Maury Yeston's "Phantom"

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 3:21pm

Has anyone seen this before? Or performed in it? How is it?

[Sant]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 3:24pm

I saw a local production of it only a few months after ALW's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, so Yeston's version felt a bit 'blah'. It had some great songs in it though. The story is very different from the ALW musical.

[jasonf]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 3:30pm

I've seen it -- and I like it better than ALW's version. Yes, Webber's is more spectacular, but as a full score, I think Yeston's has better music. For instance, compare My True Love and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (the big solo for Christine in act 2). Both are good songs, but if I'm choosing, I'm going with My True Love. So many good songs in Yeston's -- You Are Music, Home, You Are My Own. Which isn't to say I don't like Webber's -- All I Ask Of You is one of my favorite songs, and though it's overplayed now, and totally ripped off of Brigadoon, Music of the Night IS a pretty song.

That's just my two cents.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 3:31pm

I've seen it in two productions -- one local outdoor production that was awful, and a professional production that I enjoyed much more.

Some of the music is lovely, and I prefer the character treatments of Christine and Erik (the phantom) in this one to ALW's. The script lets you see Christine develop from a shy costume girl with a beautiful but untrained voice to an opera star. The phantom comes across as a more sympathetic character in this one, but the suitor -- I can't remember his name, but it's not Raoul -- is just a useless cad. Carlotta also has much more of a role in this as a comic villain.

That being said, the book is a little trite in spots, and I think ALW's is a much more cohesive piece.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 5:44pm

I was in a production of it. I adore the score; "Home", "My True Love", and "My Mother Bore Me" are such gorgeous songs, and "This Place is Mine" is absolutely hilarious!

[EganFan2]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 6:11pm

>>>I've seen it in two productions -- one local outdoor production that was awful<<<

Calvin, was that on Galveston Island (Texas)?

I saw it there in 1994.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 6:33pm

Yes, EganFan. And I should be fair. The production itself (the actors, etc.) was not awful. At least, I really couldn't judge it. I never enjoyed any show at that outdoor theater. You could never see -- too many people walking around, getting popcorn, talking and distracting you. Mosquitoes would eat you alive during the show. The sound system would inevitably fail. When I saw Oklahoma there, they had to do several songs a cappella because it failed and they use canned music. I hear they've gone to a better location now and it's much more pleasant.

When I saw the professional production a few years later -- in Houston, BTW, with Richard White, Glory Crampton, Jack Dabdoub and most of the others from the cast recording -- it was like seeing a totally different show. I was surprised at how much I loved the music because the first experience had soured me so.

I even used "Home" as an audition piece once.

[Joelbeans]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 7:41pm

I love the Yeston Phantom a lot. I have to say that I have never seen ALW's Phantom on stage or the movie. I liestned to that soundtrack so much after it came out that I got sick of it, and I never have listened or seen it since. I have seen the Yeston version twice also. The first time I saw it it was AMAZING. I was in the round. I love how that version tells how Eric became the Phantom, and the relationship between him and his father. I love the music, and I think I like it because it isn't as big as the ALW version. I am planning on seeing the ALW version when it tours through St. Louis. My best friends, cousin's wife is playing Christine so we are going to see it. I am sure it will blow me away.

[dramaqueen3]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 8:56pm

I like the Yeston one so much better. Aside from having beautiful music, the big thing that makes it so much better (in my opinion) is that the characters are so much more fleshed out. They're real people not character sketches.

[grizzabella]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 9:28pm

I was Yeston's Phantom in a regional production several years ago, but I do recall that, as has been mentioned, the characters are far more fully developed than in the ALW Phantom,(and more accessable) and the score was lovely. I enjoyed it a great deal, possibly because it wasn't "big" like the ALW production.

[Phantom05]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 11:32pm

Title of this thread should be followed by "Is A Load Of Crap".....I found the Yeston/Kopit version to be extremely boring, and honestly the music is a bit generic (a few nice melodic lines, but that's it). ALW's version is much more together, and is quite the package compared to the Yeston "lack-luster" version. I don't recommend this show in the slightest.....VERY boring, lol.

See Ya!

