The London production 2

The cast don't rehearse daily, perhaps she is referring to warm up as a rehearsal? I'm unsure, but they definitely don't.

As much as I think the article is fun, I can't help but point out the background to this lady and how it all seems a bit familiar:

My night at Sister Act - Petronella Wyatt

and

West End Witch: Response to Petronella Wyatt

I don't know, just as I was reading it I wondered if it was the same woman... would be good if one of the Phantom cast actually said what exactly she did etc.

ETA: The more I read into it the more I realise the similarities, the Primark reference, the 42nd Street reference and then in her Phantom article she claims not to know what a swing was and low and behold she didn't when she went to Sister Act.

starryeyed wrote:The cast don't rehearse daily, perhaps she is referring to warm up as a rehearsal? I'm unsure, but they definitely don't.

As much as I think the article is fun, I can't help but point out the background to this lady and how it all seems a bit familiar:
My night at Sister Act - Petronella Wyatt

and
West End Witch: Response to Petronella Wyatt

I don't know, just as I was reading it I wondered if it was the same woman... would be good if one of the Phantom cast actually said what exactly she did etc.

ETA: The more I read into it the more I realise the similarities, the Primark reference, the 42nd Street reference and then in her Phantom article she claims not to know what a swing was and low and behold she didn't when she went to Sister Act.

Aaaaaw, nooo! I totally bought it, so seeing she's repeating a formula was disappointing.

I don't really object to her approach, by starting totally bewildered and clueless, and then ending up as a smash hit come curtain call. It's what people want to read and identify with. I think most people still realize it takes more than one hour of rehearsal to star in a West End production. But to more or less do an identical write-up of Sister Act and Phantom, with the same punch lines? Very disappoiting. And with all the creative license she seems to have taken in the Sister Act article (she wasn't even at the curtain call, which she describes in detail!), I kinda lost all faith...

Glad to hear there are not daily rehearsals. I wondered what the heck they were rehearsing all the time...

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but Peter Jöback's run as the Phantom starts on March 19th. He'll perform until September sometime. He only plays half a year by his own wish. Any rumours of who's following him?

Oh, and a pet peeve of mine: Joback and Jöback are pronounced differently. Ö is not an alternative way of writing O, it's a symbol for a different sound. The Ö equals how you pronounce the U(R) the English word "burn". When people write Joback (and Bjornson, just to throw that in there), the whole sound of the name changes.

I know I'm in minority... I know it's nitpicking.... Just had to get it off my chest...

operafantomet wrote:
Oh, and a pet peeve of mine: Joback and Jöback are pronounced differently. Ö is not an alternative way of writing O, it's a symbol for a different sound. The Ö equals how you pronounce the U(R) the English word "burn". When people write Joback (and Bjornson, just to throw that in there), the whole sound of the name changes.

I know I'm in minority... I know it's nitpicking.... Just had to get it off my chest...

Perhaps one solution for people whose computers don't allow them easy access to typing diacritics is to insert an "e" afterwards to maintain the graphematic representation of the sound. Hence Uwe Kröger = Uwe Kroeger (not Kroger), so likewise I suppose those who can't write Jöback easily could write Joeback (although that looks really odd, so maybe not). Oh well.

Yeah, OE is usually what's substituting the Ö/Ø internationally. Or, it was. The last couple of years people has started writing a plain O instead. It just looks so wrong for a native Ö/Ø user... But anyway...

That's one reasons I love my Mac. Very easy access to all those foreign language characters and diacritics.

TAFKaR

FINALLY!!!

Phantom wins "Best Long Running West End Show" for the production at Her Majesty's Theatre, and "Best Theatrical Event of the Year" for the Royal Albert Hall concert. The latter also won for "Best Theatrical Venue".

YAY!!!

Link to all the winners:
http://broadwayworld.com/article/2011-BWW-UK-Award-Winners-Announced-ROCK-OF-AGES-GHOST-WIZARD-and-PHANTOM-All-Win-20111205_page1

Scorp wrote:Went to my first Thursday matinée of Phantom today. The Grand Circle, for which I'd booked tickets, was shut and I got upgraded to the very nice house seats in the stalls. I think this is the first time I've been to the show where they've had to close a whole section -- it's happened many times at Les Mis, but never when I've been to Her Majesty's. Does anyone know how the show is doing generally? Earlfan is going tonight so I'll be interested to see if it was just because the weekday matinée is notoriously difficult to sell. Presumably they were having problems selling the Tues matinée tickets, hence the change of matinée day.

Yesterday I checked ticketmaster.co.uk for tickets, and I was surprised to find very little availability even on October 2012. Just a few seats here and there in the stalls and so. Is that because several tickets agency are given different blocks of seats or they are not on sale yet? I'm assuming it can't be almost sold out.

Try See Tickets. I think that's the main ticket agent for Phantom.

