Phantom of the Opera Returns! — Page 2

Phantom4ever said: "Also, could you imagine anyone laughing at Maria's chandelier? I certainly could never."

I distinctly remember the first time I saw Phantom on Broadway I thought “This can’t be the real chandelier can it?” because it looked so hokey to me. The flimsy movement as it rose was very underwhelming. And I’m a huge Phantom fan and was so excited for this. 

If they bring this back to Broadway, I just hope they use some of the Vegas elements. Most specifically the UFO chandelier and the effects around it. That to me was the definition of spectacle. 

To say nothing of the OBC video now available at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at NYPL, which fans have already had a chance to view, and posted thoughts about on Tumblr (and another who spoke about their experience on a podcast, in fact). The interesting takeaway from reading/hearing both, for me at least, was how much had already been watered down by the years in the precious "Brilliant Original," which makes sense and also makes me feel a lot less hopeless than people who evidently never viewed it in that light seem to feel because of this thread...

Updated On: 11/2/24 at 11:44 AM

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "All four times I saw the Broadway production post-Covid (but pre-closing announcement) elicited chuckles and straight up laughs from various parts of the audience and various non-comedic parts of the show, but most notably the rickety chandelier being slowly yanked towards the stage at the end of act 1."

People laugh for lots of reasons. Doesn't mean they thought it looked rickety. The chandelier fell as fast as was deemed safe.

It uses the reduced 14 piece orchestration. 4 reeds (no oboe), 1 horn (no other brass), 3 keys, 3 violins, viola, celo and bass. All of the perc is in the keyboards.