Today we celebrated my (March 24) birthday by going to see the all-new production of The Phantom of the Opera, kicking off its North American Tour at the Boston Opera House. The songs were the same, but the set design, staging, and choreography were all updated. Also, I read in the Broadway in Boston magazine that some of the costumes included designs found in the original designer's archive that were created for the original production but never used.
Although the lighting design was also updated, the biggest differences that I noticed were the set and the plethora of fire effects.
**SPOILER ALERT - DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW PLOT POINTS**
I'd heard that there were no longer candles coming out of the floor during the catacomb sequence; there were lights but they looked more like LED/flameless candles. You had to wait until you were in the lair before you saw the more dripping wax like looking candles all around. Although it's been since 1996 or so since I saw the show, I remember the catacombs being like gangplanks that they walked down, crisscrossing the stage. This time, you saw them come out on the top of the "backstage set," and then they opened a door at the end and the stairs PULLED OUT OF THE WALL AS THEY DESCENDED THEM... AND THEN WENT BACK INTO THE WALL! This then broke apart (imagine two crescent moons put together) to reveal the lair, or sometimes Andre and Firmin's office. For the "Masquerade" scene, there wasn't a staircase for the Phantom to come in, but rather the back mirror. Also, you actually saw the Phantom hang Bouquet because they had it so you saw half of what was "on stage" (the ballet from Act III) and half of what was backstage.
Also, I remember the chandelier starting out on the stage before at the top of the show and this time they called for "Lot 666" to be lowered during the Prologue, and then it went back up again. Could just be how the Boston Opera House is set up, but it was more impressive to have it start from the bottom and make its way up during the overture. One cool thing that I didn't remember before is behind the scrim you could see the ballerinas and Madame Giry and others pantomiming around Old Raoul, who wasn't in a wheelchair, just a chair. Also - a travesty - there was no mannequin in the wedding dress to be revealed, so during "Music of the Night," the Phantom just picked up Christine and put her into bed and since she didn't see the mannequin which made her faint, there didn't seem to be a reason why other than a seemingly nefarious purpose. (And I love the mannequin bit! I always wanted to wear Christine's wedding dress.) The Phantom didn't have a veil to play with at the end (see video below) but Christine threw around some sheet music in an act of defiance and his trying to pick that up made for a nice moment. This was more dramatic than having him throw fire at everyone (which he did a lot.)
Every time I see this show I have had someone new that I root for. This time I thought Christine reacted the best to what was going on. Although he had a few moments toward the end where you *almost* felt sorry for him, the Phantom just made me long for Peter Karrie - aka The Man - whom Dad and I saw him twice in Toronto (roughly 1995-1996.) Fortunately, a YouTube member going by the handle "opera ghostie" is also a fan. Watch at how he emotes in these bootlegged videos (there's a reason why he's been named Most Popular Phantom by the International Phantom Appreciation Society) and you'll see why it disheartened me to see this other guy just STAND THERE during the first verse of "Music of the Night":
"Music of the Night": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulcjw14O8rY
"Point of No Return": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j97PpjDKhDo
Final Lair (Part 1 of 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyNQdh7Piz0
Final Lair (Part 2 of 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPuvbUXksfk
(An Internet search to find out what Peter Karrie has been up to turns up the fact he recorded a version of Past the Point of No Return: http://castalbums.org/recordings/The-Impossible-Dream-2006-Peter-Karrie/13018 And it's on iTunes! Must ... buy ... this!!! Peter Karrie is awesome!!!)
One interesting thing during our particular performance was during "Think of Me," we started hearing "The Phantom of the Opera!" even though nothing had happened. (The backstage drop that was supposed to fall didn't fall.) They then STOPPED THE SHOW. As in a voice (not the Phantom's) came on and said they were stopping the show momentarily, all the actors quickly exited the stage, and the curtain came down. I'm not really sure what they did as when they resumed a few minutes later, they resumed with Boquet's stories and Carlotta saying, "These things do happen."
In all, I liked the new design, the orchestra was great, and the actor playing Piangi was hysterical - just wish I had my Peter Karrie!
B+
--POSTED BY COLLEEN
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