Profile for Phantom4ever

MezzoDiva47 said: "TheGingerBreadMan said: "Yes, if you want to counter a claim, bring receipts. I said what I had been told to be true by people in the industry who have knowledge over these things. You want to argue? Go ahead, but do it with some intelligence.Not that your argument deserves any more of my time, but I'm well aware that international tourists often speak English. I'm also well aware that they often do not. Are you trying to turn this into a xenophobia thing? Do you just want ...

So let's see. You're repeating an anecdote that you have no idea is true or not, but you want me to substantiate a counterclaim against it? Girl, sit down. And if you want to google the percentage of overseas tourists who speak more than one language, feel free, but I'm certainly not doing it for you. But at least I can say that international tourists are quite often, in fact, at least bilingual if not trilingual. And I'm not relying on random anecdotes I've heard. If you want to continue you...

TheGingerBreadMan said: "It's my understanding that a large part of the reason CATS was able to run 18 years was because non-English speaking tourists could watch the dancing and costumeswithout having to follow much of a plot. Big seller among that crowd."This comment is a typical ignorant American POV on language. It is far more common in the rest of the world, especially with foreign tourists who have enough disposable income to fly to New York to see Broadway shows, to speak and understan...

MezzoDiva47 said: "Jay Lerner-Z said: "then reopen in a few years with new techwhich i fully expect to happen with phantom It really frustrates me when people think the original 1986/1988 Phantom even had any "tech" or needed an "new tech." The whole point of Maria and Hal's vision of the show was to to be a love letter to theater and to use theatrical "technology" that's been around forever---backdrops, curtains, footlights, etc. Even the "tech" stuff, like the strikeless matches and flash p...

I am totally in favor of abortion rights, but if Disney gets involved in abortions, I may have to rethink my stance.

So are we thinking Labor Day or January closing? I kid, I kid. 😇but seriously, Labor Day 2046 or January 2047? I’m hearing lots of shows are closing then bc people just can’t afford these ticket prices and the shows aren’t as good as they used to be in the 2030s Ok let me stop and the poster above me is right. Those performers are bona fide Broadway vets, not stunts. How did we start thinking that any replacement who’s not a total unknown is a stunt cast?

Phantom was on TKTS for 21 years (2002-2023). https://playbill.com/article/phantom-of-the-opera-offered-at-tkts-for-first-time-com-106359 It first appeared there in the months after 9/11 near performance #6000. Wicked is around #8800 and hasn’t needed TKTS yet. But. Once again. Theyre not comparable. Very different situations.

Ugh.. Ya'll are too much. OF COURSE Phantom's numbers were lower than Wicked's numbers DUH. There was an strain of COVID going around, it had run for 35 years already, and oh yeah, it had a producer who was hell-bent on closing his original 1980s productions and replacing them with cheaper versions. MY POINT WAS (ugh) that posters on this board made made similar comments about Phantom (should we be worried? wow those numbers are low etc) and those comments were always met with "Phantom will b...

All of these "Wicked has nothing to worry about" is what everybody used to say about Phantom in those final years until suddenly.....

I teach this show to my seniors every spring so I am so glad I got to see it before it closed. There were so many moments that were illuminated for me by the staging and the line delivery. Before this, I’ve only heard 17 year olds struggling to read it aloud in class lol. The characterizations were on point and entertaining. Even Debbie Allen’s announcements about phones was spot on. The only problem was the obnoxious woman next to me who needed to talk back to pretty much everything the acto...

ALW had this happen twice before 2017: in 1990 with Aspects of Love, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera, and then again with Sunset Boulevard a few years later.

What is Lane joiining on the 22nd? He never seems to stay in Chicago very long.

When I used to direct musicals at the HS I work at (which has an all-African American population) we considered doing The Wiz and the only local production was at an all white high school. The production staff went to see it and nobody there seemed to understand the history or relevance of the show. It was surreal to say the least. This was 2018.

Has anyone seen the show with Whitney in it? I’m curious how the audience is. When I saw Chicago with Erika Jayne (I think that was her name), the audience was just terrible. They made it very obvious they were only there to see her and not the show. T was the least enjoyable time I’ve had at Chicago. I hope Whitney’s fans are better and more appreciative of the show.

I have been to several operas at Lyric Opera in Chicago and they were enjoyable. About 10 years ago, I went to see a ballet version of Othello by Joffrey Ballet. I was floored. It was so exciting and sexy and beautiful. It probably helped that I knew the story. But it was so incredible how they told this Shakespearean story completely through dance. Besides that, I see a production of Nutcracker every year either in New York or Chicago. I am very interested in seeing an opera at the Met but I...

Prior to about 2011, I would always have to go with someone to a Broadway show. I would ask current friends, former friends, exes; I would look up people I haven’t spoken to in years. Then, I finally just ran out of people willing to keep seeing shows with me. Too many people I knew saw theater as a once-a-year thing, not a constant thing like me. So, I finally went by myself. I felt like everyone was staring at me and feeling sorry for the friendless loser. But then I realized: hey I can buy...

It will be more like six and a half years before Lion King beats Phantom in performance count.

I saw Perfect Crime about 10 years ago and did not enjoy it and would never see it again. That said, this article has me siding with and identifying with Catherine Russell, mostly because of the obnoxious, condescending tone of the writer. If someone like the the writer doesn't like her, then I probably would. I also appreciated how she said that she just likes doing the show so why would she stop? Because the reddit mob is after her? That's so silly.

Just got my ticket! Can't remember when I bought a ticket for something so far in advance. I do wish they could somehow bring back the revolve for this but I suppose we should accept we are not gonna see that staging again.

I just saw the show over Labor Day weekend and the audience was like a rock concert from the moment the show started. I see the show frequently (38 times over 19 years) and it’s more common now to see crazed audiences than it used to be. The only time the audience isn’t nuts is when a stunt cast is in the show, like when Erika Jayne was in it, you could just tell all her fans absolutely hated the show and they brought the energy down quite a bit. But when it’s just two Broadway actresses in t...