Is James Barbour really that good in PHANTOM?- Page 2

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/2/16 at 5:17pm

I do believe people should be able to move on from their crimes when they've served their time. I do know that right or wrong, past crimes tend to follow people, sex crimes most of all.  Barbour had to have realized this when he chose to continue his career in show business after serving his time, so it's hard to feel too sorry for him, unless he truly believed she was of legal age when they had non-penetrative sexual relations. 

 

I wish I could say I can't believe it, but it's too easy to believe that whenever this comes up, there's inevitably someone who will always lay the blame on the teenager, whether because of her Machiavellian grandmother, or because she didn't report it for several years or because she threw herself at him or whatever.  Even if all of those things are true, he still stuck it somewhere in someone he was legally prohibited from sticking it in.  Even if she was straight out of Nabokov,as goldenboy would like us to believe, that still didn't leave Barbour powerless to her advances.  Consent laws may arbitrary and in some cases unfair, but he was what, 35 at the time?  He should have known better. If he had, he wouldn't have been exhibit A for why consent laws are needed.

 

Updated On: 1/2/16 at 05:17 PM

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/2/16 at 5:35pm

AHLiebross said: "Just to set the record straight, to be a rapist, there has to be penetration. Other types of sexual activity are not rape. James Barbour has not been accused of rape."

 

It's called the age of consent for a reason, anyone under that age is considered too young to truly consent to sexual relations. 

 

And he admitted to knowing she was 15.

 

I wont be discussing this anymore because it's quite frankly depressing. If people want to cast him in a show, see him in a show, praise him as a performer/human being or 'forgive' him that's absolutely their choice. But to insist that anyone else does these things is beyond ridiculous. He did something absolutely awful and he has to live with the consequences of that that entail more than just filling out a prison sentence. 

Updated On: 1/2/16 at 05:35 PM

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 1/2/16 at 8:22pm

aaaaaa15, the reason I keep debating this is that many people believe that once a sex criminal, always a sex criminal, therefore recidivism is inevitable. Because of the individual I know, I am aware that this is not the case. When someone gets their act together and goes on to have children later, it is primarily the offender's children who suffer from society's refusal to believe that their mother or father may have changed.

 

No other crime -- even murder -- carries a presumption of recidivism. There are no offender registries except for sex crimes, even though, in some states, almost anything can result in conviction of a sex crime. Has anyone read of the recent conviction of a couple for having consensual sex on a beach under a blanket? The 22-year-old woman, who had no prior record, is now required to register, just like her much older boyfriend, who had run afoul of the law before. The seventeen-year-old who has sex with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend, whom he met at school, would be considered a sex criminal in some states.

 

Society went too much the other way in the past, refusing to prosecute men who fondled young girls. The pendulum has swung too far, in my view, and it is hitting innocent people along with the guilty as it swings. I write passionately in defense of James Barbour because I place myself in the shoes of his innocent family members.

 

I won't post anything more on this thread about this issue. Instead, I'll close by saying that Phantom phans have been lucky to have had two amazing Broadway phantoms in a row -- Mr. Barbour and Norm Lewis, both baritones.

 

Audrey

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 1/2/16 at 8:34pm

I don't want to get involved in the sex issues, but when I saw Phantom, he sang the role gorgeously and had a complete manic take on the character. He is quite crazy in the role, literally throwing himself at Christine and dragging himself across the stage. It's a different take on the character, and he is very committed.

 

Just for clarity's sake, I would like to point out that in the novel LOLITA, the titular character is never expressively sexual to Humbert - it is all in his crazed mind. Part of the brilliance of the novel is that is completely strips Lolita of a voice, forcing us to take all faith in the unreliable narrator.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/3/16 at 12:13am

"Ages of sexual consent will lower over time."

 

No, they will not.  They will continue to increase, thanks to the infantilization of adolescents and young adults by helicopter parents.

 

Before Barbour went to Rikers, most of his charity work was for Scientology front groups.  Is it again or is he still out ethics?  Has he been declared? Did he complete the purif?  Has he cogitated on his crimes?  Is his life an enturbulated mess?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/3/16 at 12:36am

I forgot about the Scientology stuff!  

I think when most people think "age of consent" laws, they aren't thinking about two teenagers (save the religious fanatics) but about about much older adults and younger teenagers.  This was from Wikipedia.

The laws were designed to prosecute persons far older than the victims rather than teenagers close in age; therefore prosecutors rarely pursued teenagers in relationships with other teenagers even though the wordings of the laws made some close-in-age teenage relationships illegal. After the 1995 Landry and Forrest study concluded that men aged 20 and older produced half of the teenage pregnancies of girls 15-17, states began to more stringently enforce age of consent laws to combat teenage pregnancy in addition to prevent adults from taking advantage of minors.[8] A backlash among the public occurred when some teenagers engaging in close in age relationships received punishments perceived by the public to be disproportionate,[9] and so age gap provisions were installed to eliminate penalties if the two parties are close in age, and other measures were introduced that reduced penalties if the two parties were close in age.[10] Brittany Logino Smith and Glen A. Kercher of the Criminal Justice Center of Sam Houston State University wrote that these laws are often referred to as "Romeo and Juliet laws," though they defined Romeo and Juliet as only referring to an affirmative defense against prosecution.[11] Previously some of these statutes only applied to heterosexual sex, leaving homosexual sex in the same age range open to prosecution.[12]

 

 

 

 

Updated On: 1/3/16 at 12:36 AM

[PanaroFan111]

Posted: 1/3/16 at 10:00am

Ive seen James Barbour 4 times as the Phantom already, I think his voice is tremendous in this role. My only problem is I think his Final Lair was very weak and quite stiff, he just doesn't seem to be as energetic as other Phantoms ive seen in recent years, and yes ive seen over 12 actors play the Phantom so I got a lot to compare him to.

[windbelle]

Posted: 1/3/16 at 10:29pm

I'm a big fan of Barbour's voice, but I think his acting in Phantom was quite bland. I saw him early last year so I don't know how he is doing now.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Posted: 1/4/16 at 2:16am

To answer the goddamn question: yes.

[Movidude742]

Posted: 1/4/16 at 4:59am

AHLiebross said: "Just to set the record straight, to be a rapist, there has to be penetration. Other types of sexual activity are not rape. James Barbour has not been accused of rape."

any sexual contact is rape if one party says no, and legally a 15 year old is incapable of saying yes to a 34 year old.

What decade are you living in?

Posted: 1/4/16 at 10:28am

I saw him and thought he was just ok. Not particularly great but not terrible either. Norm was much, much better.

[Justin D]

Posted: 1/4/16 at 12:09pm

I wish I could get the chance to see him, I do love phantoms that lean more to baritone. His youtube clips do sound good, I can only imagine he sounds better in person with that booming voice reverberating throughout the theatre.

 

for those haters, contract is up next month so we will know soon if there will be a renewal or a replacement

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 1/4/16 at 2:06pm

windbelle said: "I'm a big fan of Barbour's voice, but I think his acting in Phantom was quite bland. I saw him early last year so I don't know how he is doing now."

I caught the show for the first time in a while recently, and it was my second time seeing him since last spring. His voice is still great for it, but I much preferred him the first time. He was bland then, but he barely had any stage presence this time around, and had no emotion in his voice at all. Hopefully we managed to catch him on three off days, but from what I hear, it's pretty standard for him.