25th anniversary celebrations

I love that mockup, though like others have said, I hope they don't go overboard with the projections in other scenes, and in particular, leave the lair set pretty much alone.

atleast most of you all are lucky enough to be able to see it at the cinema. I will have to make do with whenever PBS decides to air it or wait till the DVD comes out and hope I can find someplace that will ship region 1 out here (I usually get all my CDs from Dress Circle so I hope, but doubt, they will stock some region 1 DVDs)

I know this is probably quite low on the list of questions regarding the concert but...Wandering Child...trio or duet?

PMB1034 wrote:I know this is probably quite low on the list of questions regarding the concert but...Wandering Child...trio or duet?

Good question! I hope it's the trio since it's London, but what with everything Raoul has had to suffer in the last year, it wouldn't surprise me if they omitted him.

So who's actually attending the RAH? Earlfan and I are going on the Saturday. Starryeyed is going on the Sunday. Anyone else?

It better be trio, funny enough I was thinking that same thing this evening on my way home.

I finally found a local theatre that'll be playing the 25th broadcasts, so I'm happy to say I'll "be there!"

I'll probably catch one of the encore shows due to my personal schedule--also because I figure if anything extraordinarily stupid happens, I'll have fair warning of it and can "happen" to need a very long bathroom break when it comes up.

~LCD

I just can't get excited about these concerts. After waiting all these years, I should be, but....

Positives: They are sticking (we assume) pretty close to the costumes, blocking, and those aspects of the stage production we all know.
They are casting competent musical theater performers.
The show might, based on the Masquerade model, look spectacular

Negatives: They have cast the two young stars of Love Never Dies and are shoving that show into every aspect of the things available for purchase and are not, in my opinion, all that interested in honoring the 25 years of Phantom of the Opera.
I've never seen Ramin's Phantom so he might be wonderful, but I am suspicious of a characterization based on the idea that the Phantom is the way he is because he is autistic.

They've cast Ramin's BFF instead of any of the other possible Raoul actors who have actually been in the show.
Since the producers have known about what they planned for quite some time, I don't understand how the decision would be left to such a late date that they had to pick someone as a "last minute" pick.

I've *heard* but don't know as fact that Michael Crawford was offered the role of the Auctioneer but turned it down because he felt he had to keep his commitments to people who have bought tickets to see him in the Wizard of Oz. I'm a fan, and seeing the audience reaction when they figured out who the Auctioneer was might have been worth the price of the DVD.

If I can buy or download the concert so that it will play on my computer, I'll do it, but I just don't feel excited at all. Perhaps, after I see the show, I'll feel differently.

Bric, I'm not feeling it either, and it frustrate the crap out of me.

I'm not keen on much of the casting thus far, but I've noticed a LOT of criticism around the web regarding casting of non-London Phantom alumni. While I can understand the demand to cast people who can sing and have a history with the property, does restricting it to Londoners ONLY sound a bit elitist to anyone else? I had thought this was a celebration of 25 years of a musical, not necessarily a celebration of a specific production.

TAFKaR

Bric wrote:
I've *heard* but don't know as fact that Michael Crawford was offered the role of the Auctioneer but turned it down because he felt he had to keep his commitments to people who have bought tickets to see him in the Wizard of Oz. I'm a fan, and seeing the audience reaction when they figured out who the Auctioneer was might have been worth the price of the DVD.

If it's true MC was offered the role of the auctioneer, I'm glad he turned it down. Even if he may not be up to playing the Phantom again, I think I would feel rather insulted to have him as the auctioneer and some young hunk who even ALW admitted he cast in LND because he was "sexy" playing the Phantom. Especially when MC's legendary performance deserves to be seen by generations to come, whereas, frankly, Ramin's doesn't, yet that is the one that is going to be preserved on DVD.

Bric wrote:I am suspicious of a characterization based on the idea that the Phantom is the way he is because he is autistic.

I actually think that's interesting. I didn't know that's his interpretation.

And I agree with Scorp about the insult of MC being the auctioneer.

A photo of the lair is up, not seeing any boat, maybe it will be cut. Maybe what they are showing is just the start of that scene, don;t get wny the organ is in the middle. Maybe it spreads out when the 'truck' comes onstage.

They are still using Bjornson's elements but in a different way.

I know anot of people that were expecting exact stage show staging will be dissapointed.

As for the blocking, will it be the same?
There is a new director, didnt someone say that some of the iconic moves were coppyrighted to the Hal Prince version? Will they be able to use them? The Hair Slick? The MOTN 'pose'?