Cameron is really going to town with inviting a journalist from every right-wing libel-filled Eurosceptic xenophobic dirty rag British tabloid to take part in his show so that he can ensure they'll write up an article mentioning the new RAH DVD and CD. Following on from the Mail woman last week, this time Cameron's invited someone from the Express to have more or less the same experience: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/288535/The-night-my-phantom-dream-came-true

Gotta admire him for his marketing savvy...

Scorp wrote:Cameron is really going to town with inviting a journalist from every right-wing libel-filled Eurosceptic xenophobic dirty rag British tabloid to take part in his show so that he can ensure they'll write up an article mentioning the new RAH DVD and CD. Following on from the Mail woman last week, this time Cameron's invited someone from the Express to have more or less the same experience: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/288535/The-night-my-phantom-dream-came-true

Gotta admire him for his marketing savvy...

I dunno... If the goal is to sell DVDs, they should have done a "win the chance to participate in Masquerade" gig connected with buying the Royal Albert Hall merchandise. A bit like Charlie getting his golden ticket to Willie Wonka's chocolate factory in a chocolate bar, only more up to date on digital purchase. That would even make ME buy it, ya know... And if they were really serious about it, they could have included productions on four continents, seeing POTO currently plays in America, Africa, Asia AND Europe.

Very cool to see the "Green Lady" costume not distorted by purple light and other cast members blocking the view... Just wish the photo was a tad bigger!

So John Owen Jones will do his last two shows today, anybody going? It seems I can't stay away from HM's for too long , saw the show last week and I'm going to see the show again on December 21st as a birthday treat

So, as I previously said in this thread, Phantom officially announced Katy Treharne's return today! Woo! Her first performance is Monday 16th January 2012

I assume most of us have already seen this:
http://www2.seetickets.com/gilt2012/event_calendar.asp?e|artist=GILT+OFFER+THE+PHANTOM+OF+THE+OPERA&venaudit=Her%20Majesty's%20Theatre,%20Haymarket&resultsperpage=500&dateto=31/01/2012&firstdate=02/01/2012&lastdate=09/02/2012&filler1=gilt&filler2=&filler3=
Get into London theatre are actually doing a pretty good deal, with a lot of the more expensive tickets about half price. I think I might try to snap up some cheap tickets in the stalls on a matinee in january. Shame about the lack of performances to chose from though. Is anyone else thinking of going back to her majesty's in January?
OG

operafantomet wrote:FINALLY!!!

Phantom wins "Best Long Running West End Show" for the production at Her Majesty's Theatre, and "Best Theatrical Event of the Year" for the Royal Albert Hall concert. The latter also won for "Best Theatrical Venue".

YAY!!!

Link to all the winners:
http://broadwayworld.com/article/2011-BWW-UK-Award-Winners-Announced-ROCK-OF-AGES-GHOST-WIZARD-and-PHANTOM-All-Win-20111205_page1

Not that the BWW Awards have ever been worth anything, though... Of these dubious "the public votes" awards, the WOS Awards are more respected and tend to be used in advertising, unlike the BWW Awards. Which is why you should vote for Phantom this year as 'Best West End Production'. You can, if you want, vote for it as the 'Theatrical Event of the Year' (the RAH event, that is): http://awards.whatsonstage.com/

Hi all,
Knowing me, this topic has already been discussed and I've forgotten about it, but here we go...:
Apparently Earl and Killian have been swapping roles recently. At first I thought it was a joke, but now, with pictures of them in makeup process, I'm not so sure. If you flick through the more recent pictures in this gallery, you'll see the evidence of the role switching:
http://twitter.com/killiandonnelly#/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2F2MD94TWh
Apparently Killian's Phantom costume has been put together from bits of other Phantom's old costumes, and I love the shots of him in costume as they show loads of the old costumes in the background (eg: mandarin robes, mandarin hats, tuxedos/capes, various red deaths, fedoras...)
OG

Earl Carpenter as Raoul????

Did they do this for an actual performance, or was it just rehearsals? And did poor Carpenter have to dye his ginger hair brown, or is he wearing a wig in those pictures? SO MANY questions now... Killian Donnelly sure understands social media and how to create a buzz, i'll give him that.

They claimed to have performed last Thursday's two shows (or was it Wednesday? There was an extra matinee on Wednesday too...) but I really don't think they did. I think it is one of Killian's little jokes.

Although they are in the process of getting ready in the pics they don't really do anything substantial if you get what I mean, some costumes and a little bit of make-up.

Also I believe Earl still has his ginger hair so most likely a wig. He's wearing Hadley Fraser's jacket from the concert in one picture so maybe it's his wig too? Did Hadley wear a wig actually?

Yeah, that's gotta be a joke. He doesn't really look like he's in makeup as the Phantom, and Earl doesn't have much, if any, makeup on his face as Old Raoul.

That must obviously be a joke. I mean, they can play around with costumes and make up backstage, but I doubt the resident director would ever allow them to just swap roles like that. So yeah, funny, but fake - unless there's audio or video evidence from an actual live performance...

