The London production 2

justin-from-barbados wrote:my 2 cents, totally agree, I much prefer an older phantom, thats why I loved McGillin so much in the role. He is SUPPOSED to have a long history back in Pursia and all that, how can someone in their late 20's early 30's do all that. And I love the whole creepy vibe of him being old enough to be her father, and living such a long life shunned.

Exactly, Scott is the oldest Phantom I've seen live and it's the only time I've ever felt really that The Phantom was a bit creepy. I also think the older Phantom's tend to almost, hold themselves better so whilst they may not be conventionally "sexy" you can tell exactly why Christine is entranced by them.

I want to slap everyone who thinks the Phantom should be young. It's almost as if they're noticing the age gap and the apparent 'no no' of the whole Phantom crushing on a young girl.

As Anea said: It's supposed to be creepy. If it bothers you then you are one of those people who are trying to justify the relationship between the Phantom and Christine. That's not the point of the story.

Latest rumour from the rumour mill :

Earl Carpenter will play The Phantom at Her Majesty's from 12th December 2011 until 17th March 2012.

Thoughts?

starryeyed wrote:Latest rumour from the rumour mill :

Earl Carpenter will play The Phantom at Her Majesty's from 12th December 2011 until 17th March 2012.

Thoughts?

Praise the Lord. And no, I'm not referring to Lord Lloyd Webber.

If that indeed is true (and I would be surprised if he would not return one day), he'll be such a relief after what I assume will be a less stellar Peter Jöback Phantom.

Confirmed here:

http://www.gingerboy.me/earlcarpenter/News.html

Well I know where I'm going for my birthday...!

Yay! I only got the chance to see Earl in the role once so I'm really happy that he's returning. On the other hand this means there's not as much time left to catch John in the role. I wanted to see him a couple of more times before he leaves and if he leaves in early December this means I need to hurry up.

I think this is cool news to have Earl back as I only saw him once and that was when he was standby back in 2004 and would love to see him in the role again especially as I'll be seeing the show in January and thought I'd be seeing JOJ. Not that I dislike JOJ but I have seen him around 10 times. Oh and does anyone know who the current company manager is please.

Me likey!!!: http://shop.thephantomoftheopera.com/Store/DII-9131-8-the+phantom+of+the+opera+tealight.html

Here's an interview with original Meg, Janet Devenish and further down the page are tons of other Phantom London performers (ie Caine, Ashe). Interesting reading Janet's thoughts on seeing LND.
I don't remember this site being posted before. It's a blog supporting disability awareness and access.

Access London Blog

With Katie Hall leaving to do the tour, has the new alternate Christine been announced?

operafantomet wrote:

starryeyed wrote:Latest rumour from the rumour mill :

Earl Carpenter will play The Phantom at Her Majesty's from 12th December 2011 until 17th March 2012.

Thoughts?

Praise the Lord. And no, I'm not referring to Lord Lloyd Webber.

If that indeed is true (and I would be surprised if he would not return one day), he'll be such a relief after what I assume will be a less stellar Peter Jöback Phantom.

Kind of angry. I'm going to be in London around that time and I'm going to have JUST missed Earl in the role. I've wanted to see him for years now. Oh well...

I'm sure it's been discussed already, but what's the word on Joback? I've heard less than wonderful things about him, but I don't know much.

MasqPhan wrote:

starryeyed wrote:So, on another board, I just saw Scott Davies being referred to as seeming too old for the role of The Phantom. This makes me very sad. It would seem these days anyone who is not young is unsuitable for the role. That is all.

Wow. Too old? I guess they have not read the novel and realized around how old Erik really is suppose to be. I wonder what these folks would think if Peter Karrie was in the new UK Tour as originally planned?

That was actually originally planned? What happened? JOJ and Earl are alright, but they're no PK.

justin-from-barbados wrote:And I love the whole creepy vibe of him being old enough to be her father, and living such a long life shunned

Yes, he's aged like a fine wine in that cellar. Seriously though, it is about the vibe. The Phantoms who come across as older (whether they actually are or not--Steve Barton and Kevin Gray are young exceptions in my list of favorites who successfully portrayed a man at least in his late 40s if not early 50s) are more believable--with their simple look, sound, and physicality, they portray the essence of a person who has lived the life the Phantom is said to have lifed. And really, the Phantom ought to appear and act older not only than a man in his early 50s today, since people aged more quickly then, but even a man in his early 50s of that age, since he's lived in such darkness and emotional seclusion and torture.

Having said that, if I were a shipper (*groans*), I'd definitely be an E/C shipper, but not in the sense that I think they're a young, sexy couple and should literally remain together, and certainly not that they should separate and then end up together at a frickin' New York amusement park supposedly 10 years later, with the Phantom looking like he'd been dipped in the fountain of youth.

