The Phantom Of The Opera - 25 Glorious Years

I'm wondering because I am moving to London before the anniversary next year, and as a long-time fan, I am hoping something really special occurs.

The actual anniversary will be on a Sunday....will they do a concert or a special gala? These are intriguing questions...

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Nooooooooooooooo! Its not even Christmas yet!

Yeap, something should be put together to celebrate TPOTO 25th, a great achievement for a show to play this long.

I see Bob's point with Hal Prince, I wonder if this show did not have that chandelier it would of played so long? Very good show, not Webber's best.

This show must of taken peoples breathe away when it open? Advanced for its time for theatre, with all the illusions, The West End or Broadway have not seen anything like it before, but now must be a bit dated for the modern first time audience?

This show like Wicked, Mama Mia, We Will Rock You and The Lion King have become tourist attractions.

I still think people who attend a Phantom performance are moved by what they see rather than by what they hear, unless they're people who enjoy hearing the same few melodies played ad infinitum for two and a half hours. I believe that's the main reason why the Phantom movie flopped - without the brilliance of its theatricality, there's just nothing there. The plot is pretty flimsy to say the least, the characters are very wooden and the snore - sorry the score lol - is not strong enough.

And regarding the chandelier - I agree that is not the reason why people go to see the show. But it's the only thing that lifts the show above its otherwise average level.

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Updated On: 7/31/10 at 10:42 AM

I know, again this has already been seen with Les Mis, but a complete live cast recording would be great (as long as Dewynters are not involved).

I personally think The Phantom of the Opera is a unique show where everything seems to come along and fit perfectly together: great story, great characters, great score, great stage magic, and most of all, great production. I agree the production part is probably the most iconic thing about it as a show, ignoring the music.

I disagree with comments made about the score, I think it's wonderfully mystiying and romantic...beautiful.

And I couldn't disagree more, bob, when you say "the characters are very wooden", I think some characters (namely the titular one) are some of the greatest to have ever been onstage.

--About the characters, Christine goes from a naive girl who could believe a voice is that of an angel teaching her to sing and a girl who is easily manipulated by the two men to a stand-up young woman who makes her own decisions and has the courage to kiss the dangerous and disfigured Phantom.

The Phantom spends most of the show being completely self-centered and selfish (as well as frightening and seductive when in the full getup). In the last scene he has a revelation of sorts, does maybe the first unselfish thing in his life and lets Christine go. The last the audience sees of him, he is a better but broken man.

They do not remain static. Maybe you dozed through the end of the show, dreaming of Sondheim

No, I dozed through most of the boring score lol.

I'm afraid I don't agree with your interpretation of the characters. I still maintain the dramatic arc of the characters is very thinly developed - largely because of the hackneyed lyrics and dialogue. And, as I said before, the writing is so weak, I could not care less about any of them from start to finish.

In total contrast, I think the characters and the score in the Arthur Kopit/Maury Yeston "Phantom" are totally absorbing and interesting from start to finish. The Phantom is given greater motivation and the plot develops with genuine dramatic tension, mainly because it's written by a playwright who actually knows how to write. And Yeston's score is full of songs that excite, emotionally engage and inspire the listener. The ALW score pales by comparison.

I so wish a miracle would happen and the Yeston/Kopit version would get a professional staging in the UK. But it ain't gonna happen as it would show the ALW version up for the hack-job it is. lol

And Clapyohands, you're right - it's fantastic how the Board allows the presentation of highly different opinions. And I respect the right of POTO fans to enjoy the show - but I just can't see anything much of merit in it other than its spectacle.

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Updated On: 7/31/10 at 08:24 PM

While there are many shows I find “easy to return to”, even compelling to return to because there are so many layers of dramatic and musical sub-text that I always find something new each time - but Phantom is sadly not one of them. And that’s partly because of the flimsiness of the libretto but mainly because of the mundane nature of the score. I saw Phantom about 20 years ago and bought the CD - but never play it! In a moment of absolute madness I decided to see the show again about 18 months ago (in Las Vegas) and about half an hour into it I sat there wondering “why the hell have I subjected myself to this utter boredom a second time”? lol And whenever I hear songs from Phantom sung in concerts, etc., I literally want to scream at the sheer sickly musical blandness of the music.

