Local high school production of Phantom...

My local town of Janesville, WI. currently has a high school production of Phantom of the Opera. I had heard great things, but until seeing this video, I didn't know just how good it could be...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVlrxcap3Nk

I mean, this looks very professional, and the singing is wonderful. (The girl playing Christine is only 14 years old, apparently.)

I may have to go and see this production before it closes.

Well I hope no one will every copy and steal Sara Brightman's deadeye look from the original production, unless they are dead.

BTW, those kids are amazing.

I wonder if the standard license comes with permission to steal and copy choreographed hand gestures and stage directions step for step

Oh please spare us your righteousness. Under U.S. copyright law, choreography is only copyrighted if it is recorded in a tangible medium. However, high schools/colleges benefit from the fair-use principle, which allows the use of copyrighted works for educational use. Direction itself is not eligible for copyright protection. People seem to not realize that there are three prongs to a copyright claim: copying the protected work, confusion with the original and monetary losses. All three must be met for an infringement claim.

That said, those kids are crazy talented, though it was a bit surprising to see a full-formed Phantom (surprising, but refreshing).

I actually think the choreography and stage directions ARE included with the amateur license. In fact, I think there is very little leeway for them to change much about the staging. (They even rent the sets.) I could be wrong about the specific scope of that, but in any event, they're kids. No one expects a high school production to be an original adaptation. POTO wouldn't license it to high schools if they didn't want aspects of the direction to be "copied."

(Thank you, Fosse and JimmyCurry for weighing in in their defense.)

I will pass along the kind words to the cast... and omit the rest of it. :)

I probably should've stuck with my original instincts and ignored that comment, but my tongue was bleeding...

Updated On: 7/21/15 at 09:59 PM

I agree that directors should help kids find their characters. I know your comment wasn't directed at that clip but I'll add that I understand this director really pushes the kids as actors. Obviously you can't really tell much from a few minute video clip of one song, but the community is very proud to have him involved in school theater. There was a neat article about him in the local paper awhile back.

I don't think anyone can really fault a public school director for using existing sets/costumes/choreography considering they're insanely underpaid for the amount of work that goes into these shows. (And most schools now rent costumes and sets and sometimes choreography DVDs, which is why you'll often see duplication.). But sadly I suspect we're unlikely to see funding for the arts in public schools go up anytime soon.... I do agree that if they use those resources they should still encourage kids to take their own view of the character though.

Updated On: 7/21/15 at 10:58 PM

As someone who has seen the original Broadway production 53 times (I know I know-- BWW mortal sin), I did not see much copying of the original production in this video.

I see two kids trying to copy some of it, but that Phantom is just too awkward to do most of it. The Phantom does not stand with arm out during Christine's solo notes at the end of the title number; he touches himself in a suggestive way. Even the iconic "turn your face away" bit was clumsy and sloppy. "Touch me, trust me" is similiar; he's holding her from behind, but she's supposed to be in a trance-like state, and she just lifts her arm back, feels the mask, and is startled out of the trance. Here, she is bright-eyed and he awkwardly grabs her arm, which has been bopping around in front of her, and lifts it to him, but then stops before her arm ever touches his mask.

When they first arrive at his lair and he takes his coat off, in New York he throws it in the boat. Here, he throws it on the floor near the organ, which is face the opposite way as in New York.

Generally speaking, I'm not sure what else you could do with Music of the Night besides have the Phantom walk around and sing it and Christine stand around and listen.

What I find more interesting is the recorded music :)

"I actually think the choreography and stage directions ARE included with the amateur license. In fact, I think there is very little leeway for them to change much about the staging. (They even rent the sets.) I could be wrong about the specific scope of that, but in any event, they're kids. No one expects a high school production to be an original adaptation. POTO wouldn't license it to high schools if they didn't want aspects of the direction to be "copied." "

Just to clarify, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, which handles the US licensing for Lloyd Webber's shows, does not rent the set to the schools that produce Phantom. They do provide a message board to allow groups to post their own sets, props, and costumes that they have available for rental and/or sale.

When they first did the pilot program for Phantom licensing they specifically chose groups that had varying levels of resources to see how the show would be handled when it wasn't a clone of the Hal Prince staging (my undergrad produced one of those pilot productions, and though it was a few years after I had graduated I still heard plenty of the goings-on). So unless they decided after those pilot productions to change their stance, those who license the show are not bound to stick to any staging specifics.

You're welcome for the clarification.

And yes, though I was stating that I don't believe they are required to use any aspect of the original staging, I'm hardly one to come down on a high school production for bearing any similarities to its Broadway counterpart. Very few of these kids are doing this as anything other than an extracurricular activity and will only take memories from these experiences.

Now, when you start getting college productions, which are ostensibly training future professionals, that show little creativity or originality, then I'll start taking a stronger side in the debate.

The fog/mist effect is always a winner.