25 Years of Phandom

Phantom of the Opera has been part of my life since some time in 1991 or 1992, when I first heard the opening bars to the title theme played on the piano of my junior high choir piano...over 20 years ago.  That moment changed my life and gave me direction.  

On Saturday, January 26th, The Phantom of the Opera reached another milestone in it's record-breaking run at Broadway's Majestic Theatre, marking it's 25th consecutive year running, and I was beyond thrilled to be in the audience that evening.

Friday and Saturday nights were an amazing experience.  I met some amazing people and saw two truly brilliant performances of Phantom.  The current New York cast has some of the best voices I've heard in the Broadway production.  It is very close to being as good as my beloved Ahmanson theatre cast (let's be honest, for me, no cast will ever be that perfect).


Saturday's performance began at 6:30pm.  It was a black tie affair and mostly an invited audience.  Many former cast members from various productions were in attendance.  The house was packed, and there was definitely a charged energy in the air. The audience was composed of people who are very invested in this show, there were no "casual" audience members.  No tourists who were there simply because it was the show name they recognized.

The Majestic Stage Photo: Christi Esterle

The stage was not set for the auction that starts the show.  The chandelier, Raoul's wheel chair, and the Monkey music box were all in place on a bare stage under their dust covers.  The drapes that shroud the procenium were lifted up a bit so as not obscure the video screen that had been lowered, displaying the 25th Anniversary art work.

As the lights dimmed, the audience applauded, and a video began to play.  It was the same video that preceded the London 25th production at the Royal Albert Hall - clips from the Behind the Mask documentary.  The audience applauded each member of the creative team as they appeared on the screen.  After the video, the lights came up to half, and they began setting the stage for the auction.  It was interesting to see the pieces being flown in and set up.  You don't realize, when you walk into the theatre on a "normal" performance night just how much is on the stage to set that scene.  How many curtains are there...how many things are resting on the ground waiting to be flown into place during the overture like a quick costume change to set the scene for Hannibal.  There was applause for the stage hands as they fluffed the half scrim into place.

There were cheers as the chandelier sparked to life, beginning it's ascent to the ceiling of the theatre.  Applause broke out in a few places as the set pieces flew into place, creating the Hannibal rehearsal set.  As Carlotta, Michele McConnell has one of the clearest, brightest high notes I have heard in a Carlotta.  She is also quite funny.  I very much enjoy a humourous La Carlotta. Christian Sebek as Piangi nicely played up the Rome/Roma difficulty.  He does not hold out the G of "your army has come home" as I prefer, but his voice is lovely, and he has some excellent timing.  He really milked the climbing onto the elephant at the end of the Hannibal rehearsal.

There was a bit of entrance applause as Sierra Boggess took her place in the Hannibal ballet.  Interesting to note that Sierra performed en pointe rather than demi pointe.  Years ago, when I was determined to play Christine, I took five hours of ballet a week in order to be able to get up en pointe.  I was relieved when attending a performance of the tour, I realized Marie Danvers was on demi pointe.  Speaking with her at the stage door, she informed me that, due to insurance considerations, Christines were rarely allowed to dance en pointe even if they were capable.  Since discovering that piece of trivia, I have only ever seen Christines on demi pointe.  It was nice to see Christine en pointe.

Michele McConnel did a nice little bit of flirting with Andre during her Think of Me performance.  I truly enjoyed Tim Jerome and Jim Weitzer (a former Raoul) as Firmin and Andre.  They are the first pair of managers I have seen since Calvin Remsberg and Norman Large who appeal strongly to me...and I think I may even prefer Jim Weitzers' Andre to Norman Large, which is definitely saying something.

Sierra Boggess is truly beautiful as Christine.  I had seen video of her from her days with the Vegas production and, of course, saw her 25th Anniversary performance from London.  If you have read any of my previous blog posts, you know I am VERY particular about Christines, and I rarely like a Christine vocally.  I absolutely love Sierra's voice as Christine.  I think what it is for me is that she does not have a distracting vibrato as many other actresses in the role have - which is a preference of some casting folks.  Also, she has a much fuller lower register than other women I have heard in the role, with no noticeable register difference/shift.  She sounds like an adult with the training background Christine should have. The only "complaint" I have about her vocally is that I feel her Think of Me cadenza is too legato.  I prefer the first run to be a little clearer and more staccato.

The weak link in the cast for me is Kyle Barisich's Raoul.  I first saw/heard him perform at this years Broadway in Bryant Park, and he just...annoyed me.  His singing is very technical and attacking, and I don't get a lot of musicality from it.  He seems to just sing the notes on the page with little to no thought about interpretation.  I also feel his voice doesn't always sit very well in the range that the role is written.  

I have seen Hugh Panaro's Phantom in the past.  I have always liked what he does, but it hasn't necessarily stood out to me.  The last time I saw him was maybe a year ago, and I have to say, while he was good, what he did at the Friday and Saturday night performances was just brilliant, and showed quite a bit of growth from the past performances.  I still feel he comes on too strong in the Mirror, but, his high notes are Heavenly, and his line reading of "Turn around and face your fate" on Friday night was the best I've ever heard it.  I'm disappointed it was completely different on Saturday.  There was just something amazing in the nuance of Friday's delivery.  Hugh's Phantom is a very close second to Davis Gaines'.

Tim Jerome as Firmin is delightful.  He gives Firmin a rather dry sense of humour, and, at the beginning of Act I Notes, he is gleefully laughing while going through the newspapers on his desk and tossing them away.  I really felt this was a lovely touch.  There is something about him - and Jim Weitzer's Andre - that just really appeals to me.  There is a freshness to what they do and an obvious enjoyment they seem to have about doing it.

