International productions

The new South African cast has been announced:

PHANTOM: Andre Schwartz (as last time)
PHANTOM ON SUNDAYS: Jonathan Roxmouth
CHRISTINE: Robin Botha or Magdalene Minnaar
RAOUL: Jonathan Roxmouth
RAOUL ON SUNDAYS: Anthony Downing
FIRMIN: James Borthwick
ANDRE: Jason Ralph
CARLOTTA: Pauline du Plessis (as last time + World Tour) or Hanlee Louw
MADAME GIRY: Angela Kilian
MEG GIRY: Cat Lane
PIANGI: Thabiso Masemene
REYER: Kurt Haupt
PASSARINO: Nicholas Nkuna
AUCTIONEER/LEFEVRE/FIRE CHIEF: Mike Huff
BUQUET: Rouel Beukes
DON ATTILIO: Sebastian Zokoza
MARKSMAN: Anthony Downing
SOLDIER: Herman Theron
SLAVE MASTER: Marc Goldberg
CONFIDANTE: Jennifer West
INNKEEPER'S WIFE: Linelle Wimbles
MIRROR BRIDE: Mona Botha (as last time)
PRINCESS: Shirley Sutherland
MADAME FIRMIN Pauline Du Plessis/ Hanlee Louw (whoever is not Carlotta that evening)
WILD WOMAN: Riana van Voellenhoven
SHEPHERD: Darren Greeff
SWINGS: Welmien Faul, Lengelwa Mdekazi, Brandon Lindsay
DANCE CAPTAIN: Tandi Meikle (Meg Giry last time)

CORPS DE BALLET:
Caitlin Clerk, Elzanne Crawe, Kirsten Insenberg, Emma Jooste, Jessica Stanford, Bryany Whitfield


Surprising that the Phantom alternate is the principal Raoul. Glad to see Pauline du Plessis is repeating the role of Carlotta, she was fantastic. Magdalene Minnaar, alternating Christine, has a solid opera experience. Makes me excited. She also reveals they're heading for Asia again after the South African stop. Great news!

1 Nov 2011 - 15 Jan 2012
Artscape Opera House, CAPE TOWN

26 Jan - 6 May 2012
Monte Casino, JOHANNESBURG

28 Aug - 23 Sept 2012
Manilla, PHILLIPINES

4 Dec 2012 - 4 March 2013
Seoul, SOUTH KOREA

Elsewhere she writes they'll end the tour in Shanghai, China. So there might be more stops.
http://www.magdaleneminnaar.com/

According to this article, Brad Little will be playing the Phantom in an upcoming production in the Philippines.

"Phantom"s finally hitting the Philippines? Cool! I assume this is the World Tour production again?

TAFKaR

Yes, the Philippines stop is a part of the World Tour I wrote about over here. Other stops includes South Africa and South Korea. For some of the stops they use local stars (I.E. Anthony Warlow for Australia, André Schwartz for South Africa), while they use international ones for other stops (Brad Little for most of Asia). But it seems S.A. Christine alternate Magdaleme Minnar will join the whole tour, as she writes she does the role from now and until 2013.

Just for the reference of date, year an number of performances:

The Phantom of the Opera opens in Belgium, Oct. 24
By Maxim Bezembinder
24 Oct 1999


The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera will have its Belgian premiere at the Stadsschouwburg in Antwerpen, Belgium, on Sunday Oct. 24. The musical will be sung in Dutch, in a translation by Seth Gaaikema.

The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on Oct. 9, 1986, with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in the leading roles. There have been 14 productions world-wide since then. The musical had its Dutch language premiere Aug. 15, 1993, at the VSB Circustheater in Scheveningen, The Netherlands. The musical played 1,094 performances until Aug. 1, 1996 and holds the record for the longest running theatre production in The Netherlands, as well as the best sold cast recording.

Belgian actor Hans Peter Janssens will play the role of Phantom. He played both the roles of the Phantom and Raoul in the Dutch version of The Phantom of the Opera. Other roles have included Jean Valjean in the Belgian Les Miserables and the title role in the European premiere of Jekyll & Hyde. American actress Susanne Duwe will play the female lead of Christine Daaé, while fellow American Michael Lewis will play the role of Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. Arthur Masella, following the original direction of Harold Prince directs the Belgian version of The Phantom of the Opera, which is produced by Music Hall.

