In light of last week’s post I realized that it would take
two separate posts for this particular write-up. One it was too long, and two
it was taking forever to write up the review, and three I had to submit to
using the 2014 pictures instead of finding ones that related to the new cast.
(I know, super lazy!)
So, forgive me.
I now present to you Act Two of the new re-staged tour of
“The Phantom of the Opera”.
Entr’acte
There is nothing quite as awesome as listening to this live.
Awesome, ‘nuff said.
Masquerade
Firstly, the costumes are an absolute disappointment. Utter
rubbish – and absolutely devastating that they took away the more colorful costumes
and masks – why they deigned to change this still baffle me. Contrary to the
fun array of colors, this entire scene is done in muted colors and tones. Even
the lights are dimmer than the original. The only costumes that didn’t really
change were Christine’s (semi-star girl), Raoul’s (how could you change this? Glad they didn’t change this at all), and Meg’s.
This is less a spectacle and more of a “fancy person’s
no-costume-allowed-not-even-a-cool-mask party”. The guys are all in regular
tuxes with flashy capes that coincide to a lady’s muted dress.
That’s it.
Nothing else. No staircase. No festive lighting. No cool masks. Nadda. If you
expected any of the cool stuff, lower your expectations and go home.
Also – if you were expecting a cool dance sequence, hope you
left your hopes down in the foyer.
There is no over-the-top awesomeness.
Tuff.
This leads me right into –
Why So Silent
OR – why you shouldn’t leave any mirror near the main
character. (Okay, not really, I was going to say something but that would have
been insensitive.)
I know this has been stated before. I know the fans have previously
groused about this. But it’s true and it holds up.
The Commie Phantom.
Let me take this piece-by-piece. The costume is less an
actual costume and more along the lines of a fancy red tuxedo with a wimpy
cape. The mask is rubbish. It’s a plain golden thing that makes me desperately
long for the functioning skull mask. This makes me angry.
Now the set – think hall of mirrors and there you have it. …
no. Seriously. That’s it. Move along now.
So – at the climax the phantom waltzes out from the middle
mirror in the back. The music that typically accompanies his entrance – or is
in key with how many steps he walks down – is reduced to one “bump” before he launches
into “Why so silent”.
His lines seem a bit off, more rushed. One of the managers
gets the task of timidly stepping forward and taking it. There is no tossing it to them, no threatening
positions, just the phantom standing in the middle and handing it over.
Instead of “Your chains are still mine, you will sing for me”
– it’s now, “Your voice is still mine”….. I dunno. I guess in a way it makes
sense, but it’s just a bit . . . weird.
While all of this is going on however, one of the girls
decides to investigate the mirror through which the phantom entered. She seems
to make some decent progress before a few of the guys pull her away. It was
pretty awesome.
So, after the proper threats are made, the phantom gives a
ball of fire and sorta just waltzes back through the mirror while everyone else
runs away. There is a trick where it looks like the mirrors are moving for a
moment, giving it that twisted feel. Or a feeling of being caught in a kaleidoscope.
Raoul stays behind with a lantern (which I have no idea how
in the heck he got to begin with!) and investigates the mirrors. The new set
turns and we see Madame Giry backstage, looking frightened. Raoul yells at her
and comes running back.
Madame Giry’s Tale
This was done rather well. They are in the center of the
stage, with a few stagehands walking around doing work of some sort. On the
wall behind them, stage left you can see her story playing out in shadows on
the wall. It gives homage to the ’04 movie in those regards, but it was a nice
touch. (Read: not the worst thing they’ve done to this show.)
Notes II
Welcome back to the return of craptastic set! If you are on
either house left or right the set designers say, “Screw you!”
I mean, if the venue was smaller this would actually be a
rather cool set, but in the larger venues – it’s rubbish.
So, I do enjoy the fact that in this version Christine is
having None-of-It. When Carlotta rounds on her, she takes off the gloves and
lets in. Even as everyone turns away throughout the song so she’d left alone.
This leads into our next song.
Twisted Every Way
Firstly, instead of fainting into a chair, as in the
original, Christine holds her own. When Raoul keeps trying to tell her
everything’s okay, she genuinely slaps him across the face. After saying she
can’t do it she runs out. Which is obnoxious because the original also had her
say, “I won’t!” (This will make sense in the next song.)
