The Phantom of the Opera UK Tour/West End Comparison Review (April 2012)

Thanks for your review--while Phantom has not been one of my favorite shows since I was 12 or so, but I still think the Prince staging is excellent, and Bjornson's designs some of the best ever done, so I've been curious about this new production but not come across any reviews (or photos for that matter) that really show the differences.

One thing is, unless I missed it, your review doesn't actually even MENTION the director--and neither did much of the publicity... Does Prince still get some credit? Anyway, I can't comment on cast, but it does sound like overall a disappointment with a couple of interesting ideas. Honestly, so much of the appeal of the piece for myself personally is in the staging (one reason I find the film so tired)... It sounds like they made many of the same errors that the Les Miz tour did--as you state.