The Broadway production + Original US Replica tour

same here, but i am keeping the thursday or friday night open for a back up plan, and hopefully see Hill the Monday after

Just my two cents: I have a feeling Hill will not be on that monday, the 21st, and she will be on another performance that week. Otherwise Sierra's first performance would not be until the 22nd.

justin-from-barbados wrote:same here, but i am keeping the thursday or friday night open for a back up plan, and hopefully see Hill the Monday after

Hope so! I want to hear about the new Alternate Samantha Hill.

I know it has been mentioned before but now that a few details have emerged; Hugh's contract 'supposedly' ends in March, Anthony Crivello finishes is run in Golden Boy in NYC late Jan. I think there is a good possibility of who our next Broadway Phantom may be.

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:I know it has been mentioned before but now that a few details have emerged; Hugh's contract 'supposedly' ends in March, Anthony Crivello finishes is run in Golden Boy in NYC late Jan. I think there is a good possibility of who our next Broadway Phantom may be.

Please, please no.

Phantom on a Budget wrote:

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:I know it has been mentioned before but now that a few details have emerged; Hugh's contract 'supposedly' ends in March, Anthony Crivello finishes is run in Golden Boy in NYC late Jan. I think there is a good possibility of who our next Broadway Phantom may be.

Please, please no.

Agree to disagree. I'd be thrilled to see Crivello in the full-length production, and I really think he'd give the Broadway company a nice change ; I have yet to see Hugh live, but I'm not overly impressed with what Ive heard/seen thus far; I prefer a darker Phantom personally (such as Crivello) Hugh is just a bit too 'vanilla' for me, and the childish antics during Wandering Child and Final Lair, just rub me the wrong way.

That's cool, agree to disagree is fine. I like Hugh, but was not impressed last time I saw him - no energy whatsoever. I saw Hugh's "last" performance in 2005, and that obviously set the bar very high. Last winter left me feeling disappointed. That being said, Crivello was never a Phantom for me, and I've had to see him a lot in the role. His voice was adequate, but I could never get into his portrayal. Sorry to say I called PLV the Tony Crivello Show sometimes, because he was always just himself in a Phantom costume, never the Phantom in my eyes. And while I realize the vocal issues were probably because of the desert climate, his last week of performances were abysmal for me. It'd be nice for us to all get what we want, but if you get your wish, I have zero inclination to see the Broadway production during his run.

Hmm, well, I myself would be interested to see AC's Phantom in the Broadway production, if he takes over the role after Hugh leaves (esp since I never got to see PLV and therefore missed out on seeing AC's Phantom there). I'd like to see his portrayal of Erik and judge for myself.

Phantom on a Budget wrote:That's cool, agree to disagree is fine. I like Hugh, but was not impressed last time I saw him - no energy whatsoever. I saw Hugh's "last" performance in 2005, and that obviously set the bar very high. Last winter left me feeling disappointed. That being said, Crivello was never a Phantom for me, and I've had to see him a lot in the role. His voice was adequate, but I could never get into his portrayal. Sorry to say I called PLV the Tony Crivello Show sometimes, because he was always just himself in a Phantom costume, never the Phantom in my eyes. And while I realize the vocal issues were probably because of the desert climate, his last week of performances were abysmal for me. It'd be nice for us to all get what we want, but if you get your wish, I have zero inclination to see the Broadway production during his run.

I don't "know" Tony so I cant say I felt his performance was him just in a costume; rather I felt he managed to do something some Phantoms forget...act. I agree his voice was defiantly not the best, but I can forgive some vocal issues when the acting is solid. Id rather see a character well portrayed, than well sung (yes even in a musical). I also prefer a 'darker' Phantom as I said before I mean that by richer voices, more layered acting choices etc... I have to commend him for not having read the original novel yet still being able to 'get' the character on a deeper level. I'd honestly just be happy to see someone different headlining the Broadway production, I feel this is were the UK production succeeds in that they are always trying to freshen the show up with new/old faces but never for a stagnant amount of time.

I really enjoyed parts of Crivello's performance, moreso in the first few years of the Vegas run. However, I don't think he should return to the show so soon - time away from the character may do his interpretation some good. I'd prefer seeing someone new in the role.

We've had some fresh-faced Christines and Raouls these past years, time to do the same with the title role.

R.

Yes, Broadway has been begging for a fresh Phantom for at least 5 years, or at least a return of a fantastic former Phantom like Davis Gaines or Kevin Gray, someone who's been away for a long time (somewhat like they've done in London with Marcus Lovett).

So additional many names come to mind... Shuler Hensley...Ron Bohmer was magnificent on the 2NT during his brief time there.. Ron had a majestic voice and an extraordinarily palpable interpretation.

They're more likely to do it in London, but I've always wanted to see what Michael Ball and John Barrowman can do with the role. In America, Raul Esparza might be interesting. In reality, though, stars of that caliber, and probably even Hensley's, aren't likely to want the role at this stage of its aging.

That's the sad thing, alot of guys that would be excellent in the role probably won't want it because they would feel like replacement #ddh8990q in a 25 year old show, rather than seeing it as being probably the most iconic role on Broadway today.