The Phantom of the Opera is currently booking in Antwerpen until Jan. 10, 2000.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/48542-The-Phantom-of-the-Opera-opens-in-Belgium-Oct-24

operafantomet wrote:

The Phantom of the Opera is currently booking in Antwerpen until Jan. 10, 2000.[/i]

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/48542-The-Phantom-of-the-Opera-opens-in-Belgium-Oct-24

Three months! I've always wondered why the production was so short.
They got the sets from the Swiss production, and after Antwerp they went to Madrid, Brazil and Argentina. A "world tour" of sorts?

TheFinnishPhantom wrote:

operafantomet wrote:

The Phantom of the Opera is currently booking in Antwerpen until Jan. 10, 2000.[/i]

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/48542-The-Phantom-of-the-Opera-opens-in-Belgium-Oct-24

Three months! I've always wondered why the production was so short.
They got the sets from the Swiss production, and after Antwerp they went to Madrid, Brazil and Argentina. A "world tour" of sorts?

Most of it was shipped to Copenhagen, I think. At least of the costumes. The Madrid production got their costumes and sets from Mexico, which in turn had used a mixture of inherited Toronto stuff and brand new stuff from London.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the dates given in the article was the initial booking period, while they actually closed in June 2000? Still a very short run, considering the costs of getting it up and running, but better than three months!

operafantomet wrote:
Most of it was shipped to Copenhagen, I think. At least of the costumes. The Madrid production got their costumes and sets from Mexico, which in turn had used a mixture of inherited Toronto stuff and brand new stuff from London.

At least the chandelier and the proscenium are originally from Basel, and Carlotta's B/W dress is identical to the Antwerp one.

operafantomet wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the dates given in the article was the initial booking period, while they actually closed in June 2000? Still a very short run, considering the costs of getting it up and running, but better than three months!

You're right. I remember seeing flyers "Het Spook van de Opera - Stopt 2. Juni"

ETA:
Preview, opening and closing

Holland Scheveningen Circustheater 01.08.93 15.08.93 04.08.96
Switzerland Basel Musical Theater Messe Bassel 29.09.95 12.10.95 27.07.97
Belgium Antwerp Stadsschouwburg Theatre 13.10.99 24.10.99 02.07.00

MSL is going to be Raoul?! *eeeeeeeek* I love his Raoul. He's so kind and awesome and all around perfect.

ML6 wrote:MSL is going to be Raoul?! *eeeeeeeek* I love his Raoul. He's so kind and awesome and all around perfect.

He WAS Raoul. This was in 2000. He even sung in Flemish. And if I remember correctly his understudy was Robert Pitcher, brother of Rebecca Pitcher. Just to throw in some really random information there.

operafantomet wrote:

ML6 wrote:MSL is going to be Raoul?! *eeeeeeeek* I love his Raoul. He's so kind and awesome and all around perfect.

He WAS Raoul. This was in 2000. He even sung in Flemish. And if I remember correctly his understudy was Robert Pitcher, brother of Rebecca Pitcher. Just to throw in some really random information.

Oh. Totally misread that reply. Totally misread the info. Thought they were coming back to play the roles. The world needs more MSL.

Some new items from the Japanese production in their online shop. I like how their monkey music box is slightly different to the San Francisco Music Box version (they did a plush version too). There is also (not listed) a pen with a tiny gold sculpture of the angel attached. http://gdsk.jp/shop/category/category.aspx?category=PH

Interview with Arthur Marsella, who's worked with basically all international productions of Phantom:

Though Hal Prince retains the title of director of The Phantom of the Opera, as associate director Masella is the one who (assisted by Rainer Fried) goes to the each city, casting the shows and bringing in people from all over the world to help with scenery, staging, choreography and the technical aspects.
Anyone knows if Arthur Marsella was involved in the 25th anniversary concert in Royal Albert Hall?


“What you will see here is very close to the New York and London productions, with minimal adjustments, based on which theatre we use. People really are getting the real thing, not some second-rate version.”
You said it, mistah!


