Add me to this list. Phantom is, and always will be, a spectacular show. Prince's staging cannot be praised enough, and this was EXTREMELY evident when Laurence Connor's adapted version went on tour. The tour was competent and well done and completely anodyne.
Prince knew that it was melodrama and knew how to squeeze the melodrama out of every word, note, costume,movement, and light. He did it in such a way that everything is perfectly, unbelievably believable.
And Lloyd Webber's score is incredible. The contrapuntal writing in "Prima Donna", and Graveyard Trio, and the finale in the layer, with "Angel Of Music" and "Point of No Return" clashing against one another... and oft-overlooked numbers such as "Notes" (written in altenrating bars of 15/16 and 7/ 8 meter) and "Stranger Than You Dreamt It", all contribute to an atmospheric, haunting, exciting score. It's just chock full of thrilling music. |