I know I must be in the minority as no show can run for 24 years if it does not have many fans who love the show. I guess it’s just that it’s not my taste in musical theatre - I like shows that seek to extend the boundaries of theatre both dramatically and musically, while ALW I feel merely churns out fodder for a tourist market. I also know that ALW has many fans too but my feeling is that if there were a League Table of musical theatre songwriters, Division 1 would consist of guys like Sondheim, William Finn, JRB, et al and ALW would be somewhere near the bottom of Division 4. (Though I will admit that the shows he wrote with Tim Rice - the only shows IMO with anywhere near decent lyrics - would be ranked higher than that.)

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My all-time favourite show. It really deserves something big but RUG's track record with celebrations is lousy. When Les Mis had its tenth anniversary at the RAH, fans wrote letters to RUG and Cameron Mackintosh to ask about similar plans for Phantom, which is exactly one year younger. They were told it was too early to plan anything. When the big day arrived, nothing happened except that Her Majesty's was filled up with a celebrity audience. Any fans who had somehow managed to get tickets to the 9 October date had theirs invalidated. An absolute PR disaster.

The only decent fan events for Phantom in its long history are the Vegas convention last year and various anniversaries for the Toronto production. They did admittedly make an effort in inviting fans via a competition for the gala performance when the Broadway production became the longest-running show. The London production, though, has had nothing special happen. I was there at the 20th anniversary night, though, which was fun insofar as we got free champagne and some big names were in the audience (plus Gillian Lynne, Andrew Bridge and ALW made a speech on stage), but that was it.

A new cast recording would be fab but I have heard Crawford and Brightman had it in their contracts that there was never to be another English-language double album. If this is true, it doesn't stop them from making a highlights CD -- after all, the Canadian production got one. There have sadly been a lot of missed opportunities with Phantom. So many fine productions around the world never got cast recordings, whereas Les Mis has got tons. My theory is that Cameron doesn't want Phantom's celebrations to outshine Les Mis's, and RUG just can't be bothered. If anything the whole fiasco surrounding the unwelcome Love Never Dies, which I personally hope will have nothing to do with any 25th anniversary celebration, showed just how inept at PR the Really Useful Group is.

As for Phantom, I honestly think it will go down as a great piece. If any of ALW's shows go into the canon as 'masterpieces' or at least great theatre, my bet is on Evita and Phantom. To say the spectacle of the stage production is the only reason why it has been so successful is unfair. The cast album is the biggest selling of any musical ever -- buying a record doesn't let you see any of the scenery. Of course, that it is not to say Hal Prince's and Maria Bjørnson's contributions were insignificant; far from it. It was a fantastic creative team, the alchemy of which has rarely been seen since.

A new cast recording would be fab but I have heard Crawford and Brightman had it in their contracts that there was never to be another English-language double album.

Wasn't the movie soundtrack an English language double album, or does that not count? And if that is, in fact, the legal wording any good lawyer could probably argue that a CD or perhaps even a strictly digital release isn't exactly an "album" by the 1980's definition specified in the contracts.

As much as I think that the music for Phantom is beautiful, it is nowhere near as complexly written as that of Les Miserables. Personally, I would consider Les Miserables to be a full scale opera and Phantom to just be a musical just based on how they are written. I do feel that Phantom spends too much time repeating songs over and over agian. But, to Webber's credit, they are beautiful songs.

I also think that it is possible to redo Les Miserables and revision it and do things like nix the turntable or change how the sets are done etc. Something that might not be able to do with Phantom.

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They have gone to some lengths to avoid tinkering and changing. There has been little in the over twenty years the show has been running. The idea was that any audience any time, any where could see the essentially the same show as the audience on opening night. Hal Prince visits productions and has the final say in the few changes that have been made. He did the cutting himself for the Las Vegas production.

I don't think there will be re-working until the show finally closes.

Like The Scorpion, I don't expect much for any anniversary, at least not involving fans or ordinary, non-celebrity folks. They DID do quite a good job with the Broadway Gala celebrating Phantom's passing CATS as the longest running Broadway show. A few tickets were reserved for fans.