The 58-year-old says he has a book’s worth of Phantom stories: “Recently I have thought of writing it because I think each city and each country and culture has a different story to tell about the process of putting on the production. “I thought it would be fun to gather my colleagues for a long weekend with a tape recorder and say: ‘All right, let’s go back and remember the experience’.”
Oh, write it, write it!!!! I'll be the first in line to buy it.


He hasn’t counted, but estimates he has worked on 20 productions since 1989. (...) The first production Masella worked on was in Los Angeles in 1989, and the first one he directed on his own was in Stockholm, Sweden, later that year.
That would be... Los Angeles, Chicago, Stockholm, Vienna, Hamburg, Scheveningen, Basel, Antwerp, Copenhagen, Madrid, Tokyo, Nagoya, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Seoul, Stuttgart, Essen, Toronto... and the World Tour? Holy sweet Moses...


He first watched The Phantom of the Opera in 1988 in New York. “I was overwhelmed by it, like most people. I thought it was so beautiful and so romantic, so compelling. I was a real fan from the start.”
Arthur Marsella, I officially dig you.


”We have, over the years, often gone into countries who have never seen anything like this, nor have they ever tried to mount anything this complicated. That’s a learning process for them and when we leave, they’ve served their apprenticeship in a way. “They come away with better skills and have the confidence they need to do the larger-scale productions. It happens in many countries and a certain amount of that happened here the last time around.”
This seems to be very true. Remember the boost Canadian theatre industry got after Phantom opened? The same happened in South Korea. And Japan. And Australia. And South Africa. And Germany. And probably other countries too. I like how he describe it as "an apprenticeship".


“On the one hand our job is to be faithful to the original production and that’s important to us. On the other hand, it’s important for us not to take people and fit them into little cubbyholes, but to give them the freedom to express their interpretations of the roles. Yes, they’re singing the same notes and wearing the same costumes and moving the same places around the stage. But what they bring as an actor from a particular culture, and with a particular experience in musical theatre, that ultimately is what defines the role and makes it different and unique for each person who has played it.”
YES!!! Exactly. That's why I bother see the show again and again. That's why I love seeing different international productions. That's why I keep returning. I'm glad the associate director have this opinion as well.

Full interview: http://www.iol.co.za/tonight/what-s-on/western-cape/phantom-a-work-of-arte-1.1178446

I posted this in souvenir brochures but I was wondering if anyone on the board is either from or lives in Brazil? I have a question and need some assistance. Thanks! :-)

Devon wrote:I posted this in souvenir brochures but I was wondering if anyone on the board is either from or lives in Brazil? I have a question and need some assistance. Thanks! :-)

I'm not from Brazil, but if it's something related to the Portuguese language, I could help you.

Miss von Krolock wrote:

Devon wrote:I posted this in souvenir brochures but I was wondering if anyone on the board is either from or lives in Brazil? I have a question and need some assistance. Thanks! :-)

I'm not from Brazil, but if it's something related to the Portuguese language, I could help you.

Thanks, I pm'd you!

Devon wrote:I posted this in souvenir brochures but I was wondering if anyone on the board is either from or lives in Brazil? I have a question and need some assistance. Thanks! :-)

I'm from Brazil. If there's anything else related you haven't found out yet, I'd be happy to help you with what I can.

PersianRobes wrote:

Devon wrote:I posted this in souvenir brochures but I was wondering if anyone on the board is either from or lives in Brazil? I have a question and need some assistance. Thanks! :-)

I'm from Brazil. If there's anything else related you haven't found out yet, I'd be happy to help you with what I can.

Hey there! Well I'm trying to find any information I can on trying to obtain a Phantom brochure for the Brazil production. I tried finding a contact email for the theater but haven't been able to.....

