I attended both the October 22 (center orchestra row F) and October 23 (center orchestra row C) performances. Overall, the show looks and sounds great.
The sound system has been upgraded and it's quite audible. This technological enhancement, coupled with apparent enunciation coaching among the principals, has made it much easier to understand key lines and follow the plot. Certain actors who used to swallow some words and get buried in the mix have been boosted and are speaking/singing more clearly.
As others have noted, a number of lyric changes have been implemented. A few of them make sense, but most accomplish little in terms of furthering the plot or character development. In the prologue, the auctioneer now says something like:
"Lot 666, then: a chandelier until recently believed lost. Some of you may recall the strange affair of the phantom of the opera, a mystery never fully explained. We are told ladies and gentlemen, that this is the very chandelier which figures in the famous disaster. Our workshops have repaired it so that we may get a hint of how magnificent it might one day look. Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination...gentlemen!"
Regarding humor, the actors in the "Hannibal" rehearsal, "Notes", and "Il Muto" scenes have obviously been directed to emphasize the intrinsic comedic aspects of those scenes. The humor feels less subtle and more deliberate. While I wasn't bothered by these changes, I also didn't feel that they improved the show in any real way.
The first significant direction/blocking change occurs when "Angel of Music" transitions to the title song. As in the London production, the Phantom now opens the mirror and draws Christine through it after his first, "I am your angel...", and then the dressing room door springs open and Raoul steps in. The dressing room set piece remains onstage longer, as Raoul exits down the stairs and walks across the front of the stage, where he encounters Giry with a string of ballerinas trailing behind her like ducklings following a hen. They exchange quick "WTF?" looks and then pass one another to exit at opposite sides of the stage. This nonsense is simply there to fill time because the first Phantom/Christine pair, which used to enter from stage left and descend through a trap door, have been eliminated. When the dressing room is finally rolled off stage left, the travelator quickly descends upstage and the only Phantom/Christine pair make their way from one side to the other and back again as the ramp alternately tips at one end and then the other.
The second major change occurs at the top of the second act, immediately after the managers sing "...such a pity that the phantom can't be here!" For no apparent reason, a lone Madame Giry approaches the managers and makes a strange movement with one arm in front of the drape, after which the curtain is pulled back to reveal the staircase. This new direction makes her look like Tinker Bell conjuring some pixie dust, which feels very out of character and seems to serve no purpose. Also inexplicably, ensemble member Paul Schaefer now enters the "Masquerade" scene with the group of principals, which seems odd. But the most irksome change to "Masquerade" is new lyrics from the very first "Masquerade!" through the first verse and chorus, until Giry sings "What a night!". Unlike the vocals in the rest of the show, the new lyrics here sound muddled and less poetic than the original lyrics. The choreography has also been changed, which sometimes leaves too few live performers on the staircase, making the mannequins appear more obvious.
I noted a few other small changes in the second act:
In the "Notes" scene, Christine no longer declares that she won't perform in "Don Juan Triumphant" before running offstage.
In the "Don Juan Triumphant" performance scene, the choreography has been significantly altered. It doesn't bother me here as it does in "Masquerade", perhaps because they gave Passarino (the fantastic Jeremy Stolle) more of a leading role.
At the end of "Don Juan Triumphant", after Christine unmasks him, the Phantom attempts to flee toward upstage right and Giry steps out in front of him. They stare at each other briefly before he turns and runs off upstage left. When the curtains are subsequently opened at the back of the stage to reveal Piangi's body, he's actually standing up with the Punjab lasso around his neck, which looks laughably absurd (his body used to be lying down).
In the final lair scene, the Phantom no longer says "Be my Guest, sir" before raising the portcullis to allow Raoul to enter. Also, he no longer uses a candle from the organ to release Raoul from the Punjab lasso; instead, he grabs the knot and makes a quick tugging gesture, then the rope drops and Raoul falls to the floor.
As for technical issues, I noted three: a section of white-blue lightning bolt illuminated in the upper left corner of the backing drape in the mausoleum scene and refused to turn off (this reoccurred on Saturday night as well); the mics for the Phantom and Christine produced a buzzing sound on the house left side of the theatre every time the two actors were at a certain proximity to each other; and in the final lair scene, the monkey's arms didn't move the cymbals when the music box began to play.
Obviously, nothing mentioned here is as grievous as the atrocities Cameron Mackintosh was allowed to commit in London. The Broadway production is still 95% the same show, so I will continue to save a slot in my itinerary for Phantom every time I visit New York.
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"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
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