I've argued a bit with people over at the official Facebook and different forums about what the RAH event is. I'm trying to explain them that though it's a huge event with costumes and sets recognizable from the original, it ISN'T the original. I'm not even sure it is fully staged in terms of blocking etc. And people are getting so mad and calling me a hater and whatnot, asking me to get a life. Seriously!

I'm sure the concert will be awesome, but that doesn't make it identical to what's seen at Her Majesty's Theatre. Is it too much to ask to see the difference?

Then again, I had a discussion with a girl who thought me a moron because I called the opera house in the movie "generic", cause she meant that "it all looks the same because it is the same", I.E. the movie opera house was meant to be Palais Garnier since she found them so similar. I posted this as a response:



As for the concert, I'm happy they use Bjørnson's set ideas as a basis. I was positively surprised that they choose the Palais Garnier staircase, unmistakably so, and that they're using Bjørnson's costumes. I found the lair set a bit underwhelming (and what' up with Rossum in giant TOM dress of doom?), but I'm sure it'll look cooler live.

Justin, they can't get away with NOT doing the MOTN pose and the slick hair thing. Gillian Lynne is still on the blocking/choreography, and I seem to remember those are her favourite traits.

ETA: bought my tickets for the movie screening today. They play it in the coolest and biggest movie theatre in Oslo on October 2. The screen is huuuuge, and the dome is like Pantheon. I love it there! Good place for the screening.

Anyone else had a feeling Samantha Barks might be Meg? She's not in anything at the moment to my knowledge, is a Cam Mack favourite & was in a Lloyd Webber casting show. Just wanted to put it out there so I could say "I called it" if I'm right!

justin-from-barbados wrote:A photo of the lair is up

At the risk of making a terrible pun, I must've missed the boat on this. Could you please post a link to this photo?

Thanks!

~Madame~

Ducks with embarrasment, Im not sure how to post links here, but it is on the FB page and the broadwayworld page.

What can I say about the FB page fans, I try not to get involved. I am go to a few other shows sites over on FB and almost ALL of the discussion there tends to be on a dull, imature (in that it looks like a bunch of 8 year olds) and some quite frankly stupid comments. I think what is happening is alot if not most of the poeple that comment there are people who may have seen the show once and clicked 'liked'
A good example is when people constantly ask when the show is coming back to so and so city and all I can think to myself is if they were really fanatical fans they would know the tour ended.

alot of other comments, particularly to other shows are the basic things like they so love this show but havent actually seen it.

When it comes out they will realise that it is not the same exact show that is in the tehatre, although I am sure ALOT of them will still think it is after seeing it since most may have only seen the actual show a handfull of times.

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-First-Look-at-THE-PHANTOM-OF-THE-OPERAs-25TH-Anniversary-Lair-20110914

operafantomet wrote:I've argued a bit with people over at the official Facebook and different forums about what the RAH event is. I'm trying to explain them that though it's a huge event with costumes and sets recognizable from the original, it ISN'T the original. I'm not even sure it is fully staged in terms of blocking etc. And people are getting so mad and calling me a hater and whatnot, asking me to get a life. Seriously!

Snap. I give up with those fans. Dare to disagree with any official publicity and you're automatically a "hater". I was even told to do my research!

SenorSwanky wrote:

Bric wrote:I am suspicious of a characterization based on the idea that the Phantom is the way he is because he is autistic.

I actually think that's interesting. I didn't know that's his interpretation.

Yes, it's been Ramin's interpretation since he did the original at HM's, and then he took it further with LND. Then he and Jack O'Brien kept telling the press that they had diagnosed the Phantom with autism. The Telegraph had whole article about it and Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Fail Mail wrote this hilarious piece:

That's why the key creatives of Lloyd Webber, O'Brien and lyricist Glenn Slater insisted on getting the story right for Love Never Dies. <sarcasm>(Well they sure managed that...) </sarcasm>

O'Brien said it amounted to putting the main characters on a psychiatrist's couch.

He needed to understand the DNA of the former piece. 'Why is the Phantom so abhorrent?'

O'Brien believes the answer to that is autism - and the genius and the rage point to that.

'We spent hours and hours analysing and justifying behaviour that is acceptable in a 20th-century mind,' O'Brien observed.

I'm sorry, but I thought that was ridiculous. The Phantom's antisocial behaviour and rage against society is already self-explanatory. You don't need autism to justify that, or there again, maybe you do if you start messing with his past and concoct nonsense plotlines involving Madame Giry helping him all along etc, which makes a mockery out of lines like "No kind word from anyone, no compassion anywhere...". A few people who suffer or know people who suffer from autism were outraged by what O'Brien and Karimloo had come up with and wrote to the producers, who reacted by banning both O'Brien and Karimloo from talking about it ever again.