As she runs off Raoul runs backstage after her, she tells
him off, “You were supposed to protect me Raoul. Leave me alone!”
He then proceeds to tell off the phantom that he’s going to
win.
Don Juan Triumphant Rehearsal
So, apparently everyone already has the lyrics to “Don Juan”
memorized. No one holds any sheet music, not even Christine.
She begrudgingly shows up to rehearsal, kinda annoyed that
she’s there at all.
After Piangi mucks up his line for the umpteenth time,
Carlotta tells off the opera ghost, and then crosses herself when Giry Sr.
tells her OG might be watching. Surprisingly this gets a laugh from the
audience.
So, there are mucho flames now come off the piano. When it
starts into the song, everyone else goes trance like, while Christine is left
to wonder around piano confused. The flames get rather high before defusing.
Once it ends everyone else starts acting like nothing out of the ordinary
happened at all, leaving a baffled Christine to wonder if she imagined it all
or not.
Journey to the Cemetery
As the set turns from rehearsal to this we see Christine
backstage still confused about the whole odd rehearsal. The chorus members help
with the scene change. A few of the ballerinas and Meg are on stage right
talking. When Christine approaches them they leave. Meg and Christine have a
sort of stare off. When Meg turns away Christine goes into, “In sleep…” For a
second it looks like Meg still wants to be friends, then instead leaves. (I
take this as a gross nod to the crap that came out in 2010. I am not okay with
this. Meg, as her best friend, WOULD NEVER TURN AWAY FROM HER IN THE HARD
TIMES! That is utter BS.)
Christine is all alone as the stage rotates to the cemetery.
Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
Now, other than the crappy view from house left, I actually
loved this scene. It’s reminisce of the music video they made with Sarah
Brightman. It’s brighter, with only two tombstones. All one level.
I loved the lighting in this scene; the background goes from
dark to light. I love the subtlety in this light shift. I didn’t catch it until
the second night. It was rather beautiful.
While singing they changed the second verse in the song.
With the original being,
“Passing bells and sculpted angels,
Cold and monumental,
Seem for you the wrong companion,
You were warm and gentle”
The switched to these lyrics,
“Three long years I’ve knelt in silence
Held your memory near me,
Three long years of numbered sorrows,
Willing you to hear me.”
I think the lyric change was a nice touch. It gives her more
sorrow about the death of her father. And the end of the song has the high note
at the end.
Wondering Child
As the song ends we see the phantom walk around the edge of
the set and into the ‘graveyard’.
Christine is sitting in her father’s grave as
he sneaks around the other one. They shift positions and he winds up standing
on the grave while she’s a bit further back.
My favorite part – IT’S BACK TO BEING A TRIO!!
I almost squee'd out loud when I saw Raoul come into the
scene, and start his part in the song. He is often left out of this scene,
which bums me out.
It was everything I wanted.
So, the phantom stands stage right, Christine is off on
stage right, and Raoul puts himself in-between the two of them. He tries to
fend off the phantom while protecting Christine.
I believe the point where Christine comes out of the trance
is when Raoul legit punches the phantom in the face, on the non-mask side. They
tussle for a little.
The phantom gets all ticked and starts shooting fireballs.
When they run off there are a few more that follow before the phantom declares
war and lights up the stage.
Before Don Juan
The firemen. So. This will always be one of my favorite
scenes. After the whole “I’m-here” shindig, the guy in the pit shoots. It
sounds like an honest-to-earth gun shot. Both nights the entire audience
tittered, gasped and I think someone actually screamed. It was a nice touch.
Don Juan Triumphant
More . . . grinding . . . and [censored]… at first there’s a
long table full of food and the overstuffed pig. Once this brief scene is over
the cast take away all of the food, leaving the table bare except a goblet and
a bowl of cherries (I’m guessing, kinda hard to see from the back). There are
also other people dressed in the black cloaks (my notes say ring wraith’s, ha!)
So – all of this leads into the next hot mess….
Point of No Return
When. The. Heck. Did. We. Enter. A. Strip. Club.
Firstly, when he comes on, he starts the pose and stomp your
foot fetish. He genuinely feels her up a
few times until it’s her turn. And then the “Oh my Gosh, why did I think to
bring my child to this” begins.
