On Friday 31st March I started My Adventure for my Bronze Maverick, which
will also count towards my World Traveller badge. As my original plans changed (originally I was going to be in London by myself to do the London Landmarks Half Marathon), the plans for our time there changed too. I bought tickets to see Phantom of the Opera. We had prepared ourselves beforehand by watching the film of the musical a couple of days before our visit. Walking along to the theatre it would be possible to miss it if you didn’t look for it, and I confess that althohgh I’ve seen Phantom in London before, I had not remembered what the theatre looked like (I think I was getting it mixed up with the Palace Theatre where I had seen Les Miserables somenyears before). In fact, very little of the initial experience this time tied in with my previous recollections - most likely due to the amount of time that has elapsed, and also as we were sat somewhere different. We had seats in the stalls, and so we went down stairs towards a bar (didn’t do that before), and enjoyed a champagne cocktail there before taking our seats (Phantom themed of course! We went for oune with sloe gin in it, as we are partial to slow gin).
We made our way to the seats - we didn’t have far to walk for this, and looked at the spectacle of the theatre. The stage was smaller than I remembered - perhaps as we were closer to it than I had been previously. We had time to look at how the stage was dressed - the chandelier covered on the stage, along with several other items, the boxes, the decorations throughout the theatre - the lights in the theatre being provided by electric candelabra - it all went to give the impression on am old theatre.
Seeing people enjoying the box experience made me decide that I want to have that experience at some point!
The show started, and we had a good view as there was no-one in the seats immediately in front of us (durong the second half the people behind us chose to mlve in front of us…bit of a cheek in my opinion - as they had paid for seats behind, so took themselves to more expensive seats). After the auction scene, the chandelier rose accompanied by rousing music - and this music filled my body and swelled my heart - I could feel it filling my heart and I felt tears creeping out from the outer corners of my eyes from the pure emotion….possibly I was thinking that the last time I was here was with my mum about 30 years ago.
The production is very clever as is the set management. Seeing additional boxes on the stage, and an elephant - it is amazing how much is managed in the show. I have listened to and played the soundtrack of the musical frequently over the years, and what is interesting is that the lyrics are a bit different on the stage to those that are on my recordings and in my music. Being so close to the stage meant that I could admire the costumes, and the facial expressions were easy to see. The actors were very good and the singing was mostly very clear. The one criticism I have of the actress playing Christine was that I felt there was too mucu vibrato in the higher notes, and with the vibrato there was too nuch range making it sound out of tune at times. She did display an excellent vocal range, and the songs with a lower range were very powerful.
I would highly recommend this show to anyone and everyone. The chandelier fallihg was thrilling, and the gas flame was very impressive - I thought we would have singed eyebrows - the brief heat was really intense! At half time my husband treated me to a glass of champagne, and then we were into the second half. Without giving too much away, the backstage ams understage areas of the theatre must be a real sight to behold. It was this performance that really made me understand what was going on with the opera section of Don Juan, and the song “Point of No Return” made a lot mlre sense in the context. As we got to the grand finale with the Phantom about to be caught I was trying to hold back the tears.
Once I got back home, I looked back in a notebook I have had for over 30 years, and found ticket stubs for the last time I saw the show; I couldn’t remember whether I had seen it once or twice before, and the ticket stubs provided the answer. It is also interesting to note the price of the tickets, and where we were sitting! I still have programmes from those performances, and also now have programmes from this year too. I would like to see the show a few more times: in Prima Donna there are several groups of people all singing at the same time, and I found it difficult to follow any single line. I would like to experience the show from different places in the auditorium to see how different things appear - such as the view of the stage, the effects, and the songs.
I thoroughly enjoyed this musical - and at some point (hopefully not too long) I will be back. It is easy to see why people keep coming back to see the show - and interesting to note that it is still showing in the same theatre it premiered in (given the sets it is not surprising).
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