The Phantom of the Opera (October 31st, 2013) AKA Phantowe'en!

The Phantom of the Opera

(Phantowe'en)

Let me start by saying: BEST HALLOWE'EN EVER. Absolutely epic. I'm definitely doing this again next year. Alright, now onto the things that people who read this blog (do people actually read this blog?) read for (I assume... maybe you like these tangents?). 

I'm not sure where to start where this show. It was, in a word, stunning. Another word? Fantastic. More words? Awe-inspiring, perfect, beyond belief. I can't actually articulate this experience (and I'm incredibly embarrassed about this fact as I ended up quite speechless when speaking to Olivia and I will never forgive myself for that). I think that basically says everything; I'm rarely left speechless. I usually have something to complain about, or corrections/alterations I think need to be made. Obviously, I still have things I didn't like, but they are few and far between, and are vastly outweighed by the fantastic-ness that was this show.  

Cast board for the show I saw!

I'd like to start with Olivia, because she was the highlight of this show. It's easier to start with the things I didn't like as they are few, so I'll do that: I still don't love the lack of pointe shoes. I fully understand not everyone can wear them or dance in them (I definitely couldn't), I'm just overly nit-picky. The lack of pointe shoes does fix the height issue; she looks about a foot taller than the other dancers, so with her on demi pointe and the dancers up en pointe they look a little more unified. It's honestly not that big of an issue and I seriously doubt anyone else noticed. Really just me being pedantic. I excel at pedantic. 

Onto the things I do like. Like my brain after the show, this will be slightly disorganised and may require some deciphering. So good luck with that! I'd like to start with my favourite parts; Hannibal/Think of Me, and The Graveyard/Wishing. While Carlotta was singing Think of Me, I decided to watch Christine and Meg for fun, since I've seen Lara do it 4 times. Olivia was dreamily mouthing the song along with Carlotta, and my mouth dropped. That was the first of many little details that Olivia brought to Christine; such a small thing, and I doubt that half the people noticed, but it makes the world of difference to those of us who have seen the show more times than we can count. As for her own Think of Me, there's something about it that's just pure and beautiful. I can't explain it, but it just works. It looks like a young, inexperienced girl gaining confidence in herself throughout the song. I never liked Think of Me, but Olivia's was beautiful. You saw the growth throughout the song, as opposed to the immediate transition most Christines do after the first bit of the song. 

Olivia Brereton
(Tumblr)

My other favourite part (and yes, this needs its own paragraph), was The Graveyard/Wishing. The transition to the Graveyard scene is brief and beautiful. That's usually it. The music is stunning, the voice is beautiful, the costume is gorgeous - and that's where it ends. Not with Olivia. She does this thing with her voice, and I know nothing about singing so I don't know what to call it, or if it even has an official name, but when she sings "And speaks my name" something just happens in her voice, and it basically rips your heart out. And it happens again in Wishing, with "Why can't the past just die" (so my heart was ripped out twice and it hasn't come back yet. Just thinking about it I tear up again). It's just... heartbreaking, really. It turns Wishing into a much more emotional song; it's usually just this gorgeous, beautifully sung piece, and Olivia did that, but she made it so much more real. My words aren't doing it justice; you have to hear it to believe it. It's just magnificent. And it'll kill you inside. But still magnificent.

Olivia Brereton and Layla Harrison
(Tumblr)

More things about Olivia: I really love her look. She's got this beautiful graceful look about her, but facially she also looks quite young. It gets the point across that although Christine's dealing with all of this stuff, she's still a child (she's definitely under 21 in the books, right?). I've already covered her subtleties in Think of Me, but they carry throughout the show. When other Christine's might've been dead silent and just sort of looking at something, Olivia actually did something (like normal people). It didn't feel like acting. Her Christine actually grows and changes throughout the show; the journey becomes real. And finally, the fierceness! That's what I felt was really missing from her the first time; it was so real, but there wasn't any passion or fire. I can't say that anymore. During the second act, she really started to come into herself, gain confidence, and actually fight. The Phantom wasn't getting away with anything; she was going to fight for herself. The Final Lair was emotional; Olivia really killed it. I'll touch on Sean and Jeremy later; I mentioned that Olivia's Christine gained fierceness and passion, and this was the culmination of that. She fought. My favourite part was when she kissed the Phantom; once they'd broken away, she had her arms stretched out and it almost looked as if she was offering more, basically trying to do whatever she needed to save Raoul. If my heart wasn't already torn apart at that point, it would've broken a bit during this. It's just the subtleties that she brings to her performance; it left me speechless. It made songs like Music of the Night and Think of Me so much more realistic. She does Past the Point of No Return really well as well; you can tell she has utterly no idea that it's the phantom until she feels his mask and screams. And she tries to run away at first, but then she gets angry! She really got in his face and showed a lot of bravery and fight. That was a Christine that was sick of all of this and just wanted her life back. 

And so ends my Olivia Soliloquy. Sorry for gushing.