Cast of the Belgian production of Phantom:

Spook (ha-ha, the Phantom): Hans Peter Janssens
Christine Daaé: Susanne Duwe
Alternate Christine: Ineke van Klinken
Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny: Michael Lewis (he didn't use "Shawn" in Belgium)
Carlotta Guidicelli: An Lauwereins
Alternate Carlotta: Annemarie Kremer
Monsieur André / Understudy Phantom: Marc Meersman
Monsieur Firmin: Ernst van Looy
Madame Giry: Stephanie H. Tschöppe
Meg Giry: Sophie Kiddle
Ubaldo Piangi: William Lynn Dixon
Joseph Buquet/Ensemble/Understudy Firmin: François Jacobs
Monsieur Reyer/Ensemble: Stefan Hamblok
Passarino/Understudy Firmin/Buquet/Don Atillo: Stephen Len White
Monsieur Lefevre: Fabrice Pillet
Don Atillo/Understudy Lefevre: Paul Gérimon
Madame Firmin/Understudy Carlotta/seamstress/confidante: Rita Saxmark
Princess/Mirror Bride/Understudy Christine: Janine Kitzen
Stagehand/Understudy Raoul/PiangiPiangi: Rob Pitcher
Wardrobe mistress/Confidante/Understudy Madame Giry: Désirée Moerdijk
Ensemble/Understudy Piangi/Reyer/Jeweler/Hair dresser: John De Smet
Ensemble/Understudy Phantom/Raoul/André:Rob van Surksum
Ensemble: Zoë Ann Bown, Christel Plancq, Mieke Torfs

Swing / Understudy Raoul: Frank Engel
Swing / Understudy Madame Giry/Wardrobe mistress / Confidante: Ann Engels
Swing / Understudy Buquet/Reyer/Don Attilio/Passarino: Florian Giertzuch
Swing / Alternate Monsieur André: Kris Wouters
Swing / Understudy Wardrobe mistress/confidante: Isabelle Roeland
Swings: Helen Geets, Nikky Ryan

Dancer / Understudy Meg: Lara Glew
Dancer / Understudy Meg: Judith Sibley
Dancers: Nikki Heaton, Karen Kleinsmit, Claire Rooney, Wendy Pfeijffer
Slavemaster: Yoann Martin
Dancer / Understudy Slavemaster: Bjorn Van der Auwera

The production opened at Stadsschouwburg, Antwerp in October 1999, and closed in July 2000.

I've been recently hearing rumours of a new production in Europe, and I saw this on Wikipedia;

The Phantom of the Opera

Germany - Das Phantom der Oper: Theater Neue Flora, Hamburg (June 29th, 1990 – June 30th, 2001)*
Netherlands: Circustheater, Scheveningen (1993–1996)
Germany: Palladium Theater, Stuttgart (November 1st, 2002 – May 23rd, 2004)
Spain: Teatro Lope De Vega, Madrid (2002 – 2004)
Germany: Colosseum Theater, Essen (September 29th, 2005- March 10th,2007)
Netherlands: AFAS Circustheater, Scheveningen (assumed 2014)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_Entertainment

TheFinnishPhantom wrote:I've been recently hearing rumours of a new production in Europe, and I saw this on Wikipedia;

The Phantom of the Opera

Germany - Das Phantom der Oper: Theater Neue Flora, Hamburg (June 29th, 1990 – June 30th, 2001)*
Netherlands: Circustheater, Scheveningen (1993–1996)
Germany: Palladium Theater, Stuttgart (November 1st, 2002 – May 23rd, 2004)
Spain: Teatro Lope De Vega, Madrid (2002 – 2004)
Germany: Colosseum Theater, Essen (September 29th, 2005- March 10th,2007)
Netherlands: AFAS Circustheater, Scheveningen (assumed 2014)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_Entertainment

I think it's listed there because a Dutch musical forum had a topic about possible auditions. A teacher at the Conservatory in Arnhem (ArtEZ) claimed auditions would happen in April. Another corrected the teacter and said the note didn't specify it was Phantom, but a classical musical produced by Stage Entertainment. Then the rumours started flying on this new version being similar to the one in Royal Albert Hall or the new UK tour one. Stage Entertainment was asked and of course responded that 2014 wasn't scheduled yet. And it just snowballed from there:
http://www.musicalworld.nl/forum/viewthread/14021/

What seems strange, though, is why a teacher at a conservatory should get such a note. Why seeking students? And why not a public announcement if they indeed are to put the show back on at Circustheater? I dunno. I'll wait and see what happens. As of now it sounds more like a rumour than anything else. And IF a new production is to happen, I would rather think Berlin. Or even Rome.

