25th Anniversary Restaged Tour

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:^love those designs, I too think a one-set design could really work, with smaller pieces being used to incorporate other settings; really wish the new tour had done something like this

Thanks!! I really need to finish these to show each scene and how flexible the set would be, it just takes so long!!



I wonder if the 25th ann. tour in the U.S. will be identical or if they'll make a bunch of changes to what they have in the U.K. right now.

This production finally has an EPK video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ll37MbcyMg

Credit where it's due, the makers of this have made a very dodgy and flat production look exciting. If only it were in reality!

Dang, Scorp beat me to it! This promo does make the tour look better than some of the other stuff that's been released--and I have to say the title song and the pyrotechnics in the graveyard (which seem to be taking a page from the RAH concert) do look pretty cool.

Even their best efforts can't make Masquerade and the not-Red Death look good, though...

~LCD

Scorp wrote:This production finally has an EPK video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ll37MbcyMg

Credit where it's due, the makers of this have made a very dodgy and flat production look exciting. If only it were in reality!

Yeah, I noticed some careful editing there... Lot of closeups of the young and beautiful leads, a dash of explosions and "swooosh" sound effects, and focus on epic moments. Very little views of the actual sets and actual acting, and despite all the adding in the world they can't hide that Masquerade is a drag, and that the Phantom seems less of a star of the show than what Christine is. In some ways it felt like seeing the teenager edition of Phantom.

But on the other hand, this looked a lot better than feared.

They really make that graveyard confrontation seem sort of epic.

I'm glad that they still do have some sort of proscenium, and do thing the bit falling off is kind of cool.

It's still hard to tell the design features from this, but it seems that at the sides you are always seeing that side/back wall with ladders and conduits all the time?

Red Death is still a mess, but I will say some of the designs look great, Im also a big fan of what seems to happen in place of the actual chandelier crash...it looks like it sways pretty dangerously although that couldve been amped up for the video, and the pieces of the proscenium breaking apart look cool too. But I notice everything is filmed in a very quick sweeping fashion, as the camera doesnt linger too long on any one shot...whereas in the brilliant original promos they love to show off the rich costumes and sets with epic shots and whatnot...

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:But I notice everything is filmed in a very quick sweeping fashion, as the camera doesnt linger too long on any one shot...whereas in the brilliant original promos they love to show off the rich costumes and sets with epic shots and whatnot...

Very true. I must admit they have made a pretty good EPK though. If I knew nothing about the show this might get me interested in seeing it, there's a lot of action going on. I'm glad that the horrible part during Masquerade when they lift Christine up didn't make it into the video....

here is the trick, save the vid and warch inslowed down, gives you time to see the new elements, some nice, some garish.

a bit off also, been watching it slowed down, I'm not seeing Carlotta in masquerade! is she not in the scene anymore? or does she take off before the dancing at the end?

also, meg's costume with the added skirt is really awfull, not to mention Mme. Giry's red riding hood cape

Didnt see anyone mention this, it seems going by the same vid, that Raoul takes a shot at the Phantom after the unbasking in PONR. nice touch.

sadly i cant seem to get screencaps done

justin-from-barbados wrote:a bit off also, been watching it slowed down, I'm not seeing Carlotta in masquerade! is she not in the scene anymore? or does she take off before the dancing at the end?

I think I've spotted her at 1:19. When the main characters are lined up at the front of the stage, I think she's second from the right. She's not wearing the spider costume the character usually wears.

[quote="Helen"]

justin-from-barbados wrote:
I think I've spotted her at 1:19. When the main characters are lined up at the front of the stage, I think she's second from the right. She's not wearing the spider costume the character usually wears.

Just like Maria intended... not

It's a well shot and edited EPK, I'll give it that, even if the cracking proscenium reminds me of the ending of Spamalot's "The Song That Goes Like This."

justin-from-barbados wrote:
also, meg's costume with the added skirt is really awfull

B@STARDS!! That's the last straw!!!!

KILL THIS ABOMINATION!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!

R.

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:Red Death is still a mess, but I will say some of the designs look great, Im also a big fan of what seems to happen in place of the actual chandelier crash...it looks like it sways pretty dangerously

Yeah, it really doesn't in reality. It shakes a little and that's it.

justin-from-barbados wrote:They really make that graveyard confrontation seem sort of epic.

It's anything but "epic", especially with the tacky little cross and Raoul pinning the Phantom to the wall and then just randomly leaving when he could have finished him off (reminds me of that awful film...)...

The shots of the managers' scenes made me laugh; they would have had to have REALLY zoomed in to make it look like that. If they had done a full shot of the stage, that room with the red wallpaper would have occupied only a fraction of the space.

I won't call the tour an abomination, though, given that the show is still Phantom and the cast is very good, butchered costumes and bad direction aside. That word I reserve for the creations of Joel Schumacher and Ben Elton...

I like the Promo Video and I can´t wait to see it live very soon!

Raphael wrote:It's a well shot and edited EPK, I'll give it that, even if the cracking proscenium reminds me of the ending of Spamalot's "The Song That Goes Like This."

Which itself was a parody of PotO's title song. It's the ciiiiiiiircle of liiiiiiiiife....

