me, that means a singer who has an inhuman range and a voice of unearthly beauty, a once-in-a-lifetime type of voice.

And the thing about the musical is that, you know, they're casting fairly ordinary guys who have a fairly ordinary range and who sometimes don't sound all that beautiful either, though the last is subjective (and not going to name names here). And since the musical is written for these typical (though still quite talented!) guys, it's not going to have them bouncing around vocal ranges, otherwise you'll really shrink your pool of potential actors.

So ultimately, while I have a pool of actors of singers that I think have a beautiful sound or something similar to what was described (e.g. Michael Crawford - unearthly tenor capable of sounding resonant when needed, Timothy Nolen - bass-baritone, Alexander Goebel - haunting voice, Alexander Lewis - started off as a tenor and ended a baritone, Norm Lewis - baritone with a high range), I don't actually think they match Leroux's description, because I don' think anyone will ever match it. Leroux's Erik's voice, in my mind, is this voice that is near-inhuman, and no actual person will likely have that.