25th anniversary celebrations

*sigh*

I am not surprised, while at the same time being very disappointed. As I said earlier, I'm so over the whole Ramin/Sierra fan love (not their fault, I just think there's a bunch of lead performers equally if not more deserving of attention).

~LCD

Has Sierra Boggess been confirmed? If it is indeed her and Ramin, I'm not surprised. I expected it to be honest. I'm just disappointed. I didn't like Sierra in LND, and I was never a huge fan of Ramin's Phantom. He's a talented guy and I liked him a lot as Enjolras, I just never bought into his portrayal of Phantom, and he never moved me in the way that other actors I've seen have. Hopefully Raoul and the supporting cast will make up for it. I guess that given the LND connections, it's reasonable to assume Liz Robertson will be playing Mme Giry.

I'll hopefully go, celebrate a show I love, no doubt have a great time & hopefully latch on to at least one of the performers (in Miz it was Norm) & appreciate if not adore the rest. Plus I may get to see Wilkinson, Crawford, Brightman belt a few verses out.

I know what you mean. When the Les Mis cast was announced last year, I was a bit disappointed. I went along and had an amazing time, and apart from a certain cast member who was beyond awful (you all know who I'm talking about) I thought the cast were fantastic.

Sierra hasn't been confirmed, however Tam (Mutu from LND) has quite heavily hinted at it and then it appeared in that article, who knows, it most likely will be Sierra.

I think this will most likely follow the lead of the Les Mis concerts as Colm Wilkinson has said he is involved and John Owen Jones seems to quite obviously be involved (even if he hasn't come out and said it.)

Not really related, but sort of related, right after reading the Ramin article something else caught my eye as an advertisement, a news story about Nick Jonas delving back into theatre with another big event following the Les Mis 25th Anniversary Concert, for a split second my heart stopped and I prepared myself to read he was going to be Raoul in the Phantom concert. I clicked the link and it was actually about him being Link Larkin in a few performances of Hairspray at the Hollywood Bowl.

starryeyed wrote:Not really related, but sort of related, right after reading the Ramin article something else caught my eye as an advertisement, a news story about Nick Jonas delving back into theatre with another big event following the Les Mis 25th Anniversary Concert, for a split second my heart stopped and I prepared myself to read he was going to be Raoul in the Phantom concert. I clicked the link and it was actually about him being Link Larkin in a few performances of Hairspray at the Hollywood Bowl.

The same thing happened to me! So is it just Ramin that's confirmed for the concert, then? They're really stringing the whole thing out. The date must be arranged already, I don't understand why they can't just confirm it.

LadyCDaae wrote:*sigh*

I am not surprised, while at the same time being very disappointed. As I said earlier, I'm so over the whole Ramin/Sierra fan love (not their fault, I just think there's a bunch of lead performers equally if not more deserving of attention).

You and me both. I'm disappointed that they go with the latest hype when there's so many better Phantom performers out there. I would also have preferred someone with a longer Phantom history (and by that I don't count "Love Never Dies", I'm thinking the original). John Owen Jones, Peter Karrie, Anthony Warlow, Brad Little, Rebecca Caine, Ana Marina, Claire Moore you name it. Although I think few will deny Karimloo & Boggess are talented, to me it feels more like picking someone young and pretty who can sing, and at the same time tying original+sequel together. I know they think they're "renewing" Phantom with this, but if that really was their goal they should have picked amazing unknown talents. But I know money speaks loudest here, and they'll sell lots of tickets on this casting.

This is not said to hurt eventual fans of the named performers, or to deny their talent. I just think it has so little to do with Phantom history, and it is after all what is celebrated - no?

I just hope it is filmed for those of us who can;t attend

Apparently confirmation of "most details" will be around June 1st. I've also read that the concert will be a "completely new version" of the show, take from that what you will.

Well at least we can expect a delightful finale: "It's over now...jk we're going to have a night beneath a moonless sky, buy these unsold LND CDs from the foyer NOW to find out what we did next!"

Scorp wrote:Well at least we can expect a delightful finale: "It's over now...jk we're going to have a night beneath a moonless sky, buy these unsold LND CDs from the foyer NOW to find out what we did next!"

*chuckles* And watch out for the new LND books "What the Phantom did", "What the Phantom did after school" and "What the Phantom did next"!

Okay, I'm going to rant, just a little.

A certain little bird told me about this and I just had to put in my two cents.

I hate how he is now solidifying the sequel with the original production, and what better way than the year of the 25th. (snicker)

Shit like this makes me wonder 'why bother' because of how much Webber has gone over the deep end, its impossible and laughable to even think that the 25th would have been a joint collaboration with different performers who have played the characters over the years.

Honestly, fandom sucks so much for Phantom. I'll take 2002 fandom days over this crap.

Scorp wrote:Is the product they're celebrating the biggest piece of hokum ever written with 2-dimensional characters that they apparently all love or Love Never Dies?

Burn.

Seriously, WTF?! They couldn't even give us JOJ or Earl? I'm not even asking for Peter Karrie, as nice as that would be.