I am on the fence about Anthony, I actually liked his voice, mind you, I ony 'heard' his early shows, and my only problem with him was his 'look' but i think that was mainly due to the overdone makeup and bad wig placement in curtain call shots.

I don't know--Chicago has brought in several name actors over its lengthy run; I wouldn't be surprised if a few years down the line Phantom does some stunt casting to keep interest in the show going. Then again, Phantom's draw for the general public tends to be more about the show itself than the people in it, so they might have a harder time convincing high-profile actors that it's a star vehicle. (If and when this does happen, I just hope we don't wind up with another David-Hasselhoff-in-Jekyll-and-Hyde situation.)

I'm kind of divided on Crivello--his voice didn't do much for me, but his acting was quite compelling and I found his older, completely insane Phantom rather refreshing after the indignity of the movie and The Sequel Which Does Not Exist.

~LCD

LadyCDaae wrote:Then again, Phantom's draw for the general public tends to be more about the show itself than the people in it, so they might have a harder time convincing high-profile actors that it's a star vehicle.

Exactly. Chicago had to recruit stars for the box office.

Mind you, you can't really compare Roxy, Velma or Billy in Chicago with Phantom (except that perhaps that actor has to be able to dance well or atleast be able to move) I gather Phantom is somewhat emotionally draining, although there has been semi-stunt casting in the past.

Has anyone here had the honours of seeing Greg Mills as Phantom by chance? Im not sure if he's still an understudy, though I'm sure he is...but he's seems fantastic, and imo would easily be able to overtake the role in a year or so, kinda like TMG.

Haven't seen him live, but not impressed.

I really hate having to ask this all the time, but it is always a chore to find a site that lists it........

what is the current christine alternate scedule?
and will it be the same when Sierra comes in?

purplehaze93 wrote:Has anyone here had the honours of seeing Greg Mills as Phantom by chance? Im not sure if he's still an understudy, though I'm sure he is...but he's seems fantastic, and imo would easily be able to overtake the role in a year or so, kinda like TMG.

From what I've seen of him, he has some promise--I don't think he's quite comfortable in the Phantom's skin just yet, but he's got a nice full voice and that nice sensual-with-a-creepy-edge vibe that I like to see in the part.

~LCD

I saw Greg live in 2008. He did a great job!

LadyCDaae wrote:
he's got a nice full voice and that nice sensual-with-a-creepy-edge vibe

~LCD

That seems to be a pretty accurate description of him! He seems to physically be very fit for the role too (being tall and fairly muscular). Does anyone know when he started in Phantom? For some reason I want to say it was as Raoul back when Cudia was doing the National Tour...could be wrong though.

someone has also put up an unmentionable of him as the phantom on that site which shall not be named, vocally he is not bad, just not spectacular either

The 25th Anniversary appears to be a bit of a cluster$%^&! now it seems the invites have gone out to those invited to the 25th anniversary performance, and that tickets will not be on sale to the general public. I figured since it's practically December, we would've heard something by now if tickets were to be made available to us phans; I honestly hope I am wrong about this.

StrangerThanUDreamt wrote:The 25th Anniversary appears to be a bit of a cluster$%^&! now it seems the invites have gone out to those invited to the 25th anniversary performance, and that tickets will not be on sale to the general public. I figured since it's practically December, we would've heard something by now if tickets were to be made available to us phans; I honestly hope I am wrong about this.

Oh no, that's not good news! But I can't quite believe it's true, that the people in charge would forget about/ignore the public (*the PHANS*) like that.
Where did you get this news from, Stranger?

IIRC, the record-breaking performance seven years ago (can't believe it's been that long) had private invites, and everyone was freaking out about the lack of fan involvement, and then they put the small number of public tickets on sale at the last minute. So don't freak out yet.

SenorSwanky wrote:IIRC, the record-breaking performance seven years ago (can't believe it's been that long) had private invites, and everyone was freaking out about the lack of fan involvement, and then they put the small number of public tickets on sale at the last minute. So don't freak out yet.

Well, yes, that could happen this time too...but I was kinda hoping they would do things a bit differently this time since it's the 25th Anniversary...that they wouldn't do the last-minute thing with public sale tickets (that they would give us phans a bit more consideration this time).

If anything I would suspect that there would be even more private invites to the 25th than the record-breaking performance. The sheer number of people involved over the years between cast, crew, production staff, etc could easily fill that house I'm sure. The ticket folks guessed that they might release a small number of tickets for that performance, but I think it's probably a little unrealistic at this point to expect a bunch of them to be available to the public. I don't necessarily see that as a slap in fans' faces either. Some nice discounts have been made available for fans for performances around that time frame. I'm happy with the two seats I scored leading up to the 25th and the money I saved. If nothing is available for Saturday, I'm fine with it. I don't think anyone here should take that personally.

I understand the point that the many people involved in the shows history being present and I think that is fantastic, but I don't see how not letting phans have access to some tickets isn't a slap in the face to the core fan-base; While many made the show happen, it's the paying audience and repeat viewers that keep any form of entertainment running, so I cant say I'm chill with the idea of no tickets being available to the public, at least when London celebrated it's 25th they showcased it at a venue that many could come see and enjoy. At least there is the silver lining that is Samantha Hill, girl is a kick-@$$ Christine. Hope I get to catch her perform while in NYC.