#1
Posted: 7/24/05 at 1:28am
I was sitting with a cup of coffee this morning playing around on my computer and looking up what kind of discount seats were available for various shows, just for the hell of it. Suddenly, there was a power outage in my town, and as it became clear that it might last for a while, I decided, with less than 90 minutes to curtain, to hightail it into the city and see a show. Having access only to what was frozen on the computer screen, and not much time to be creative, I called for a discount ticket to........ta da....The Phantom of the Opera. I don't know why. I just did it on a whim. I haven't seen Phantom since the early '90s ...and then it was from a fairly unimpressive seat. Today found me sitting in the Center Orchestra, eleven rows from the stage.
When I got there and claimed my ticket from the Box Office, I soon realized that I was possibly the only non-tourist in the place. Four older ladies sitting behind me, under the impression that it mattered, spent quite a long time shuffling around until each was seated in the exact seat number on her specific ticket. Wow. The lady in front of me took a flash picture of the stage (well before the show started). There were foreign languages being spoken which I couldn't even identify. I started to shift into my "savvy, seasoned,theater-goer mode" when I made the conscious decision to be open-minded and see if things looked different. I started to think back to the days when I was one of those people who only got to see a Broadway show once every year or two. Hell, I remembered the first time I saw Phantom (with Crawford and Brightman)... and I remembered how SPECIAL it all seemed. I mean, I love theater more than ever now, but I don't think I ever experience that specialness anymore... And then I watched the show. I know it's not cool to admit that one likes an ALW show...but dammit, I had a wonderful afternoon. I liked the acting, I loved the singing, and I adored the spectacle of it all. Phantom is still a big, glitzy Broadway show. Unlike Les Miz, which I revisited during its final months, it hasn't lost its sparkle.
Now, I remembered liking it a long time ago, but when the movie came out, I couldn't remember why. I thought that I had felt something for some of the characters when I had seen it onstage. I felt nothing for ANYONE in the movie. And, as it turns out, that's because the movie and the musical are worlds apart in the level of passion that is portrayed. An understudy played Christine Daae today, and she was terrific. She managed to convey, effortlessly, the hold that the Phantom held over her. The chemistry between her and Hugh Panaro (as the Phantom) was electric. And by the end of the show, with (got help me, but it is true...) a glisten of tears in my eyes, I remembered why I had felt empathy for the poor hideous creature. Say what you want about ALW's shows, but the actors on stage are still pouring their hearts into their roles, and it is still effective. And I'm still humming some of the numbers hours later.
I dunno. I came away thinking that I might have been missing something by not playing the tourist once in a while. It was kind of invigorating watching people soak up a rare (for them) Broadway experience and be thrilled by it all. I'm not going to be so quick to smirk at those long lines heading into the "tourist shows" from now on. It might be a different experience that they are having, but who is to say that its a bad one?
When I got there and claimed my ticket from the Box Office, I soon realized that I was possibly the only non-tourist in the place. Four older ladies sitting behind me, under the impression that it mattered, spent quite a long time shuffling around until each was seated in the exact seat number on her specific ticket. Wow. The lady in front of me took a flash picture of the stage (well before the show started). There were foreign languages being spoken which I couldn't even identify. I started to shift into my "savvy, seasoned,theater-goer mode" when I made the conscious decision to be open-minded and see if things looked different. I started to think back to the days when I was one of those people who only got to see a Broadway show once every year or two. Hell, I remembered the first time I saw Phantom (with Crawford and Brightman)... and I remembered how SPECIAL it all seemed. I mean, I love theater more than ever now, but I don't think I ever experience that specialness anymore... And then I watched the show. I know it's not cool to admit that one likes an ALW show...but dammit, I had a wonderful afternoon. I liked the acting, I loved the singing, and I adored the spectacle of it all. Phantom is still a big, glitzy Broadway show. Unlike Les Miz, which I revisited during its final months, it hasn't lost its sparkle.
Now, I remembered liking it a long time ago, but when the movie came out, I couldn't remember why. I thought that I had felt something for some of the characters when I had seen it onstage. I felt nothing for ANYONE in the movie. And, as it turns out, that's because the movie and the musical are worlds apart in the level of passion that is portrayed. An understudy played Christine Daae today, and she was terrific. She managed to convey, effortlessly, the hold that the Phantom held over her. The chemistry between her and Hugh Panaro (as the Phantom) was electric. And by the end of the show, with (got help me, but it is true...) a glisten of tears in my eyes, I remembered why I had felt empathy for the poor hideous creature. Say what you want about ALW's shows, but the actors on stage are still pouring their hearts into their roles, and it is still effective. And I'm still humming some of the numbers hours later.
I dunno. I came away thinking that I might have been missing something by not playing the tourist once in a while. It was kind of invigorating watching people soak up a rare (for them) Broadway experience and be thrilled by it all. I'm not going to be so quick to smirk at those long lines heading into the "tourist shows" from now on. It might be a different experience that they are having, but who is to say that its a bad one?
Sueleen Gay: "Here you go, Bitch, now go make some fukcing lemonade." 10/28/10
