Phantom Closing? — Page 13

Miserent said: "The show closes Feb 18th, yet tickets aren’t available past January 21st…what’s up with that?"

Maybe give them time to actually plan? Is that too much to ask.

inception said: "Phantom4ever said: "
tbe biggest gripe Chicagoans have with New York is the garbage bags on the street waiting for pick up. They never shutup about it actually. They always ask “why can’t they put the garbage in the alley like Chicago?” And I have to say: there are no alleys. Sorry Joe! "

Not just Chicagoans! On my first visit to NYC that was the biggest shock, seeing piles of garbage bags heaped up on the sidewalk, some leaning against parked cars for support, for days. I took so many photos, but the pics of the garbage were what I showed most to folks to let them see what NYC is really like.

That trip I stayed somewhere cheap near Union Square. I've stayed in better neighborhoods since.

As for the video, the alley seems more like a metaphor. In today's America we're all just gonna end up in a dustbin in the alley.

Maybe now he's out of a job the guy is joining the masses of homeless camped out in needle & feces strewn alleys in cities like Vancouver, Seattle, LA & Las Vegas.

I'm heading to Las Vegas this weekend & changed reservations for one of my hotels based on reports that a homeless encampment I would have to walk past has sprung up in the area since I was last there in 2019.

There's also supposed to be an influx of Times Square style costumed folks badgering people for cash for photos. Maybe I should go by & see if there's any Phantoms.

Also in Times Square itself seems like the Phantom might be a good costume for those $#@# to start using.



"

I like to tell people that’s why in tv and movies they tend to do a lot of up shots of the buildings and don’t really show the streets because the streets of nyc are … gross. Even in the “fancy” parts of town there is still trash, rats, urine smells.

SouthernCakes said: "inception said: "Phantom4ever said: "
tbe biggest gripe Chicagoans have with New York is the garbage bags on the street waiting for pick up. They never shutup about it actually. They always ask “why can’t they put the garbage in the alley like Chicago?” And I have to say: there are no alleys. Sorry Joe! "

Not just Chicagoans! On my first visit to NYC that was the biggest shock, seeing piles of garbage bags heaped up on the sidewalk, some leaning against parked cars for support, for days. I took so many photos, but the pics of the garbage were what I showed most to folks to let them see what NYC is really like.

That trip I stayed somewhere cheap near Union Square. I've stayed in better neighborhoods since.

As for the video, the alley seems more like a metaphor. In today's America we're all just gonna end up in a dustbin in the alley.

Maybe now he's out of a job the guy is joining the masses of homeless camped out in needle & feces strewn alleys in cities like Vancouver, Seattle, LA & Las Vegas.

I'm heading to Las Vegas this weekend & changed reservations for one of my hotels based on reports that a homeless encampment I would have to walk past has sprung up in the area since I was last there in 2019.

There's also supposed to be an influx of Times Square style costumed folks badgering people for cash for photos. Maybe I should go by & see if there's any Phantoms.

Also in Times Square itself seems like the Phantom might be a good costume for those $#@# to start using.



"

I like to tell people that’s why in tv and movies they tend to do a lot of up shots of the buildings and don’t really show the streets because the streets of nyc are … gross. Even in the “fancy” parts of town there is still trash, rats, urine smells."

I enjoyed the joke in the movie of The Wiz with the four leads singing and dancing past all the garbage lined up on the sidewalk. Never knew that was because there were no alleys--you learn something new every day.

But I thought the garbage, etc. was gone now. I thought that was Taxi Driver New York, not Sex in the City New York.

Updated On: 9/29/22 at 05:14 PM

Why would an opera company produce ALW's Phantom of the Opera? It has a few moments of operatic-sounding songs, but it is NOT an opera at all.

Also, that latest video really made me feel hopeless. It made me feel that they are definitely sticking to the Feb. 18 closing date and this latest video was all about building hype toward Phantom's return as a fresh, 21st century (cheap, smaller) show. You have to wonder if Mackintosh already has a deal for a smaller theater like the Booth or Golden perhaps that could shoe horn in a tiny Phantom production full of screens and projections.

This reeks of having been all planned out regardless of the pandemic, of Phantom's grosses, etc. It probably also explains why ALW hasn't chimed in yet, but I still can't tell if that's because he is so upset by the whole thing or if it's already been planned for him to swoop in and help Mackintosh "save" the show at the last minute.

joevitus said: “But I thought the garbage, etc. was gone now. I thought that was Taxi Driver New York, not Sex in the City New York."