Well at least we can expect a delightful finale: "It's over now...jk we're going to have a night beneath a moonless sky, buy these unsold LND CDs from the foyer NOW to find out what we did next!"

Scorp for the win.

Admitadely not a fan of JOJ, but Earl? in my books far worse, cant handle the higher notes at all. His "I have brought you" btought tears to my eyes, for all the wrong reasons.

Yeah, I strangely have never really liked Earl's Phantom for that reason (despite the fact I love his voice in other roles) and because some of his acting, while brilliant, seemed forced rather than natural, but he'd be far preferable to Ramin.

I agree, it all seems to be a calculated effort to use the 25th Anniversary to drum up sales for LND. Very disappointing. I had put serious thought into flying to London to attend the performance if possible, but now I think I'll just wait for the TV broadcast.

TAFKaR

Raphael wrote:I agree, it all seems to be a calculated effort to use the 25th Anniversary to drum up sales for LND. Very disappointing. I had put serious thought into flying to London to attend the performance if possible, but now I think I'll just wait for the TV broadcast.

TAFKaR

OH HO. Don't even get me started about that television broadcast. That is when we're going to really see things get ugly. Imagine: Webber has Ramin and Sierra as Phantom and Christine ; Webber plugs an ad for his LND recording ; people go, 'Oh my god, those are the singers who were singing tonight! I must get the sequel, because this is amazing!' ; Webber sees how many albums LND sold, Webber takes said numbers to the press to simply say, "Look at this! LND is a success in the US! Look at the numbers!' And then, then, Webber drops the big one: stages LND in the US.

... I feel we are doomed, people.

I don't think there'll be actual ads because it'll probably be on PBS over here. But just the fact he's using an apparently new staging and Ramin and Sierra is advertisement enough.

Apparently Wynne Evans, probably better known to those in the UK as the "Go Compare Guy" is to be Piangi in the concert. This doesn't appear to be confirmed though and could have stemmed from the fact that he was at Phantom a few weeks ago.

A while ago, I joked about the Go Compare Guy playing Piangi. I didn't think for a second it would actually happen. I'd love Rohan Tickell to play the role.

starryeyed wrote:Apparently Wynne Evans, probably better known to those in the UK as the "Go Compare Guy" is to be Piangi in the concert. This doesn't appear to be confirmed though and could have stemmed from the fact that he was at Phantom a few weeks ago.

I really want to know if that's true. It would be so funny! I love the "Go Compare" Guy!

Someone over at musicals.net wrote this:

Oh, and the 25th anniversary tour will feature GLORIOUS new staging and spectacular, re-imagined scenery inspired by the drawings of murderous lunatic John Wayne Gacy. I cannot wait.

http://musicals.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=82030&start=12

Eh.... Huh? And really? So the new tour is to be launched this year, and it'll be based on the illustrations of a mass murderer? If anything, it sounds unique....

I think (hope?) someone's having it on with that one...didn't Gacy paint clowns mostly? (Maybe it's the concept for yet another version of Love Never Dies?)

~LCD

Bleurgh on projections, but I think it would be cool if they use mass murderer-related stuff in order to counterbalance the inevitable 'young and sexy and so romantic' vision that I'm dreading...

That's gotta be a joke. I'm all for derangement and Gothic darkness in the set design, but in Googling his work, I don't see what application there could possibly be to Phantom. LND maybe.

I want to throw in my two cents here. ---Not an original thought, but I think it's disgusting that they are using two performers best known for being in the crap sequel to play the leads in an anniversary performance that is supposed to honor the 25 years of the original Phantom of the Opera.

Bric wrote:I want to throw in my two cents here. ---Not an original thought, but I think it's disgusting that they are using two performers best known for being in the crap sequel to play the leads in an anniversary performance that is supposed to honor the 25 years of the original Phantom of the Opera.

I agree with Bric 100%. I've been a bit out of the loop so I just heard about this. I have nothing against Ramin and Sierra personally, by all accounts they're very nice people - but I think there are far better performers who have had a longer and more distinguished association with The Original Show and that those individuals should be given the opportunity to have their interpretations of the role recorded for posterity instead of two younger actors who are clearly being used only as a marketing ploy for a struggling/failed sequel to "The Brilliant Original".

I mean, I'm not even saying that you'd have to use the Original Phantoms (that would be kinda nice, actually), but yeah, using Ramin and Sierra just reeks of commercial cross-pollination; and really an uninspiring approach.

Get with it, RUG.

~Madame~

Apparently their casting isn't to promote the London show. It's closing August 27.

Yeah I was wondering about that, too. Unless LND is still there to promote, what's the rationale behind using Ramin and Sierra, as opposed to any one of a legion of arguably more-deserving (and perhaps more-talented) choices?

~Madame~

Perhaps Ramin will become disillusioned with Webber and bow out of the concert. Just a thought.

Being my most cynical, I think it might be possible that the concert is a sop ALW planned for Ramin when he (ALW) knew LND was closing.