~LCD

A new Cameron Mackintosh about the tour can be found here. Unfortunately it is very, um, inaccurate.

tromp-la-mort wrote:A new Cameron Mackintosh about the tour can be found here. Unfortunately it is very, um, inaccurate.

Ouch, not a lot of love for the original novel there.

tromp-la-mort wrote:A new Cameron Mackintosh about the tour can be found here.

“We haven’t had one bad word from the public so far,” he insists. “Although, they are very protective of the show, they adore the new version and just seem pleased that it’s been remade in a fresh way.

Oh really?

~Madame~

Not sure if it belongs here or to the rare pictures thread, but here one can find the booklet scans, including the cast members, and a photograph of the curtain call by the author of the article (Maria Kiselyova). The latter, I believe, was never seen anywhere else before.

Great find! Many things I havent seen before...however..is that sliver-of-a-corner with the red wallpaper the managers office!? ( its in one of the behind the scenes photos) it looks TINY! And I find it misleading that they keep slapping the Garnier chandelier in all the official print materials...the one they use in this tour looks nothing like it.

I typed up a list of understudies, alternates and swing from the tour programme in case anyone is interested.

• Christine: Olivia Bereton (alt), Leigh Rhianon Coggins (u/s)

• Phantom: Richard Woodford, Greg Castiglioni

• Raoul: James Bisp, Kirk Jameson

• Carlotta: Rosie Bell, Claire Platt

• M. Firmin: Lee Ormsby, David Phipps-Davis

• M. Andre: Sam Harrison, Richard Woodford

• Mme Giry: Sarah Joyce, Rosie Bell

• Ubaldo Piangi: Greg Castiglioni, David Phipps-Davis

• Meg Giry: Rachel Crocker, Emma Roberts-Simms

• Swing (male): Alistair Barron, Michael Diana, James Pullum

• Swing (female): Hannah Grace, Siani Owen

• Ballet swing: Liesl Dowsett

Latest review.
http://chewingthescenery.com/2012/08/15/review-the-phantom-of-the-opera-leeds-grand-theatre-14082012/

To be fair I saw it again last night and it was much better than in Manchester.

An audio interview with John Owen-Jones, where he talks about the Phantom's personality and make-up, his attitude towards the role, etc.

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:Great find! Many things I havent seen before...however..is that sliver-of-a-corner with the red wallpaper the managers office!? ( its in one of the behind the scenes photos) it looks TINY! And I find it misleading that they keep slapping the Garnier chandelier in all the official print materials...the one they use in this tour looks nothing like it.

Yes. And it is ridiculously tiny. The entire staging for that scene is extremely cramped and the actors don't even have any space to move around, so they just stand in it and sing. You wouldn't be able to see it if you were sat to the extreme sides of the auditorium because the doors that open. It's another botched moment in a very amateur production.

Scorp wrote:

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:Great find! Many things I havent seen before...however..is that sliver-of-a-corner with the red wallpaper the managers office!? ( its in one of the behind the scenes photos) it looks TINY! And I find it misleading that they keep slapping the Garnier chandelier in all the official print materials...the one they use in this tour looks nothing like it.

Yes. And it is ridiculously tiny. The entire staging for that scene is extremely cramped and the actors don't even have any space to move around, so they just stand in it and sing. You wouldn't be able to see it if you were sat to the extreme sides of the auditorium because the doors that open. It's another botched moment in a very amateur production.

That's not true, we had the extreme side in Manchester and we could see it fine.

StrangerThanUDreamt - the corner piece you see has two doors on the front that form part of the drum thus making the while set piece about twice the size of the corner you see there.

Having seen the show in Leeds last night, I have to say it looked better on a smaller stage. The Leeds Grand stage is narrow and deep and the sets looks better (some were still awful) but the whole thing looked better on the smaller scale.

HerMajesty wrote:
That's not true, we had the extreme side in Manchester and we could see it fine.

Surely the doors that open out block the view of what's going on at the back of the 'room' that is the office? Either way it's difficult to see what's going on back there if you're sat on one of the upper levels. I think it's a really badly designed set piece and such a waste of stage space.

I'm still trying to understand the dynamics of the set. It looks to me almost similar to woman in white in that there is this semi-circular 'wall' (the drum) that rotates on the turntable and they set up the next scene behind it, then rotate it away to shoe the next scene, is that correct?

Also, I am still on the fence about having all the sides and backwall constantly being 'backstage' the idea sounds good on paper but I am not sure I like being a ble to see all those ladders and pipes all the time, much prefer Maria's 'black box' concept

justin-from-barbados wrote:I'm still trying to understand the dynamics of the set. It looks to me almost similar to woman in white in that there is this semi-circular 'wall' (the drum) that rotates on the turntable and they set up the next scene behind it, then rotate it away to shoe the next scene, is that correct?

Also, I am still on the fence about having all the sides and backwall constantly being 'backstage' the idea sounds good on paper but I am not sure I like being a ble to see all those ladders and pipes all the time, much prefer Maria's 'black box' concept

I just wrote a mini review having seen it yesterday but it seems to have got lost in cyber space!

I don't know about Woman in White but you've got it just about spot on, we actually were far too close to the stage and it was a bit overpowering and to be honest miserable lol It actually seemed to work quite well though for the scene changes and I was impressed how stairs came out for the journey to the lair but it looked very scary but you could just about make out safety wires on the actors!