This is the RAH lair set. I don't know why they've randomly stuck Schumacher's Christine and Ken Hill's Phantom (?!?!) in the image.

Well, lets just hope they are there just to show scale, I am sure they wont be using those costumes.

So it seems that this setup reminds me alot of a Rihanna concert I went to recently

a main LED screen, a bridge that moves up and down, under that there are smaller led screens that slide open for scenery. I wonder though, if the main LED screen will serve also as the screens that show closeup shots of the performers, or will be it just a static backdrop image all the time.

Scorp wrote:This is the RAH lair set. I don't know why they've randomly stuck Schumacher's Christine and Ken Hill's Phantom (?!?!) in the image.

That sort of thing often happens with concept art (I've seen some real doozies for some of the sci-fi I'm into); it's just to get an idea of perspectives, not really for the public domain.

SenorSwanky wrote:

Bric wrote:I am suspicious of a characterization based on the idea that the Phantom is the way he is because he is autistic.

I actually think that's interesting. I didn't know that's his interpretation.
And I agree with Scorp about the insult of MC being the auctioneer.

Yes, Ramin said in an interview,

"...He definitely is not an evil person. He is a victim of circumstance and environment. He has been conditioned with such prejudice in his life. I believe the Phantom to be Autistic. I think he has a form of "Aspergus Syndrome". When the Phantom kills I truly don't believe it to be premeditated. He's just losing control. Again, this all stems from his social conditioning. He's never felt a mother's love, nor his father. He has had to become a man without being a child."

Part of that sounds OK to me, but autistic? Both he and director O'Brien caught some criticism from people with autistic family members for saying that this was the interpretation they were using in LND. I don't remember just what the family members' objections were.

In a recent interview on an online Phantom themed radio station, Peter Karrie spoke about the autistic interpretation and didn't care for it. He had this to say,
..."since Hal is no longer kind of involved...they've brought in directors
I know that recent directors . . . have made him not insane, not passionately in love  but autistic, and that has taken some of the power away from him. It has made him normal, to an extent, made him a total different type of character and I went to see the Phantom not  long ago and it did nothing for me. ...because if you haven't got fear of the Phantom, the way Andrew wrote it,  Meg Giry and Madame Giry feared the Phantom, and you had this wonderful tension throughout the whole piece, because the sound of his voice---they  know he is watching. The past history that happened through the years involving the Phantom and them, which isn't in the show, is deep and long lasting......therefore the fear, you can almost touch it.  And then when you make him autistic so he doesn't rant and rave he doesn't have these huge episodes...there is no fear there, and therefore everything drops down and is just performed normally and therefore you lose the atmosphere,  and it doesn't carry the weight it carried before. I find that very sad.

In LND there is no fear of the Phantom and there should be fear and mystery, mystery and suspense."


I'm not so sure that Michael would be insulted by being cast as the Auctioneer, but, of course, I don't know. I do know what he said in one of the several interviews he did in August to promote The Wizard of Oz. He said he doesn't think he would go back and do Phantom now. He 's not sure he could sing the Phantom now as well as he could sing it five years ago---he wasn't very well 5 years ago and he *thinks* he has deteriorated slightly vocally.

I can't imagine he ever though he would be cast as the Phantom in this Anniversary show (what role would not be insulting?), and he does take very seriously his responsibility to audiences to show up when his name is being used to sell a show. He damn near ended his career and wound up a cripple when he in the Las Vegas show, EFX, he continued to perform for months after having injuries serious enough that he ultimately had to have a hip replacement.

According to this website, Carlotta will be played by a soprano called Keira Duffy. I don't recognise the name from anywhere. Has anyone heard of her?

http://www.cami.com/?webid=2104

You know, I don't give a dang which Phantom production they're picking actors from, because, sorry people, this is not a celebration of London's Phantom; it's a celebration of Phantom as a whole (oh yeah, and I guess LND, too. *snort*). However, what I do care about is that they actually use people who have been involved with Phantom prior to this event. (See: Raoul)

Ms. Duffy seems like a very accomplished singer and a fine choice for the role, but, again... would it *really* have been so difficult to get one of the many excellent actresses who have played her on stage over the past 25 years?