Do you live in or visit New York? The streets are pretty consistently filled with garbage bags, litter, smells or urine or weed - greatest city in the world though, lol.


If they do plan to come back with the London changes (which for the most part were improvements if you ask me - that chandelier is much more grand and not as rickety as the old classic) they have to wait at least a year. I think it would really backfire if they didn’t wait a bit.

Phantom4ever said: "Why would an opera company produce ALW's Phantom of the Opera? It has a few moments of operatic-sounding songs, but it is NOT an opera at all.

Also, that latest video really made me feel hopeless. It made me feel that they are definitely sticking to the Feb. 18 closing date and this latest video was all about building hype toward Phantom's return as a fresh, 21st century (cheap, smaller) show. You have to wonder if Mackintosh already has a deal for a smaller theater like the Booth or Golden perhaps that could shoe horn in a tiny Phantom production full of screens and projections.

This reeks of having been all planned out regardless of the pandemic, of Phantom's grosses, etc. It probably also explains why ALW hasn't chimed in yet, but I still can't tell if that's because he is so upset by the whole thing or if it's already been planned for him to swoop in and help Mackintosh "save" the show at the last minute."

I'd argue Fiddler is further from an opera than Phantom.

Phantom4ever said: "Why would an opera company produce ALW's Phantom of the Opera? It has a few moments of operatic-sounding songs, but it is NOT an opera at all."

That's the thing though. Opera companies ARE producing ALW's POTO, amongst other commercial musicals. Who do you think put on the Sydney Harbour production of POTO directed by Simon Phillips, not to mention co-producing the Cameron Mackintosh's restaged tour that is currently making the rounds in Australia? Opera Australia, who have even addressed Sondheim's Sweeney Todd as directed by Gale Edwards, and made plans for a large-scale professional production of Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde before it became the third such production in the country to be cancelled.

A number of other opera companies around the world have staged non-replica productions before this, including Prague State Opera.

Updated On: 9/30/22 at 07:38 AM

My apologies about the operas. I was responding from the frame of mind of hearing people mislabel Phantom of the Opera as an opera. Yeah I know about opera companies producing a Broadway Series type of shows but I can't see the professional rights to Phantom being released anytime soon or even not soon.

And yeah....that video is all just laying the pre=planned groundwork, pandemic or not, for the new touring production (Prince and Bjornson-lite) to Broadway

Phantom4ever said: "that latest video really made me feel hopeless. It made me feel that they are definitely sticking to the Feb. 18 closing date and this latest video was all about building hype toward Phantom's return as a fresh, 21st century (cheap, smaller) show. You have to wonder if Mackintosh already has a deal for a smaller theater like the Booth or Golden perhaps that could shoe horn in a tiny Phantom production full of screens and projections.

This reeks of having been all planned out regardless of the pandemic, of Phantom's grosses, etc."

Sadly, I think you're right on all counts.

Updated On: 9/30/22 at 10:54 AM

Call_me_jorge said: "Phantom4ever said: "Why would an opera company produce ALW's Phantom of the Opera? It has a few moments of operatic-sounding songs, but it is NOT an opera at all."

The same reason why opera companies are producing golden age musicals. Operas aren’t nearly as popular as R&H musicals or shows like west side story. The crowds at opera houses are getting older and smaller every second and they use musicals as part of their subscription series to bring in younger crowds and ultimately make more money. The moment ALW’s Phantom of the Opera becomes available for first class licensing it’s gonna be crazy."

So this both depresses and elates me. There have been some really spectacular revivals of musicals through opera companies (the 1994 Carousel, case in point; obviously a lot of productions of Sweeney Todd). But I LOVE opera. I hate the idea of opera companies abandoning or reducing the number of operas in their repertory for golden age musicals. And I don't really want to see an opera company Oklahoma! or Finnian's Rainbow. Carousel are Sweeney Todd make sense because they demand Voice with a capital V. Most musicals don't. But a lot of golden age musicals really require singers who can act...and this is an area where many opera singers are lacking. They can act in song, but they are often awkward and stiff with dialogue. I'm afraid those musical revivals will come of as more operetta-ish as a result than they actually are.

Phantom4ever said: "My apologies about the operas. I was responding from the frame of mind of hearing people mislabel Phantom of the Opera as an opera. Yeah I know about opera companies producing a Broadway Series type of shows but I can't see the professional rights to Phantom being released anytime soon or even not soon.


