Why I Will NEVER See Phantom on Broadway Again

Okay, so I love the music of the Phantom and remember loving it when I first saw the touring show, then Toronto when I was in eighth grade, then on the touring show again. This was before I was 15.

Imagine my surprise that, when I saw Phantom last year on Broadway, I was very underwhelmed. The show seemed overlong, bloated and the actors seemed to have been there far too long, and a bit hammy. The music still rocked, the set-pieces were great, but I just wasn't awed and kind of let down. Kind of meaning majorly. Everyone has had this experience: loving something completely during your childhood and, upon revisiting when you are an adult, not loving it as much.

Then I saw Phantom in Las Vegas.

I'm in love again.

The show is 90 minutes, no intermission.

Every possible bit of fat has been cut from the show.

The acting seems better: Younger and more vivacious.

It's a completely different chandelier that is bigger (the Phantom actually gets on it and hangs from it for a bit in one of the added moments to this production) and falls much differently than the Broadway version (straight down and stopping just feet above the audience's head level).

The theater is better: there are faux theatrical boxes filled with wax dummies that line the walls and watch the spectacle with us.

The music is still phenomenal.

The set pieces are bigger. The staircase for "Masquerade" is HUGE and fileld with even more dummies in costume: It takes your breathe away. The Phantom's traps near the end are more ingenious and, again, bigger. There is a set of the entire exterior of the opera house in this one, complete with fireworks.

Now that I've seen the Las Vegas Phantom, I've fallen in love with Phantom again. That version IS the definitive version of Webber's Phantom of the Opera to me, and I will never sit through the bloated Broadway version again.

I cannot recommend highly enough that you go see it for yourself.

Updated On: 8/3/08 at 09:09 PM

Sounds great! If I ever make my way over to Vegas I want to check it out.

I saw the show for my first time on broadway recently (id seen tours in boston) and was underwhelmed to say the least. And to add to that, I was seated next to a school group of 50+ obnoxious unattentive kids who were chatting throughout the show and did not kindly turn off their cellphones. But that's besides the point.

Robert, do you mind giving some details about what scenes were cut out of the Vegas version?

This might be a dumb question, but is there an orchestra or is it canned music?

I've heard great things about Vegas, but I'll always like my Phantom musty.

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frogs_fan85, the music in the show is live and it is not canned at all.

I was just listening to a podcast on youtube that had Boggess and one actor who were both part of the original Vegas cast of Phantom. They were reading some of the reviews on the podcast from when the show first opened. Some people were happy with the 90 minute version of the show, and others thought that the show lost its original spark by cutting down the run time.

It was also interesting to hear about how the show was changed from an acting perspective. The actor playing the phantom talked about how the Phantom has a lot of breaks in the Broadway or touring proudctions. But, because this one is more condensed there aren't thoes breaks anymore. The actor playing The Phantom is either onstage performing or backstage getting ready for his next scene. On Broadway that isn't the case. I haven't seen the Vegas production. But, for example, on Broadway the Phantom comes on at the end of Angel of Music and is on until the end of the lair scene. Then he isn't onstage until Poor Fool He Makes Me laugh. There is a big gap there that isn't in the Vegas production.

Both actors had said that because the way of doing the show is different compared to the full length productions neither of them thought that they could go from doing the Vegas production to doing the full length version of the show. I wonder if Boggess's mind has changed on that considering that I could easilly see her making a great Christine on Broadway when she is done in Little Mermaid.

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Updated On: 8/3/08 at 11:35 PM

If someone pays for my trip to Vegas I will gladly see it but since I'm on the East Coast I think I'll keep seeing it on Broadway.

Wasn't Sierra Boggess in Phantom In Vegas?

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The show sucks either way. That thing on broadway should have closed 18 years ago. It's okay theater, but things have come and gone that were a million times better than phantom will ever be, no matter how big they decide to make that damn chandelier.

The show sucks either way. That thing on broadway should have closed 18 years ago.

Yeah, really bad news when a show keeps packing 'em in for decades, satisfying audiences who come back again and again and providing secure employment for dozens and dozens of theater performers, musicians and artisans. Terrible!

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