The Phantom of the Opera
This will be a very brief little review; I mostly saw the same cast as in the October 31 review, so this review just covers the new Christine and a bit more on Jeremy.
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| Harriet Jones (Phantom Website) |
I want to try to avoid a comparison of Harriet to Olivia. I don’t
think that’s fair to either of them, as they are such incredibly different
Christines. Yes, I’m more partial to one than the other and of course I have
comparisons in my head, but for the purposes of this review I’d like to try and
treat Harriet as an individual as opposed to one of many Christines, because
she’s really quite different from any of the Christines I remember seeing. The
first thing I’d like to talk about Harriet is her voice. It’s incredibly
strong, and as far as I can tell, essentially perfect. There isn’t a moment
where you doubt she’ll be able to hit the notes, no matter what she’s doing at
the time. I did like her voice quite a lot, but what I found about Harriet was
that she was most in character when she let her voice go a bit. Songs like
Think of Me were nicely done, but completely vocally dependent. Because of
this, I didn’t expect much different from the rest of the songs, so I was
pleasantly surprised for Twisted Every Way. She stopped just singing it and
really got into the character. I honestly think that was Harriet’s best moment
in the show. The Final Lair was similar; not quite as effective, but very
nearly there. I saw glimmers of this as well in Wishing and Past the Point of
No Return, and I think that given a few months she’ll get more comfortable with
the role, and be able to bring what she did to Twisted and Final Lair to all of
the songs. While I’m not in a massive rush to see her again, I’m definitely
hoping to see her in January or February. I think Harriet has a lot of
potential to be a very strong Christine, and I’m excited to see that. I don’t
really have a lot more to say about Harriet; she was nice overall, and I look
forward to seeing her Christine grow over the next few months. She’s also a
very nice person; she was lovely enough to let us see her dressing room and her
costumes (best.day.ever).
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| Jeremy Secomb and I |
I did mention Jeremy in my last review, but I felt the need to
mention him again in this one (It’s typical; in 12 years and 9 shows I never
saw the same Phantom twice, and now in the space of three days that streak was
broken). I really, really like Jeremy. He’s actually starting to remind me of
Hugh Panaro; he’s got an extremely violent and reckless Final Lair, and I love
it! In my mind, the Phantom is pretty crazy, and I always want Christine to
stay with Raoul (I’ve never been “team Erik”). The absolute madness in the
Final Lair is perfect for showing this. At the same time though, the way he
does the Lair also makes you feel a bit sorry for the Phantom, because
obviously he’s devastated that Christine is leaving him. Jeremy actually had a
line flub in the Final Lair, but as it’s only his third show and he recovered
immediately (if you didn’t know the song, you wouldn’t’ve noticed), I’ve got no
issues with that. I honestly don’t mind line flubs/other accidents in general
as long as there is a strong recovery. Jeremy didn’t miss a beat, so good for
him. I also need to mention his bit at the end of All I Ask of You; he stands
right up in that Angel, and it’s so intimidating and magnificent at the same
time. Really enjoyed Jeremy’s Phantom, and I really hope to see it again!
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| Layla Harrison and I |
That's basically all I need to say about Phantom; everything else is covered in my other review. There weren't any major bloopers aside from the line fluff, and Stage Door was fun (as usual) but not as exciting as Thursday's. Hope you enjoyed the brief review :)
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