I saw the stage show twice with Michael Crawford in L.A., and once with Robert Guillaume. Michael was a force of nature in the role. He dominated the production, which is interesting since he's not actually on stage all that much (when you count minutes). The show changed dramatically, when I sawe Guillaume in the part. He was good, but not electric or "other worldly." As a result, it became Christine's show (which I think ALW had always intended, since he wrote it for his then-wife).
The movie was dull and unimaginative. A very straight-forward presentation. ALW kept saying it was completely different than the stage show, but I found very few surprises in it. There was no cinematic interpretation or spin on it. "Moulin Rouge" and even "Chicago" had wonderful stylistic ways of telling their stories. The Phantom movie was point-and-shoot. And the musical direction was terrible. Most everything seemed painfully under-tempo and over-stated, except for the "Masquerade" number which felt comically rushed, as if everyone suddenly was fighting the urge to go to the bathroom. I just didn't get it.
The cast was okay, but not outstanding. I actually felt sorry for Mr. Phantom, who had to act like another one of Schumacher's caped superheroes. He wasn't scary in the least... and the Phantom SHOULD be scary. The romatic aspect should lie in the audience's imagination, not in the muscles of its leading man. It's a shame that ALW didn't trust the story or his own material more. In cutting-edge, imaginative movie-making hands, this could have been something very special.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 8/14/05 at 01:20 PM
