Threaded Order Chronological Order
| 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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