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| re: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. | |
| Posted by: mikem 01:44 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. - GrumpyMorningBoy 03:59 pm EDT 04/19/20 | |
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| GMB, you've made me curious how Maury Yeston's Phantom opens. I'll have to look it up. I had the cast album for many years before I finally saw the show. The libretto in the recording is extremely detailed and includes the lines not included on the album, so I had a very strong vision in my head of the show before I actually saw it. The staging was even better than I had imagined, particularly the chandelier rising and the original appearance of the Phantom to Christine in the mirror. I agree that the show deflates a bit after Music of the Night. The Phantom and Christine have this big confrontation after she rips away his mask, and it basically peters out with him calmly saying something like, "Well, I guess I should take you back now because they're probably wondering where you are." It's kind of an anticlimactic end to the scene. And then the action jumps in time, so we never find out what the reaction was when Christine returns. Are they wondering where she is? What did Raoul think about her disappearing like that? What kind of excuse did she give? As far as I can remember, it's never addressed. |
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| re: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 05:42 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. - mikem 01:44 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| "I had the cast album for many years before I finally saw the show. The libretto in the recording is extremely detailed and includes the lines not included on the album, so I had a very strong vision in my head of the show before I actually saw it. The staging was even better than I had imagined, particularly the chandelier rising and the original appearance of the Phantom to Christine in the mirror." I agree about the chandelier rising, but to this day, I still cannot believe how completely disappointing is the climactic scene of the chandelier "falling," and it's beyond me how the show ever became famous for such an ineffective effect. I do understand that safety reasons prevented a more realistic crashing of the chandelier, but I don't understand why anyone ever made a big deal over the way they wound up doing it, and why so few people have been vocal about what a huge letdown the actual effect is compared to the way it's described and the way one probably pictures it before seeing it. |
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| The Chandelier | |
| Posted by: LynnO 12:43 am EDT 04/21/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. - Michael_Portantiere 05:42 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| I agree the chandelier drop isn't very exciting, but I imagine that it was very exciting in 1986, before computers were ubiquitous. The updated computerized chandelier in Vegas was worth the price of admission alone... I describe it elsewhere in these threads. | |
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| re: The Chandelier | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:29 am EDT 04/23/20 | |
| In reply to: The Chandelier - LynnO 12:43 am EDT 04/21/20 | |
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| "I agree the chandelier drop isn't very exciting, but I imagine that it was very exciting in 1986, before computers were ubiquitous. The updated computerized chandelier in Vegas was worth the price of admission alone... I describe it elsewhere in these threads." I experienced the chandelier drop when PHANTOM first opened on Broadway, and I thought it was a tremendous letdown even then. But thanks for the note about the Vegas chandelier. I guess maybe now I remember reading about that when that production opened, but I had forgotten, and I never actually saw it. |
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| re: The Chandelier | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 02:23 pm EDT 04/23/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The Chandelier - Michael_Portantiere 12:29 am EDT 04/23/20 | |
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| I didn't see PHANTOM OF THE OPERA until the early '90's because it was such a hot and expensive ticket when it first opened and I was a poor high school/college student. But, I finally went in the early '90's because it was part of a rare Shubert subscription series at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia and the series was chock full of others things I also wanted to see. I saved up the money for that subscription and was rewarded with prime seats at PHANTOM, in the center within the first 10 rows. What got me about the chandelier drop was not the drop itself, but that it dropped and then somehow, before landing on the stage, swung back out over the audience, right at me, in fact. I didn't know it did that and wasn't expecting it. And it scared the hell out of me, just for an instant. |
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| re: The Chandelier | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 01:47 pm EDT 04/24/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The Chandelier - JereNYC 02:23 pm EDT 04/23/20 | |
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| "What got me about the chandelier drop was not the drop itself, but that it dropped and then somehow, before landing on the stage, swung back out over the audience, right at me, in fact." If my memory is correct, that swinging back out over the audience did NOT happen when I saw PHANTOM on Broadway. But that was right after the show opened, so I wouldn't be surprised if the effect has been tweaked and possibly improved on Broadway and in other productions since. |
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| re: The Chandelier | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 04:31 pm EDT 04/24/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The Chandelier - Michael_Portantiere 01:47 pm EDT 04/24/20 | |
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| The only other time I've seen the show was on Broadway, but it was close to 20 years ago and from the cheap seats in the back of the mezzanine that sold back then for $20. I don't remember if it happened at that performance, but I was probably too far back to really catch it anyway. | |
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| that chandelier | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 07:15 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. - Michael_Portantiere 05:42 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| Totally! It was hilarious to me when I finally saw the show in the early 2000s or late 90s... especially the slow speed and the way it falls as if being guided by a leg and right controller that have to be alternated for a safe landing. I also think the chandelier itself looks a bit unglamorous, the way it's designed. Not a very impressive chandelier... It looks like a UFO landing a bit more than a presumably 19th century opera house chandelier crashing down from the ceiling. |
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| re: that chandelier | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 09:44 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: that chandelier - Chazwaza 07:15 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| Completely! And don't you think it's insane how the effect has become so famous even though its so incredibly lame and anticlimactic? It's almost as if people misremember seeing a chandelier crashing the way that should look, rather than the way it actually looks. | |
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| re: that chandelier | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 09:59 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: that chandelier - Michael_Portantiere 09:44 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| The Dear World Effect. Maria Björnson was counting on it. |
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| After Music of the Night | |
| Posted by: LynnO 02:13 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Totally agree about how well-written PHANTOM's opening is. - mikem 01:44 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| After Christine rips off the Phantom's mask, he goes ballistic, but then literally crawls back, and she feels sorry for him and gives him his mask back. They usually have a tender moment of silence before the Phantom snaps back to the present and grabs her hand, saying, "Come, we must return! Those two fools who run my theatre will be missing you!" They have to get back because the Phantom has those plans to insert her in Il Muto. There isn't a jump in time, the show just switches to the Manager's office where they are lamenting that both sopranos have disappeared/left. Carlotta re-appears during that scene, and then Madame Giry and Meg enter and announce that Christine has returned, and she's resting. Then there is the debate on who will sing Il Muto, and they decide to have Carlotta sing it, hence "Prima Donna." To answer your questions, they do wonder where Christine went, but they all received notes from the Phantom explaining that he has her. Of course they are all perplexed and worried, that's all dealt with in the "Notes" song in the Manager's office described above. Christine didn't give an excuse for disappearing, the Phantom explained it in a note. |
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| re: After Music of the Night | |
| Posted by: mikem 10:21 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
| In reply to: After Music of the Night - LynnO 02:13 pm EDT 04/20/20 | |
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| LynnO, thanks for correcting my faulty memory and perception. I didn't remember the lyrics after all this time, so I looked them up. I think I mistakenly thought there was a time jump because Carlotta accuses Raoul and Christine of being lovers when they've literally been in the same room for about 5 minutes since childhood at that point, but of course Carlotta doesn't know that even if we do. | |
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