Jeremy Secomb
(Phantom Website)

On to Jeremy! I love his Piangi, and I really wasn't sure about Piangi being the Phantom. It just didn't sit right with me. But he was very good. He had a lot more confidence than Geronimo, which really showed in the performance (a little more reckless; Geronimo played it safe). He really threw Olivia around quite a bit, and I'm not sure how her wig stayed in place with all of that manhandling. He was definitely very fierce and violent at times, and it worked. The Phantom is a madman, after all. His voice was nice (I think his mic went out a couple times though), although a little weak at points (final note in Music of the Night). Point of No Return was a little bit like Piangi/Phantom-ception. It was good though; I think Olivia and Jeremy make a good pairing. They're very receptive to each other, and they had really nice chemistry without it being overwhelming. Overall, I liked him, and I'd be happy to see him again.

Cat Lane
(Phantom Website)

New Meg! We all know how much I adore Layla-Meg (otherwise known as world's greatest Meg), so I compare everyone to her. I have to say, I was disappointed in the new Meg. She was just a Meg. Her voice wasn't quite there, and she was over-anticipating the scenes a bit (she was on her feet before the set actually hit the ground at the end of Carlotta's Think of Me). I think once she's had a bit more time to settle into the role she'll improve, and I look forward to seeing that. 

Sean Palmer
(Phantom Website)

Some of you might remember my withering condemnation of Sean Palmer's Raoul. You'll be happy to know that he has improved greatly. He still doesn't do the jump into the 'lake' (no idea why), and I don't like that, but aside from that, he's actually moved out of the background and become a part of Christine's life. He almost did the belly-flop of Antony's that I love in the Final Lair! He really put himself into the performance this time; instead of just skating through it, I felt that effort was actually put in this time. I was very pleased with his performance in general, and I'm hoping for further improvement. More reasons to go back to the show again!

With Jeremy Secomb after the show

Now for one of my favourite parts: bloopers and funny moments! For bloopers, the most noticeable was when Olivia's cloak got caught on something during Wishing; it took her a couple of tries but she was able to tug it free eventually. In the Auction, the mans showing the props had a couple line flubs and actually ran into the chandelier once. He seemed a bit out of it. I'm not sure if this was a blooper or not, but Sean once again didn't jump from the bridge into the lake. He stripped off his jacket, then just kind of walked off. Not very heroic. Olivia's Aminta dress was ripped at the bottom; ironically the same place it was got ripped during the show when I saw her in June (I assume it's been fixed since then, but just got ripped again). There were a couple of other little things; I do love bloopers and accidents though (provided no one gets hurt of course). One of my favourite 'funny moments' was during Buquet's story for the Ballet girls; when he was talking about the "yellow parchment skin" one of the ballet girls exclaimed "EW that's disgusting!" I had to choke back laughter; it was brilliant. I can't remember what she said about his nose, but it was equally hilarious. It's kind of a reminder that the ballet girls aren't these sophisticated dancers; they're quite young as well. Those were the highlights for me; there were a lot of other funny little moments as well that I just can't remember off the top of my head. 

With Layla Harrison

With Lara Martins

Stage Door was fun; I love getting to talk to people that are waiting there as well, and I had a really nice conversation with a few people today. The best part, though, was the Hallowe'en costumes! The cast really went all out. Lara's was my favourite of the night; not sure exactly what she was, but it was a combination of Hannibal costumes, a black tutu, and some other things. It was a masterpiece. There were some great group costumes; a guy in a princess costume; Zombie red-riding-hood; a pumpkin with full face-paint; and many others. Layla was a devil, Jeremy was himself, Lara was whatever Lara was, and Olivia was some sort of Skeleton. It was a really fun experience; I had a lot of laughs at Stage Door. I basically collapsed with laughter when I saw Lara's costume. It was golden. It was funny talking to the people I was talking to as they quite quickly got the sense of how blown away I was by Olivia, and one of them said "we'll know when Olivia comes out because she'll start screaming." I didn't scream, but I did lose my ability to articulate myself. I need to apologise for that again next time I see her; I hate when people do that and I'm quite ashamed at myself for being one of those people. A funny thing about Stage Door is I guess I go there too much, because Lara, Olivia, and one of the ballet girls (not one I've ever spoken to) recognised me. I don't know how Olivia remembered me as I haven't been there since June, but it was still funny. I do love Phantom Stage Door though; everyone is so friendly. Given the things I've been dealing with over the past few months, it's very therapeutic. 

With Olivia Brereton

Phantom again on Saturday; expect another (albeit less detailed) review as I will be seeing Harriet as Christine for the first time. I'm quite grateful for this; I don't think I could take another of Olivia's Wishings so soon. Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed their hallowe'en! 

EDITS: Some things I remembered a few days after writing this review... another thing about Olivia is that she makes all of the idiotic things Christine does make sense. She doesn't just pin it on the idea of 'possession' as most Christines do; everything has a reason, and she shows it. The other things I wanted to add was a line issue in Wandering Child. During the 'fight' scene, either Sean repeated a line, or Jeremy said a line that was Sean's, because one line got said twice in a row. Not a huge issue, just thought it was interesting.