The Phantom takes the Record
Jan. 10th, 2006 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerYes, you get a rare second entry from me.
Last night the musical The Phantom of the Opera surpassed Cats as the longest running musical in Broadway history. [Remember that the Fantasticks was off-(off-)Broadway.] Both are by Andrew Lloyd Webber but I think Phantom is the better of the two. For one thing Phantom has a plot. But that maybe just me.
I saw Phantom during previews in New York when I was at the Yale School of Drama. I knew about it when I went up there because of Jeff & Angelo who had heard about it from a friend who saw it in London. I have seen it 5 times. 3 times from the audience's point of view and twice from the stage manager's point of view when I was observing through a program that the SMA(Stage Management Association) was sponsoring. It took me till my third audience viewing to see past the mechanics of the show and enjoy the show as a show. Stage-managing was and is so much a part of me that I tend to look a lot at the technical aspects when watching a show. Sort of like I mentally edit any book I read now.
I really enjoy this musical. I like the music and Michael Crawford was amazing as the Phantom. He passed on the movie for a number of reasons including that he knew he couldn't get his voice to do what it did almost 20 years ago. I wore out 3 cassette tapes of the musical in my time. It was one of the first things I ever bought on CD. It still can work its magic when I hear the organ chords leading into the transformation of the theater. Now I am jones to see it again. I guess it will be around for a while since it is still doing well at the box office.
Congratulations to the cast and crew past and present of Phantom of the Opera! May your chandeliers fall on cue for many years to come.
I am grateful that I saw it way back when.
Last night the musical The Phantom of the Opera surpassed Cats as the longest running musical in Broadway history. [Remember that the Fantasticks was off-(off-)Broadway.] Both are by Andrew Lloyd Webber but I think Phantom is the better of the two. For one thing Phantom has a plot. But that maybe just me.
I saw Phantom during previews in New York when I was at the Yale School of Drama. I knew about it when I went up there because of Jeff & Angelo who had heard about it from a friend who saw it in London. I have seen it 5 times. 3 times from the audience's point of view and twice from the stage manager's point of view when I was observing through a program that the SMA(Stage Management Association) was sponsoring. It took me till my third audience viewing to see past the mechanics of the show and enjoy the show as a show. Stage-managing was and is so much a part of me that I tend to look a lot at the technical aspects when watching a show. Sort of like I mentally edit any book I read now.
I really enjoy this musical. I like the music and Michael Crawford was amazing as the Phantom. He passed on the movie for a number of reasons including that he knew he couldn't get his voice to do what it did almost 20 years ago. I wore out 3 cassette tapes of the musical in my time. It was one of the first things I ever bought on CD. It still can work its magic when I hear the organ chords leading into the transformation of the theater. Now I am jones to see it again. I guess it will be around for a while since it is still doing well at the box office.
Congratulations to the cast and crew past and present of Phantom of the Opera! May your chandeliers fall on cue for many years to come.
I am grateful that I saw it way back when.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 03:45 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if this link will work, but there was a symbolic passing of the baton during the curtain call last night. (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/01/10/theater/20060110_PHANTOM_SLIDESHOW_8.html) (Link's to a nytimes.com page, so bugmenot.com may be required.)
Congratulations to them for an amazing run indeed. May they continue to run for many years to come. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 05:01 pm (UTC)No, it didn't have a plot -- but then, it was based off a book of children's poetry written by T.S. Eliot. I used to read Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats both aloud to my sister and to myself, and I loved them. So I can't help liking Cats despite its lack of plot, because it took those poems and brought them to life.
Also, from an aesthetic I really liked the way all the props were scaled up to the proportions they'd be to actual felines.