Well I finally got a chance to see this today. There were definitely some disappointments but also some nice surprises.
Like many others I was terribly disappointed with Butler's voice. I absolutely ADORE "Phantom" on the stage, particularly "Music of the Night". This afternoon I found myself wincing during certain passages and realized at one point that I had been thinking about an upcoming doctor's appointment - while the song was still going on. This is particularly upsetting to me because I had really been looking forward to this bit.
I had a much bigger disappointment with Rossum though. Her singing was all right but I honestly believe this child must have never acted a day in her life. Someone here already said her acting ran the gamut from A to B. I'm thinking that B may just be a stretch. (And she's been nominated as best actress for one of the awards? Incredible.)
As for Wilson - I've got to admit that I must be one of the very few individuals in the world who've just never been impressed with anything he's done. I will give him credit for acting chops though based on reviews of his performance in "Angels in America". (I didn't see it myself.) His voice is beautiful but from his first scenes I kept getting the impression that he wished he were anywhere but there. I'd see him and immediately think of Doug Sills getting out of "Spamalot" because of the size of the role. Maybe Wilson didn't have the option of getting out of it? It did occur to me late in the show that if they were going to go for a young, handsome Phantom, why didn't they just slap a dark wig on Wilson and let him play the part? At least we would have heard a really good singer on those songs. A lesser performer could have played Raoul. (Maybe he could get back at them by playing the Phantom on stage? I'd go see that.)
Driver was hysterically funny - just as Carlotta is supposed to be. Yes the lip syncing was off, but you kind of forgot it when you saw how funny she was.
Richardson played a very believable and sympathetic Giry. Her accent didn't bother me the least. (Who says she has to speak exactly as everyone else there? Even if it didn't take place in Paris, she could have used a French accent and been an emigree! LOL. To tell you the truth, Driver's accent bothered me a lot more because I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying.
I really feel that the vast majority of complaints I've heard about this production have been very nit-picky. Somewhere along the line the reviewers (here and elsewhere) seem to have forgotten the fact that this is a fantasy. It's all made up. Gaston Leroux' statement notwithstanding - THERE IS NO PHANTOM OF THE OPERA! I direct this to the people who criticised the film for the following reasons:
Lighting in the underground vault - The man lived there for crying out loud. What was it supposed to be? A cave?
Candles rising from the lake - I would have been disappointed if they HADN'T had these. They've used them for almost a couple of decades in the stage version and they belong here. IT'S A FANTASY!!!!
The Phantom must have been really powerful to get all those candles lit and raising up like that on their own! (See above.) And of course he's powerful. Did you see the way he could get Christine's dress to fall off every time she looked at him in PONR?
The phantom's face not being "Like yellow parchment is his skin... a great black hole served as the nose that never grew" as described by Buquet. Buquet was both trying to scare and impress the girls in the ballet. His description means nothing. I agree that the Phantom's disfigurement was ridiculously understated though. In fact, the makeup people here really screwed things up bad. Did you notice that the degree of disfigurement kept changing the longer his mask was off? Sometimes it just looked like a case of rosacea. One time I thought his eye was going to fall out and a second later it just looked a little red. Bad job folks.
How did the Phantom learn to fight with a sword? WHO CARES? It looked totally cool and very believable. Frankly this is one area of the play that I've always disliked. Those fire balls falling limply out of the Phantom's staff always looked pretty lame to me. They should incorporate the swords into the stage production.
Meg's too ....'healthy' to be a ballet dancer. More ridiculousness. Take a look at any painting by Degas. Remember - George Balanchine hadn't come along yet to starve ballet dancers into anorexia. Meg looked great - and authentic.
Dancers in "Point of No Return" - I didn't mind them. I thought they helped remind you that despite the emotions in the scene, you weren't watching a private moment between Christine and Erik. It was a performance. They were on stage, in front of an audience. Also I thought the shadows of the dancers hands on the wall behind the stairs as they climbed to the bridge was very erotic.
Almost total lack of color in "Masquerade" - If this was an artistic experiment, it bombed badly. This was another place where I was really looking forward to the costumes. It was a big disappointment.
Sets? Gorgeous. Everything you could ask for. Costumes? OK, but not great. The costumes in the stage production ARE great and they should have used them. Carlotta really stood out here. Her costume in Hannibal wasn't as gorgeous as the one in the play. Her costumes off stage were almost clownish - especially when compared with the costume she wore to the masquerade. It was so .... boring and limp and blah. I don't think Carlotta would have worn that as an undergarment!
The only other thing I can think of right now is the ending. I would much rather have seen the Phantom disappearing in his throne and Meg finding just the mask left. I did like the camera closing in on the music box and then seeing the box turn to black and white and the present time. And THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE END. It would have made a perfect ending. One of the best things about the play is the fact that you never really know what became of the Phantom. They just went one step too far with this. I wish they'd just cut everything out after the music box. Providing the audience with a firm answer to the Phantom's lot at the end is insulting to the intelligence of the audience. (Oh - OK. Maybe they had to.)
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mamie4 5/14/03
He was much too pretty. 