Phantom05

[Joelbeans]

Posted: 8/10/05 at 11:39pm

well we are all entitled to our own opinion, but can't we be civil. I prefer the Yeston version, but I amwaiting to see the ALW version. From what I have seen, read and heard I have a feeling that I will stay with the Yeston version, and that is my opinion. I am not calling ALW version crap, just not my favorite.....

THanks for this thread.....

[JohnnyJune]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 5:43am

My personal opinion is that it SUCKED!!!!!

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 6:26am

I was in one of the first regional productions in the early 90s and loved it. It has a full and lush traditional musical theatre feel, lyrics that actually make sense (as compared to the ALW version) and it delves into the reason the Phantom is the way he is, in a wonderful ballet sequence. I'd pick the Yeston version any day. There's only one song in the score that doesn't seem to fit with the rest, and that's Phillipe's song "Who could ever have dreamed up you?" it sounds like it was written by Jerry Herman instead of Maury Yeston...lol...but otherwise, the characters are wonderfully fleshed-out and Carlotta has one of the best comic character songs ever written for a woman. We had a fantastically funny Carlotta (Lynne Eldredge), and that made the show wonderful.

Updated On: 8/11/05 at 06:26 AM

[roquat]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 2:53pm

I love this show, although it should really be called "Phantom of the Operetta". The music has a genuine classical feel to it, and is nicely under-orchestrated; the libretto, although well-structured and interesting, has some real clunkers (Carlotta's big number contains the lyric "From every toilet bowl/to every leading role/This place is mine!") It benefits by being compact, and the characters are more human in scale than in the Webber version. Whatever you think of ALW, however, his "Phantom" remains a beautifully designed, well-paced commercial entertainment. I don't see why you can't admire both versions for their individual virtues; there's no need to take sides.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 3:16pm

LOL on the toilet bowl line!

Yup, there are some, uh, interesting lyrics. Even in one of my favorite songs, "Home," there's the line "Where every English horn makes me feel glad I'm born." Not since Maria von Trapp gushed over bright copper kettles has an inanimate object been so unworthy of canonizing. Also, the music lessons between Christine and the phantom go on far too long (and that fugue is maddeningly repetitive).

But I still think it's great overall and just needs some tweaking.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 3:21pm

I saw the world premiere (twice) and loved it. There were a few changes since then and the best number was never recorded, which was the history of Erik's childhood. It was reminiscent of "The Bells of St. Sebatiane" from Nine. I enjoyed it much more than Lloyd Webber's, which was visually stunning, but far more repetitive and shallow. I was always completely absorbed in Yeston's Phantom and always fell asleep in Lloyd Webber's (usually right around Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, where the show goes into a musical coma and never regains consciousness).

roquat - That lyric fit Carlotta's character so well. She was a crass, self-important, greedy diva and that number stopped the show when I saw it performed.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 4:14pm

One of my favorite scenes is the competition scene between Christine and Carlotta - our Carlotta sang the music so badly (on purpose) that I nearly wet myself watching her each night.

[grizzabella]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 7:24pm

Correction: Sometimes I CAN'T TYPE. I WASN'T the Phantom. I SAW Phanton. Jeeze, I can't read or type some days!
However, does anybody know if there are any recordings of the Yeston Phantom? I did a Yahoo Shopping search and came up empty.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 7:50pm

There is a recording. I have it. I found it at Colony in New York several years ago, but I'm not sure if it's still available there.

If you have any friends in Houston, I'm pretty sure you can get a copy from the store next to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. It was one of their shows, and they usually keep copies on hand.

[greatdct]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 7:54pm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000003FGT/qid=1123804372/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2840514-0959235?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

[grizzabella]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 8:01pm

Thanks so much, everybody! I'll look into it!

[roquat]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 9:34pm

Mister Matt, re toilet bowls--were they using them by that time? Weren't people still using chamber pots?

And there's one line that always gets groans ***spoiler alert***

The Phantom kills Carlotta by applying a sparking electrical cord to the metal staircase she's standing on, after declaring, "What you did to Christine I find as shocking as you will find this!" There's no way to say that without being embarassing.