They have added a lyric change to Wandering Child which I found jarring - the Phantom's line has, to this point been "Too long you've wandered in winter/far from my FAR REACHING gaze..."  On Friday night, Hugh replaced "far reaching" with "fathering."  He seemed to trip over it a bit, like it was an oops, rather than intentional, but, upon speaking with other fans after the show, this apparently has been the lyric in London.  I'm not sure why they made the change here, and I find it very out of place, but, there you are.  

The Final Lair was beautifully done. I like that Hugh chose to almost despairingly whisper his "why, why?" to Christine as the boat leaves the stage, rather than shouting it as is often done. Sierra plays Christine very strongly here, which is an important thing to me.  Something I found interesting is that, rather than deliberately kneeling down in front of the Phantom in appeal for "Angel of Music/You deceived me/I gave my mind blindly," she appeared to trip and fall while trying to go to him.  " I don't remember noticing this on Friday night, but if it was a deliberate choice, I liked it. She also physically pushes the Phantom away from Raoul as he advances on them at "Do you end your days with me/or do you send him to his grave?"  Hugh's Phantom displays a sense of childish glee as he acknowledges Raoul's arrival at the lair's gate.  His "You have truly made my night!" is chilling.  Hugh becomes very childlike and lost after releasing Christine, and it really is heartrendingly beautiful.

I very much look forward to seeing a few more performances before cast changes in March.

Hal Prince and Cameron Mackintosh join the cast onstage.

Of course, Saturday's performance was a special occasion.  After the curtain call, the cast remained onstage to welcome director Hal Prince and  producer Cameron Mackintosh.  Both men spoke eloquently of how they came to be involved with the production and their experiences with it.  Cameron read a note from the shows choreographer Gillian Lynne who was unable to attend due to being in tech for Dear World in London, while Hal read a note from original Phantom Michael Crawford, who was also unable to attend.

Video of Sarah Brightman and Andrew Lloyd Webber

 Sadly, composer and creator Andrew Lloyd Webber was also unable to attend due to back surgery he was supposed to be having that day.  He appeared via video interview with his muse, original Christine, and former wife Sarah Brightman.  The video is available here.

Sarah Brightman

Following the video, Sarah Brightman put in an in person appearance and spoke about her involvement with Phantom and love for the show.  Luckily, she was styled much better than at the Royal Albert Hall performance.

Full Company

Hal Prince then brought out all the stage crew and behind the scenes members of the company to thunderous applause.  Seeing every single person who makes Phantom run night after night on the stage was really great.  There were approximately 150 people on stage - cast and crew - 39 of which have been with the production since the beginning.

John Owen Jones, Hugh Panarao, Sierra Boggess, Ramin Karimloo, and Peter Joback.  

The evening closed out with an encore performance of the title theme sung by Sierra Boggess, Hugh Panaro, and London Phantoms John Owen Jones, Ramin Karimloo, and Peter Joback - who was announced to be doing a limited run with the New York company.  Now, don't get me wrong, this performance was spectacular.  I am a fan of John Owen Jones and Ramin Karimloo (afraid I don't care for Joback), however, I was a bit offended that they did not use any former BROADWAY Phantoms. This was a celebration of Broadway's 25th Anniversary, and many former Phantoms -including my personal favourite, Davis Gaines - were in the audience that night and could easily have taken the place of the three London Phantoms.  Until Joback joins the cast in - I think - March, none of that trio has any affiliation with the Broadway company.  I do feel this was a bit of a slap in the face to former Broadway Phantoms and to the fans.  

Music of the Night

The finale ended with the full company singing a reprise of Music of the Night, the Chandelier getting the final "bow," and a blast of the confetti canon.

Chandelier "bow" Photo: Lisa Pacino

Myself and the fabulous Kim Stengel at O'Flaherty's

Aside from the show, the weekend's highlights for me were meeting up with some out of area phans whom I was acquainted with online, and spending a very late night into early Saturday morning at O'Flaherty's Irish pub where I met the fabulous Kim Stengel (Toronto, tour, and Broadway Carlotta).  She is my new favourite person,  truly.  Oh, and, she borrowed my lipstick for the Gala.

What completed Saturday evening for me was running into Davis Gaines as I was putting on my coat in the lobby after the show.  Davis was my first Phantom, and the first person I ever went to a stage door for.  He has always been incredibly kind and gracious to me.  He seemed genuinely pleased to run into me and, if he didn't remember who I was (I hadn't seen him in over ten years) he did an excellent job of acting like he did, greeting me with "Great to see you!" and a big hug.  I absolutely adore him.

At the Ahmanson Stage Door in 1993

 

And reunited at the Majestic in 2013

This was a weekend I will never forget.  Wonderful performances, new friends, and a renewed love for this show which has been such a part of my life.  Hearing the music for the first time gave me more solid direction than just wanting to be a "singer and an actress on the stage," my desire to audition for it brought me to New York for the very first time when I was 18, and my love for it has brought me into contact with some really wonderful people.  I hope it continues to run for many more years.  I look forward to more evenings as an audience member, and still hope to one day appear in a production myself.

Some relevant links for the evening:

Finale Encore Performances 
Some Post Show Interviews 
Behind the Scenes Tour with Kyle Barisich 
Broadway World Interview with Sierra Boggess 
CBS News: "Behind the Phantom of the Opera"