So when Liesl Dowsett leaves (Saturday) Layla Harrison moves up to first cover Meg and Anna Shircliff becomes 2nd cover Meg for anyone who is interested!

I went to the show yesterday for the first time in 6 years, I can't believe it had been that long since I last saw it. I was slightly disappointed that Earl was off because I've seen Earl once before when he was standby and really wanted to see him again, but Scott Davies was on. His voice is brilliant but his acting is quite OTT in places and I've seen him quite a few times now so I would have rather seen someone different. But I Still enjoyed my 23rd time. Just thought I'd share that with everyone

Thanks for the note on what and who you saw.

A nerdy (drumroll!) costume question: can you tell that the West End production has started using all the new stuff made for the Royal Albert Hall concert? Much, if not all, was made especially for the celebration, but it was later sent to Her Majesty's Theatre, as proved by the awesome in-load pictures someone posted here. I just wondered if you can spot any difference after the upgrade or not.

Probably hard to tell... Just curious.

ETA: seems like Scott Davies has been on as the Phantom the whole week, except Monday. Makes me think Earl Carpenter is working on the new tour version?

operafantomet wrote:Thanks for the note on what and who you saw.

A nerdy (drumroll!) costume question: can you tell that the West End production has started using all the new stuff made for the Royal Albert Hall concert? Much, if not all, was made especially for the celebration, but it was later sent to Her Majesty's Theatre, as proved by the awesome in-load pictures someone posted here. I just wondered if you can spot any difference after the upgrade or not.

Probably hard to tell... Just curious.

Well i didn't notice any differences but then i don't think i would notice something like that, the costumes just looked the same to me lol. Although ii do take alot of notice of the mask and deformities.
Another good note about the show on thursday was Duncan Smith as Firman, he was brilliant and he was in the show back in '91.
Also i know it's not very likely but after seeing him on the royal variety in the POTO segment, i think it would be cool if Simon Bowman would return to the role in September, i'd like to see him in the role even though there was alot of people who said he wasn't the best.

Earl is suffering from laryngitis and is on his second round of antibiotics apparently! Bless him, he doesn't get ill too often I don't think.

Also, about Simon Bowman, I'd most probably like him. Lots of people hated him as Valjean but I thought he was rather good ha! So if that trend were to continue I'd like him as The Phantom

I didn't exactly hate Bowman's Valjean, but I did dislike it, but his Phantom was far worse! Please, no...

Heads-up to anyone who doesn't know: BBC4 has been doing a documentary series entitled 'The Story of Musicals', well worth watching for some of the interviews/archival footage. Last week took us up to the end of the 70s, so next week (Tuesday) will be about the 80s megamusical, so I expect Phantom will feature in some way.

Interesting, London-Phan, for me the highlight about Scott Davies is his acting rather than his voice. I love his final lair. And is Duncan Smith a new addition to the cast? Has Barry James left? I remember seeing Duncan YEARS ago as Perón in a tour of Evita.

Duncan Smith is understudy, usually plays Don Attilio/ Firechief

ETA: O/T but didn't know where to ask but has anyone been to the New Wimbledon Theatre? What are the sight lines like? As in could I buy a cheap ticket to something there and perhaps still have a decent view?

Scorp wrote:I didn't exactly hate Bowman's Valjean, but I did dislike it, but his Phantom was far worse! Please, no...

Heads-up to anyone who doesn't know: BBC4 has been doing a documentary series entitled 'The Story of Musicals', well worth watching for some of the interviews/archival footage. Last week took us up to the end of the 70s, so next week (Tuesday) will be about the 80s megamusical, so I expect Phantom will feature in some way.

Interesting, London-Phan, for me the highlight about Scott Davies is his acting rather than his voice. I love his final lair. And is Duncan Smith a new addition to the cast? Has Barry James left? I remember seeing Duncan YEARS ago as Perón in a tour of Evita.

Yeah I have heard bad things about Bowmans Phantom but he is one of my favourite Valjeans so I would still like to see him as Phantom. With Scott Davies I definitely don't dislike his phantom, he's got an awesome phantom voice and some of his acting has very nice touches but I think mainly in the final lair he does some things a bit too OTT for my liking.

Davies' acting in the Final Lair owes hugely to Peter Karrie; in fact, in many areas, he apes him. So if you don't like PK, you probably won't like Davies. And if you do like PK, you might like him because you didn't get to actually see PK, or you might just wish you had the real thing.

Scott Davies has also said that though the Phantom have all these qualities the audience love, you should first and foremost remember he's a dangerous man. He wants his Phantom to be dangerous and on the edge. Glad to see he still get to perform a bit, though I wish Earl Carpenter a speedy recovery!

As for Katie Hall, she just left for the tour. So now Sofia Escobar is the principal, Katy Treharne the alternate, and Claire Doyle the understudy, right?