Also, praise Janet Devenish.

In other news, it must be that JOJ is leaving earlier than planned to rehearse for the new production, and then Earl will do his rehearsals while Joback takes over and JOJ does the first several tour stops. Makes sense. I just hope this new production that forsakes Bjornson and Bridge isn't too much of a bastardization or shameless copy, and that it makes little to no use of projections.

SenorSwanky wrote:

MasqPhan wrote:Wow. Too old? I guess they have not read the novel and realized around how old Erik really is suppose to be. I wonder what these folks would think if Peter Karrie was in the new UK Tour as originally planned?

That was actually originally planned? What happened? JOJ and Earl are alright, but they're no PK.

Yes, at one point it was in the works for Karrie to do a short run at the start of the tour, approx 3 months. Can't go into all the details here but LND not becoming ALW's new flagship show(and possibly closing the original at Her Majesty's instead of LND closing) in London was the start of the end of plans to put PK on tour.

MasqPhan wrote:Here's an interview with original Meg, Janet Devenish and further down the page are tons of other Phantom London performers (ie Caine, Ashe). Interesting reading Janet's thoughts on seeing LND.
I don't remember this site being posted before. It's a blog supporting disability awareness and access.

Access London Blog

Ooooh, hadn't seen that one! I like these quotes:

Would you ever have considered going back to Phantom after you left, perhaps as Mme Giry?
If only my vocals would allow.... I could not sing that role, but I could bang a mean stick!

Did you seen the Phantom sequel, Love Never Dies? If yes, what did you make of Meg's character in it?
I found it very hard to just watch the show and appreciate it for what it was, as I found myself thinking 'Meg wouldn't do that' or 'Mme Giry would not have expected that of Meg'. I saw it very early days into the run, perhaps I could be more detached now, having seen it once, but it was too personal at the time - all those years later I still felt the character in me.

Blaidd_Drwg wrote:

I'm sure it's been discussed already, but what's the word on Joback? I've heard less than wonderful things about him, but I don't know much.

Well as a Swede I must say that I was surprised when I heard the news about Peter Jöback and POTO.
Peter is a great singer with an amazing voice. First time I heard him was in Benny Anderssons and Björn Björn Ulvaeus "Kristina från Duvemåla". Back then Peter became a big star here with the song "Guldet blev till sand", who was in the swedish chart (svensktoppen) for 110 weeks!

After that he has proved that he can sing everything from pop to well everything , but as Phantom I really don't know.
I must admit that I have big problems seeing Peter in that role. Mostly because his voice is not a "Phantom Voice". He would have fit better as Rauol i think (and here I can admit that I never liked Raoul, for me he is just a cry baby:) )

According to the news here in Sweden they wanted Peter to play the Phantom for a year, but he only wanted the role for 6 months. Maybe he will surprise us all during those 6 months but I hardly believe it. For when it comes to acting he was good in "Kristina" but the role he had in that Musical is nothing like the one on Her Majesty's. I saw Mikael Samuelsson many times when POTO played in Stockholm and for me Mikael is the best phantom ever, mostly becouse he played it so well and strong and the last 15 min of the musical he created miracles on stage. Lets us hope that Mikael can give Peter some advice But well, Peter is also an artist who have changed very much since he was young and cute and sang about the gold who turned into sand, so maybe he will do just fine. I mean, There must have been something with him that made them go for him.

Some other information about Peter is that he is openly gay and is married. He have the last couple of years released some nice music with a very personal touch. One of the song "Stockholm I natt", is one of the best Swedish songs ever if you ask me. And we shouldn't forget that when our crownprincess Victoria got married Peter and his husband danced next to the married couple and everyone went "aweee"
He is an artist who really have grown since his debut, so maybe it will be just great. In march we will know.

I dont know if it is allowed to put movies in, but here is a sample of Peter singing (fast forward the first 25 sec)

starryeyed wrote:Latest rumour from the rumour mill :

Earl Carpenter will play The Phantom at Her Majesty's from 12th December 2011 until 17th March 2012.

Thoughts?

Good news, I'm glad Earl's coming back!

But I thought JOJ was there until March. It's probably been mentioned elsewhere, but is there a reason he's leaving 'early' (and do we know when his last night is)?

Also, last time I was there (Oct 08th) I noticed they had finally renovated a little bit... Re-upholstered seats (in the stalls at least) and my friend also thought they were a little wider, though I didn't.

Mandrake wrote:But I thought JOJ was there until March. It's probably been mentioned elsewhere, but is there a reason he's leaving 'early' (and do we know when his last night is)?