That's what I'm saying though - the professional rights already have been released, otherwise the Sydney Harbour from this year and other professional non-replica stagings all the way from 2003 would not have happened... unless you mean the professional rights to the Hal Prince version of the show? In which case in many countries it is already majority-produced by entities other than Cam Mack or RUG, so it's not too much of a stretch to see it happening if it hasn't already in a practical, rather than technical way in a territory such as U.S.A.

Updated On: 10/1/22 at 07:21 AM

So last week when Phantom of the Opera posted its closing notice my partner told me that he’d never seen a production and as I hadn’t seen the show since it’s London premiere we thought we’d go back underground at the Palais Garnier once again. I began to think about that experience I had when I first encountered the Phantom in person. It was the summer of 1987 and I was in London directing a production of Lanford Wilson’s The Hot L Baltimore that we were taking up to the Edinburgh Festival. The show was a total sellout but the Phantom’s lighting designer, Andrew Bridge was the mentor of a designer I worked with back in New York so she did her magic, as lighting designers always do, and a pair of House Seats were waiting for me at the box office of Her Majesty’s Theatre Royal. Back then a wall of colored paper tickets would line the back but for this show the boxes were all empty. Not a ticket for the general public was available. As we stepped up (I brought the producer of our production with me as even he couldn’t score a seat) and low and behold a pair of tickets were placed in my hand (of course once I paid an exorbitant amount of Pound Sterling which looking back was not very much at all.) It was a magical and theatrically innovative performance which as we all know kinda raised the stakes for big budget musicals.

All of this was on my mind as we took our seats at the Majestic Theatre here in New York some 35 years later. This week’s performance was thoroughly engaging and quite well done. The cast and production were polished and the evening moved along quite well. I was reminded what a Herculean feat it is to maintain a Broadway behemoth thru the years as I don’t think I’ve ever gone back to revisit a production that I last saw decades before.

But something struck me last Thursday evening. What once seemed magical and thrilling felt a bit camp and humorous. The stakes seemed quite lowered this time around. And it wasn’t just me as Chris and a good part of the younger audience seemed to react the same way. Can it be that after 35 years the Phantom raised the stakes so high that nothing short of an actual exorcism on stage can take our collective breathe away? Has the price of theatrical magic gone that high? Something to ponder in our ever expanding world of wizardry and legerdemain.

One final thought seems worth mentioning. Back in the mid eighties we were coping with the ever expanding AIDS epidemic. It was a part of our everyday consciousness as we went to the theatre for escapism. Today the world has changed on that front as the back page of tonight’s Playbill was an advertisement for PREP. I think I’ll settle for a little disappointment in the theatre. It’s a pretty good trade off don’t you think?

Chernjam, I totally agree with you--the show and its music is definitely still an escape for me as well.

And here is an article about Phantom NY hitting 6,000 performances and being on TKTS for the first time, which was on June 5, 2002, 14 years into its run and less than a year after 9/11 when the city was still far from recovered.

https://playbill.com/article/the-phantom-of-the-opera-hits-6-000th-performance-on-bway-june-13-com-106466

And NYCward, I'm curious about the young people in the audience with you last week. How did you know that "a good part" of them found the show campy and humorous instead of thrilling and magical? Did they make comments, or was it just a vibe? It reminds me of when people say the opposite: that the show is just for spectacle because they were surrounded by people speaking languages other than English before the show started when they saw it, but they failed to realize that those non-English speakers ALSO speak English and could still understand the plot.

I think at the time you saw it in 1987, Phantom was very much on trend in terms of the megamusicals: this one's got a huge barricade that revolves on stage! Oh yeah? Well this one's got a chandelier that actually falls during the show! And later: This one's got a helicopter LANDING ONSTAGE!!!!! (which is when the backlash started)

Maria Bjornson though famously said that the boat scene in Phantom uses all 19th century technology that was all already under the stage at Her Majesty's and had to be specially built for the Majestic. The lighting also was meant to be old fashioned looking. And overall, the show is a black box design with heavy 19th century era curtains doing most of the work. But that irony of old-timey visuals with Prince's direction that there be constant jolts and shocks throughout the show, are what make the show thrilling, in 1986 and 2022. It's one of the reasons I love taking new people to Phantom, especially young people, so they can be wowed anew.

I know. The lightning strikes should be on video screens. Phantom's skull thing that shoots flames should be a projection. (insert eyeroll here) But I think it still works and in 82 times seeing it at the Majestic, I have yet to see an audience that wasn't wowed by the whole thing, especially my grouchy 21st century New Jersey teenagers.

Anyway, here is a cute video of young people thrilled by the magic of Phantom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8DefidyUCg