Bonjour!
I'm a new member of Deserted Phans, and I just want to say that I'd totally LOVE to one day see a French-language production of ALW's POTO...I'm guessing either in Belgium or in Quebec, Canada...if RUG/ALW/CM would ever decide to do one.

NightRachel wrote:Bonjour!
I'm a new member of Deserted Phans, and I just want to say that I'd totally LOVE to one day see a French-language production of ALW's POTO...I'm guessing either in Belgium or in Quebec, Canada...if RUG/ALW/CM would ever decide to do one.

I fear it's not for them to decide. Apart from West End and Broadway, the only production they have initiated is the Swiss one, opening in Basel in 1995. It was not a financial success, and they have never repeated being both licensing and producing the show. The new UK tour is the exception, being Cameron Mackintosh's project.

Usually professional theatres license the show and produce it themselves, supervised by some in the original creative team and/or their assistants. So what we should hope for is a theatre in French Canada or in France decides on doing the show. I would LOVE to see it in Paris!

Ah, thanks for that explanation, operafantomet. Hmm, very interesting.
Well, whoever it is that makes those decisions -- the individual theaters or anyone else -- I'd still LOVE to see POTO in French! And yes, a production in Paris would be ideal...but somehow I think it more likely it would end up being outside of France, either in Canada or Belgium perhaps.
Either way, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a French-language production to happen one of these days.

NightRachel wrote:Ah, thanks for that explanation, operafantomet. Hmm, very interesting.
Well, whoever it is that makes those decisions -- the individual theaters or anyone else -- I'd still LOVE to see POTO in French! And yes, a production in Paris would be ideal...but somehow I think it more likely it would end up being outside of France, either in Canada or Belgium perhaps.
Either way, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a French-language production to happen one of these days.

I hope someday we´ll see the show in french.
Paris would be perfect.

NightRachel wrote:Ah, thanks for that explanation, operafantomet. Hmm, very interesting.
Well, whoever it is that makes those decisions -- the individual theaters or anyone else -- I'd still LOVE to see POTO in French! And yes, a production in Paris would be ideal...but somehow I think it more likely it would end up being outside of France, either in Canada or Belgium perhaps.
Either way, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a French-language production to happen one of these days.

Strangely I remember reading in older biography of Simon Bowman, I can't remember what show the programme was from that I saw it in and I don't think it's in his current bio but it said that he played the Phantom in a concert version of the phantom of the opera at the Paris opera house. I can't seem to find any info about this concert, and I'm not sure if it was done in English or French. It must have been quite a few years ago, but you would have though there would be something about it somewhere.

I'd love to see a Paris production also, Paris had a very bad rep. for Musicals, but with Lion King and Mamma Mia recently playing well maybe Phantom may come down the line. It would look beautiful in Theatre Mogador (sp) where Lion King was. Very deep stage, they dug it out for Pride Rock so they should be able to use the rising candelabra. But rumour is that even though Mamma Mia is currently playing there, the Lion King stage is still there under the Mamma Mia set, so maybe the King will return.

was thinking again today about getting a French Language production.

It really would have to be in Paris

Belgium had one in Antwerp, but they are mainly Dutch/Flemish speaking, in Brussels, they speak more French but there isn;t a theatre I am aware of that can house it (Unless they put in into their Opera House)

And I just remembered that the Canadian tours aswell as the last US tour visited Montreal (posibly Quebec too) and stayed English Speaking. Lion King also toured there too. So it would be unlikely they would mount their own production from scratch.

IamErik771 wrote:I have a random question and thought I'd post here... Does anyone know if the Argentina production from 2009 used the same lyrics as the Mexican production? So far, I've just heard the first two verses of the title song via YouTube, and the lyrics seem to be the same, so I was wondering if the rest of the show was as well.

Only going by memory here, the Mexican and Argentine production used in large the same libretto, while the Spanish production used a different one. In Spain they're more fond of pronouncing letters and syllables than what they are in Latin and South America, which meant the rhythm often didn't work out in Spanish-Spanish VS Mexican Spanish. One example is the Spanish word "Fantasma" which they pronounce more like "Fanta(h)ma) over the pond.

Also, I think they for the most used the Spanish-Spanish libretto for the Spanish movie dub, except some lines were changed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, though!