This is how the phantom is treating her rather dumb table
dance. I mean, the whole set up before was rather risqué for to bring a child
to, after this mess there’s no way in the Underground I’d ever bring a child to
see this. There is so much “coping a feel” in this scene I felt uncomfortable
sitting there watching.
After she yoinks the cowl back two policemen come on stage,
guns at the ready to shoot the perp!
Raoul also leaves his box to come onstage,
which the phantom watches. He takes the time it takes Raoul to reach the stage
to sing his AIAOY shin-tick to Christine, standing up on the table (he was
trying to get away first then realized it was the one shot he had to sing). He
then gets off the table, going far enough to place the ring on her finger and
get down on one knee.
Christine knees down next to him, then yoinks off the mask
and attached (and funky looking) hair piece; the phantom yells at her.
The marksman shoots at close range and misses! How did that
idiot get to be a policeman?
Christine exits, pursued by a phantom.
Between Scenes
We Piangi hanging in the back (no pun intended). The cast
remove set pieces, gagging at the corpse. The policemen get people moving out
of the opera, across the stage. When Giry tells Raoul about the Punjab and Meg
tries to join in, she literally gets Reyer to take her out.
Raoul does a good job at the whole ‘hand at the level of
your eyes’ all the way down the steps first seen during the title song. He
pauses a few times on the way down, looking around. When he hits the bottom he
takes another minute or two before running off.
Final Lair
Hokay – there’s a lot here.
Christine is yelling “No!” before we even see the lair. She
is in the wedding gown already. Phantom is ticked; he throws the PONR dress
against the wall. It makes an audible thud. (I don’t know why, but that makes
me happy.)
The two share their brief moments together, in which the
phantom mocks her a bit.
“I bid you welcome” is done in the same snarky vein as Hugh
Panaro. I mean, he does the mock bow and everything. The sass is fantastic.
Raoul comes in, sees them close together and promptly forgets
the whole ‘hand-at-the-level-of-your-eyes’ to save your life bit. The phantom
almost chokes Christine (why is this suddenly a thing?), and leaves her and
Raoul to have a moment. As they check their pulses, the phantom goes to his
nifty little Punjab shelving.
Not surprising he gets Raoul without much of a fight. After
being strung up there’s a tense moment where Christine gets rather tossed to
the other side of the stage.
Christine is having none of it. She takes up the phantom’s
music and starting balling it up and chucking it around the room, then at him.
It ends with her tossing it all on the floor and rushing back to Raoul. The
phantom tries to gather his music, then gets what she’s up to and tosses her onto
the bed where she flops like a fish. The phantom walks over the bed and rants
about his music.
“You deceived me” is more spoken and truly ticked off and
angry woman.
At first the phantom is confused, and then finally just gives
her the ultimatum.
Christine reaches out and kisses him, then she wraps both
arms around and gives him a super hug, which brings him to his knees. They stay
there for a little while. Then the phantom stand up, “No!” and backs away. (He
can’t handle the cute.)
He uses a clever trick to free Raoul from the Punjab. While he’s
telling them to get away, he picks up his music off the floor. While Raoul and
Christine leave, the monkey box distracts the phantom.
As Christine is singing the AIAOY reprise, phantom tilts his
head as though she’s singing to him. When Raoul joins in, he realizes it’s all
for nothing. He just sits there on the floor.
Christine comes back in with Raoul in tow and sets the ring
down on a table. The phantom doesn’t even notice they’re there. At all. No
looks. Nothing. Nadda.
Raoul pulls Christine out of the room, and they both vanish
from the stage.
The phantom lets the music drop to the floor, defeated. He
puts his cloak (cape, cloak, eh, I’ve heard it both ways) on and covers up. The
mask is no-where to be seen.
Meg comes in, followed by the cops. She sorta backs him up
to the bed, where he stands with his back to the audience. Meg grabs him and
just sorta stand there until he’s over the right trapdoor (cause, duh). When
she pulls it back, it falls to the floor with no one underneath. She lets it
drop and then shuffles around until she finds the mask sitting there. She holds
it out to the police, in reminisce of the original.
Exit
Whew – if you have any questions, comments, pics you want to
share, feel free to post them below. As always NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED!
Pictures taken from google. Still No Copyright Intended!
And now – I need a long break. Going to chill with Erik, later!
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