It was mentioned another place that JOJ was more or less ordered to leave the London production in order to be the original revamped-tour Phantom. Earl Carpenter takes over somewhere down the line, when Peter Jöback starts out as the London Phantom and dear God I hope he picks up a thing or two from Carpenter....

operafantomet wrote:

Mandrake wrote:But I thought JOJ was there until March. It's probably been mentioned elsewhere, but is there a reason he's leaving 'early' (and do we know when his last night is)?

It was mentioned another place that JOJ was more or less ordered to leave the London production in order to be the original revamped-tour Phantom. Earl Carpenter takes over somewhere down the line, when Peter Jöback starts out as the London Phantom and dear God I hope he picks up a thing or two from Carpenter....

That's absolutely correct. JOJ says he had no choice in the matter and he was to leave in December. I think he may have known for a while as his last performance date was removed from his website quite a while ago...

Well Joback did do some work the week after the concert so perhaps he'll be around another time prior to his rehearsal slot. I think he'd really benefit from even just overseeing Earl's rehearsals next month!

I wrote a mail to Really Useful... and I asked what plans they had for the London Production now when the tour in UK would start and this is what they send back to me...

The London production of The Phantom of the Opera is open-ended and
there are currently no plans at all to close the London production. The
show is currently booking until April 2012.
As soon as the new booking period for next year is released, information
will be available via the website www.thephantomoftheopera.com.

I say YAY to that

I guess it's good to get confirmation, but there wasn't any reason to be concerned the London production would be closing.

Simon Shorten is on as The Phantom for his first performance tonight! Quite a few days at the London production as Claire Doyle did her first performance as Christine on Saturday.

starryeyed wrote:Simon Shorten is on as The Phantom for his first performance tonight! Quite a few days at the London production as Claire Doyle did her first performance as Christine on Saturday.

is it known how long he'll be on for, is Scott ill? i'd be interested to hear if anyone saw him?

He's on again for both shows today.

So the Tuesday matinées are officially history. From next week on the London production does Thursday and Saturday matinées. It's a wise choice, economically, as the whole West End seems to put more emphasis on weekend audience. Soon Sunday performances will probably be the norm as well. I know a couple of shows are doing them already.

So, anyone who went for the last Tuesday matinée yesterday?

operafantomet wrote:So the Tuesday matinées are officially history. From next week on the London production does Thursday and Saturday matinées. It's a wise choice, economically, as the whole West End seems to put more emphasis on weekend audience. Soon Sunday performances will probably be the norm as well. I know a couple of shows are doing them already.

So, anyone who went for the last Tuesday matinée yesterday?

I was actually very close to going to the matinee yesterday so I could see Simon Shorten as the Phantom but in the end I couldn't make it. Shame. I wonder why they changed the matinees from Wednesday's to Tuesday's in the first place?

A wise choice economically perhaps but the cast don't seem too happy about it ha!

I'm also unsure if the show was really doing that badly on a Tuesday matinee as they stopped the cast discount for Tuesday matinees in June and I don't think it was ever re-instated and that was because the show was selling out. Of course, with winter approaching it does always quieten down on the Tuesday so perhaps they see the Thursday as being a better option for audiences all year.

With the matinee performance changing, what performances will the Christine alternate do?

Helen wrote:With the matinee performance changing, what performances will the Christine alternate do?

Mondays and Fridays.

By the way, any idea who's going to be the new alternate Christine and when does she start?

Not a clue, there's not even been any rumours floating around.

I'd say judging by when JOJ is leaving Katie would leave then too so the new alternate would be 12th December but there's been no announcement.

ETA: They are down to 3 people for the new alternate, final auditions this week.

Also if anyone is booking ahead to see Earl, he is off 10th and 11th Feb.

starryeyed wrote:Not a clue, there's not even been any rumours floating around.

I'd say judging by when JOJ is leaving Katie would leave then too so the new alternate would be 12th December but there's been no announcement.

ETA: They are down to 3 people for the new alternate, final auditions this week.

NEW people? Wow. I like that they keep the West End production fresh in terms of new faces for the leads. I love some of the returning faces, but I like the dynamic new ones bring to the role. And even my favourites were new at some point...

Speaking of which, I was totally mesmerized first time I saw Earl Carpenter. I was kinda pissed JOJ was off, and I didn't expect much from this Earl guy. But he went immediately to my favourite list after that performance. Early in his principal run he got a rumour of being rude at the stage door, not chatting with people and trying to avoid pictures. But soon enough I think people realized he was only shy and uncomfortable around strangers (Mr. Darcy o'hoy....). Once he started recognizing people he was a really cool guy. And in honour of that... I bring you Earl Carpenter with evil grin of doom, on his foldable, tiny and very yellow bike: