MJ wanted to play the Phantom
MJ wanted to play the Phantom
#1MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/1/11 at 10:12pm
Yep. Sir Webber says Michael Jackson wanted to play the Phantom on film.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/06/30/piers.morgan.andrew.lloyd.webber/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
ETA: He also wanted Sammy Davis Jr. to open the Toronto production.
#2MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/2/11 at 12:32am
I'm pretty sure I've heard that somewhere before...I actually think it's not that a ridiculous idea. Gerard Butler, in fairness, wasn't exactly perfect for the role.
The whole Piers interview wasn't that interesting, nothing that hasn't already been said before - when Piers asked him who the greatest living composer was I was waiting for him to say Sondheim...but no, Paul McCartney. Meh.
Jimbob2
Understudy Joined: 3/11/10
#3MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/2/11 at 2:39pmI love the two performances of Sammy Davis Jr singing Music Of The Night (on Youtube), he really lives it.
Aurelia2
Chorus Member Joined: 6/19/11
#4MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/3/11 at 5:03amI just saw Phantom (again) last week on Broadway. I was really sad at how tired it is. It's not the show, not the sets, not the costumes. It's the actors and the terribly quiet sound design. Why are the actors so over it? It's not like they've been with the show since the beginning- so where is the energy? I was bored to tears by the performances. Michael Jackson would at least have given it his all!
MusicalComedyMan
Broadway Star Joined: 12/29/03
#5MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/3/11 at 9:03pmhmmmm... its hard to imagine Phantom with a 10 year old boy playing Christine.
Nickira Margherita
Swing Joined: 8/12/10
Urban
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/05
#7MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 8:13amThat 10 year old boy still would've given a better performance then Emmy Rossum I think!
#8MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 8:50am
As someone who actually worked with Michael... it's not true, never was. With that little peccadillo out of the way, yes, I think Michael actually would have been a great choice for the Phantom. However, he wanted to do a film as well, and way too early in the show's lifetime, so ALW said no.
Michael wound up trying to develop his own Phantom/Faustian storyline for a jukebox musical of his own compositions, working title of M1: The Phantom, but it never came into play. (I still have the outline somewhere - the book is way better quality-wise than Webber's libretto, although the score leans quite heavily on Invincible, which wasn't one of Michael's more successful albums.)
MusicalComedyMan
Broadway Star Joined: 12/29/03
#9MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 9:54amnot to beat a dead horse.... but just because you worked with someone doesn't mean that all the many stories and lawsuits about them aren't real. Pediphiles don't sit around and talk about it at half hour.
#10MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 10:37amMJ could have been the first to play the Phantom without a mask.
MusicalComedyMan
Broadway Star Joined: 12/29/03
#11MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 12:16pmLOL He could take his nose off at the end.
#12MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 2:45pm
not to beat a dead horse.... but just because you worked with someone doesn't mean that all the many stories and lawsuits about them aren't real. Pedophiles don't sit around and talk about it at half hour.
We observed him at length and interacted with him over a period of time since 1997, mainly the rest of the company; I'm relatively new. Was he light in the loafers? You didn't hear it from me. *clears throat* Was he an easy target because he was eccentric and a conflicted soul? Definitely. Did he touch those kids? I don't believe it, not for a minute.
MusicalComedyMan
Broadway Star Joined: 12/29/03
#13MJ wanted to play the Phantom
Posted: 7/4/11 at 3:08pm
He wasn't an easy target because he was 'eccentric and a conflicted soul'. He was an easy target because he admitted that he slept with children - invited them to his 'playhouse' and had a hidden bedroom behind the movie theatre. His servants admitted to him serving 'Jesus Juice' (wine) - Not to mention the 10 million or so he payed off at least one family. (and then continued inviting pubescent children over his house to sleep with them.
I have no idea what people i work with do sexually... and unless they tell you neither do you.
THAT SAID... he would be an awful Phantom. The seduction scenes would have been HYSTERICAL. It would be like Pee Wee Herman (yes the character) playing Joe Hardy.
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