*shakes head*

~Madame~

Bric wrote:

In a recent interview on an online Phantom themed radio station, Peter Karrie spoke about the autistic interpretation and didn't care for it. He had this to say,
..."since Hal is no longer kind of involved...they've brought in directors
I know that recent directors . . . have made him not insane, not passionately in love  but autistic, and that has taken some of the power away from him. It has made him normal, to an extent, made him a total different type of character and I went to see the Phantom not  long ago and it did nothing for me. ...because if you haven't got fear of the Phantom, the way Andrew wrote it,  Meg Giry and Madame Giry feared the Phantom, and you had this wonderful tension throughout the whole piece, because the sound of his voice---they  know he is watching. The past history that happened through the years involving the Phantom and them, which isn't in the show, is deep and long lasting......therefore the fear, you can almost touch it.  And then when you make him autistic so he doesn't rant and rave he doesn't have these huge episodes...there is no fear there, and therefore everything drops down and is just performed normally and therefore you lose the atmosphere,  and it doesn't carry the weight it carried before. I find that very sad.

In LND there is no fear of the Phantom and there should be fear and mystery, mystery and suspense."

I completely agree with this. I think if you take away the Phantom's ability to terrify, you not only remove the vital tension from the story, you also remove a huge part what makes him such a compelling, sensual figure to begin with (Kissinger was right: power is a potent aphrodisiac, even when it's used to less than savory ends).

Regarding the lair set: generally a nice expansion of the Bjornson design, although I'd be a little disappointed if they don't manage to work the boat in (it's one of my favorite bits of PotO iconography). On the other hand, it might be interesting to see how they block the scene without it...

~LCD

Unless, God forbid, they film the boat ride at HMT and project it on the big LED screen rather than using the actual boat.

Regarding Crawford as Auctioneer, I think it would have been a cute touch, but I do understand his view about dissapointing people over at OZ, Auctioneer is top of show, so he would have to miss the whole OZ show for those days, whereas if he is just coming to sing at the end it can make both shows.

Hey people! If this has already been posted and I missed it, then I beg your indulgence as I haven't been around here for a while.

Anyway, I've been hearing that the anniversary concert's going to be broadcast live to movie-theatres in the U.S., U.K., and Canada among other places. And I'm wondering if anyone's seen listings yet for where it's going to be shown in Toronto? I Googled it just now, but couldn't find any actual listings that'd tell me where I can get tickets and how much they are. And I really want to snap one up before they sell out! I know, or at least I've read, that it'll be re-broadcast a few times, but I'd love to see/hear it right on October 3rd, which is when they'll be doing the 1st showing in our time-zone I guess!

So if any fellow TO Phans could post that if they've found it, I'd be eternally grateful!

Oh! And the Phantom Autistic? Uh, I can see why the Autism community had serious problems with that! Excuse me? For one thing, that medicalizes his anger, as if it were just part of his "condition", rather than laying it firmly at the feet of society where it should go. The way society has treated him should be enough to explain the Phantom's behaviour, even if that behaviour is still wrong, without need of such cop-outs, which, frankly, let society off the hook! And you guys are right, part of it definitely comes from screwing with his back-story in the Gerik, and, I would argue, reducing his deformity in the movie to the "glorified sunburn" too! I would have expected better from Ramin though. At least judging from his vocal performance and remember I'm not seeing his physical acting, I rather liked the intensity he brought to his part in LND, and have been frankly quite excited to hear how he'll do the original. But this has me worried!

Anyway, phew! Pardon the rant! But ableism pisses me off, especially when my favourite character/story is warped to support ableist ideas! Let's get back to what POTO's really about, which is that every human-being deserves to be treated with dignity, and knock off all the trivializing! And for Gods' sakes, if Hal Prince can't direct Phantom any more, they should make an effort to find some one with the same sensibilities to direct in the future, because he really got what the story's about!

justin-from-barbados wrote:Regarding Crawford as Auctioneer, I think it would have been a cute touch, but I do understand his view about dissapointing people over at OZ, Auctioneer is top of show, so he would have to miss the whole OZ show for those days, whereas if he is just coming to sing at the end it can make both shows.

Funnily enough back when they were making the 2004 film I suggested that it might be cool if MC could be the Auctioneer and that throughout the scene they would shoot in such a way you'd only hear his voice and that obscured his face in shadows, or out of frame, or in silhouette, until the plug-in of the chandelier and the lights flash to reveal his features. Would've been a pretty cool way to kick off an otherwise largely lacklustre production.

~Madame~

Helen wrote:According to this website, Carlotta will be played by a soprano called Keira Duffy. I don't recognise the name from anywhere. Has anyone heard of her?

http://www.cami.com/?webid=2104

Never heard of her. She's probably brilliant and all, but seriously... this casting is getting on my nerves. Three LND stars, a Raoul and a Carlotta who's never done the roles before in their life, and still no announcement of who is Meg. They do ANYTHING to not honour the history of Phantom, don't they?

Speaking of which, Rebecca Caine was not invited to the event at all. How's that for honouring Phantom history?