Phantom vs Phantom

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 12:12am

I'm curious if folks who have seen/heard both versions of Phantom of the Opera (Webber's and the Yeston Kopit version) would care to share their thoughts about them.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 12:17am

Alright........here we go.

Yeston Kopit version of PHANTOM sounds like what you would expect if Disney would have gotten ahold of it. I mean, the music sounds almost identical to Beauty in the Beast (which by the way the actor who portrays the PHANTOM was the voice of Gaston in the cartoon). It is so cartoonish and bad. There are a few good songs, but nothing to oooo and ahhhh after. It is completely forgetabe. Also, they changed the story. It is supposed to be set before the Webber version takes place, but it screws the story up completely (meaning the original novel's plot). What else? In PHANTOM, Erik is a baritone, while in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Erik is a tenor. And so on and so forth....

BOTTOM LINE: Webber's version is 5 million times better.

[J.]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 1:25am

I was in a community theatre production of the Yeston PHANTOM and thought it was nice and there were song good songs in it, but the Lloyd Webber PHANTOM is clearly better.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 1:29am

odd that so many productions of Yeston's have gone on without the blessing of Spider's approval *wink*. i think most of Yeston's scores have some great tunes and also some mediocre stuff. i'm wondering if a comparison between productions might be more informed by seeing both staged, as opposed to just listening to recordings. i find Yeston's work better live than in recordings (in general). A lot of listeners also find Webber's repetitive, owing a lot to the light opera tradition (particularly Puccini), and somewhat pretentious. But that's why there are so many flavors of ice cream...try a lot, pick your favorites, but let others have their own taste.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 1:30am

*wink* back at ya!!

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 8:58am

I was in one of the first professional regional productions of Kopit and Yeston's Phantom several years ago, and from the moment we started read-throughs, I knew it was far superior to the dreaded Lloyd Webber version. The story is much richer and darker, and the music is beautiful, with soaring melodies and some great lyrics. Only one song in the score doesn't seem to fit, and that is Philipe's song to Christine, which sounds like it was written by Jerry Herman - its a good song, mind you, but it is the only song in the score which sounds like it was written by a different composer. I'd choose to see this show over the one on Broadway any day of my life. Carlotta's song "This place is Mine" is genious when handled by a wonderful character comedienne. The recording available is not so hot - some of the voices seem miscast (especially Philipe - whoever that is playing him on that recording sounds so gay that you'd never in a million years believe that he could fall for Christine!) but its still a good recording to have in your collection. I wish there were a difinitive recording available...maybe someday.

[Matt_G]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 2:39pm

At some of the gift shops in NYC they have a video for sale of PHANTOM and I believe it's the Yeston Kopit version (since I know for sure it's not ALW)

[zepka102]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 3:46pm

i saw a high school production of the Yeston Kopit version. they did do a great job, but i still feel that the Andrew Lloyd Webber version is a million times better. i didn't care too much for the direction that story went in (i'm also comparing this to the novel, NOT JUST ALW)... but the one song i liked music-wise (lyrics a little cheesy) was "Home."

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 3:49pm

Same here. I am was really dissapointed witht them screwing with the plot of the original novel. I mean, Webber messed with it too, but it still holds pretty true. That was my main beef about the musical..that and it sounded like a Disney cartoon.