My bff made me this Phantom monopoly game for Christmas!!!! I literally can't believe how perfect it is and the attention to detail. Yes, you can play as Meg's gun, the sexy ponr shoulder from 2004, the big ass Swarovski engagement ring, and Don Juan Triumphant.

i love this

I’m digging through my drafts, trying to find my blog’s Christmas decorations, and just found this drawing of Madame Firmin that I did for Amy a few years ago and forgot to actually post!

it’s framed on the wall in my hallway and i admire it every day! ❤️

Be careful to check your Halloween candy. I just found Andrew Lloyd Webber DJ’ing a Phantom of the Opera street party inside a Toblerone

Emilie Kouatchou and John Riddle, from her Broadway premiere ( x )

Bringing Broadway back: a look behind the scenes at Phantom of the Opera, as Ben Crawford, Meghan Picerno, Emilie Kouatchou and the rest of the cast and crew prepares for the big re-opening ( from here )

As has been mentioned by others, there have been a lot of odd little lyric changes. I think most people have heard about the adoption of London’s (entirely valid), “Christine/are you alright?” in AoM and “I had hardly dreamt we’d be so blessed” in the Final Lair, and the return of “fathering gaze”, but I thought it would be interesting to talk about some of the other ones that I noticed.

They seemed to break down into a few specific categories: rhyme scheme correction, grammar correction, and disambiguation.

The most common changes I noticed seemed to be geared towards fixing slant rhymes. For example, Meg’s line in AoM has been changed from “distant from all the applause” to “[…] encores”, to ‘better’ rhyme with “the words aren’t yours” (though, IMO, the syllable placement on this one feels off in a way that sticks out worse than the original slant rhyme). I think there were at least three or four of these.

Then there were the grammar corrections. There were a few of these as well, but the one that I remember most clearly was in “Why Have You Brought Us Here”: now Christine sings, “those pleading eyes/which both threaten and adore”. (Which I’m pretty sure isn’t even the most correct of the two options, so……) (On the topic of this scene, as well, either “To the roof! We’ll be safe there!” has been removed, or the audio malfunctioned and just didn’t play.)

Then there were the ones where apparently someone just decided that the original was confusing. In this category, we find: 1. large alterations to the chandelier description in the Auction, in the continued attempt (also seen in the revised tours—though with different lyrics IIRC) to explain why the supposed “chandelier in pieces” is actually intact. And 2. pandering to the people who still don’t understand Don Juan’s very simple scheme: mainly consisting of several pronoun switches that throw off the rhyme scheme (I thought we were avoiding that now, guys?), fail to enlighten, and only serve to confuse people who do know what’s going on—”When you met, you wore your cloak” “She believes she dines with you in your master’s borrowed place”).

Overall, I couldn’t help but find every single change to be a bit jarring—that’s just want happens when you have the old versions permanently engraved into your brain—but I wasn’t offended by them. They were Fine, and it helped that they were almost entirely limited to “recitative” sections and not The Actual Songs. There was one, though, that I can only hope was a flub: when the Phantom is goading Raoul into the Final Lair, instead of saying, ”Be my guest, sir,” last night he said “Of course, sir”. :|

ALW and Cammack brought Chuck Schumer out on stage to thank him for the money Congress gave to keep Broadway alive during the pandemic. So, y’know, this wasn’t just a big deal night for us, it was also an official state occasion, haha

If you had asked me how I thought reopening night was going to end, “ALW DJ’ing a street rave in front of the Majestic” would never have been my guess

I’M GLAD IT HAPPENED, THOUGH

That was probably the best PoNR I’ve ever seen

Okay, I’m ready to talk about this now

Previously, my favourite PoNR was when I saw Kaitlyn Davis in the revised tour. I’m usually a fan of interpretations where Christine isn’t entirely naive, and figures out that That’s Not Piangi. I just think it makes more sense, and makes the scene more interesting, because the two characters are able to actually interact in a way that just isn’t possible if Christine spends 90% of the song thinking she’s just acting with Piangi—or recognizes him, and then simply snaps back into her blocking as if nothing had happened. Kaitlyn played this realization as coming fair early in the song, and, after a few moments of confusion and consideration, spent the rest of the scene sort of playfully taunting him—like, “okay, dude, you can put me in this terrible position, but I can give just as good as I get.”

Last night, though. Man.

It started when the Phantom came out. Actually, it started before he came out. On the line “the trap is set and waits for its prey”, his voice just got progressively more strained and almost vicious until he straight up growled the word “prey”. Of all the times I’ve seen PotO, the Phantom’s performance ‘as Don Juan’ is one of the parts that just never really jumps out at me—it usually just falls into one of the boxes of “just trying to be suave”, “just being creepy”, or, if I’m lucky, “trying to be suave, but then can’t hold it together when Christine starts touching him”. (I have no distinct memory of the performance of the PoNR performance of the Phantom who played opposite Kaitlin Davis). This time, though? For the first time, I could FEEL the Phantom’s months of planning and anticipation of that moment—the surety that his scheme was going to work, and his feral anxiousness to finally act on it. But also with the sensibility that this is a man who has spent his life HIDING, who has probably had to psych himself up to this moment, who is only able to summon up the strength to pull that curtain back and stride out on stage because he is fueled by utter rage and desperation.

And then. Then, Christine is there.

So, if I have to give one adjective to describe Meghan Picerno’s Christine, it would be “intelligent”. The first stand out moment for me was the way she said, “father is dead, and I have been visited by the angel of music.” There was just something about her lineread that made me sit back and say, “oh. you are Present and Aware.” A lot of times Christine’s “spoken” lines are delivered very rote, with little subtlety or thought behind them. That was not the case for this Christine. She had a lot going on in her head, and it showed. Which brings me back to PoNR.

As I implied, Meghan was one who immediately recognized the Phantom for what he was. She ran over to the side of the stage, as per usual, to have her moment of “what do I do??”. But then, instead of just going back into the Aminta blocking, she did something I’ve never seen that entirely turned the scene on it’s head. She took control. You could see the transformation happen, as she formulated her own plan to meet the Phantom’s. And then she proceeded to deliver a PoNR that I can not hesitate to describe as sarcastic. It was an interpretation that I’ve never seen before, and ohhhhhhh it worked.

When I saw Meghan in LND, she impressed me with her righteous anger; ever since then, I had been looking forward to the hope of seeing her in the original. Last night was the moment I’d been waiting for, and I was not disappointed.

The Phantom’s bravado was revealed as a facade as Christine squared up against him, as if she was saying, “oh? You want to play? I’m game.” The hunter became the hunted, until he was practically cornered on the bench. In the moment where most Christine’s finally realize the Phantom is on stage with them, this one didn’t flinch: she dragged her hand boldly down his veiled mask, like, “yeah. I know you’re in there.” By the end of the song, they were equals. For once, he seemed to be the one who was alarmed and had to flee—and when he did, Christine was the one who wrapped her arms around him and pulled him back to center stage to finish the song. Even the move to lift the hood and the final unmasking felt much more calculated, without the sense of panic that most Christine’s seem driven by in that moment.

Following on from a WYWSHA in which Christine seemed determined to find a way to stand on her own feet, the effect was just absolutely breathtaking, and, unlike most PoNR’s I’ve seen, I’ll probably remember it forever.

Major news about the Tom Alonso version!

I just found out that the original cast recording has been remastered, re-orchestrated, fleshed out with more live instruments, and released on Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon Music. All proceeds from sales are going to benefit the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts, which is an organization in Maryland that brings theater arts to children, including those from low income and high risk environments.

The Alonso version features a Leroux-style story (despite use of half-mask), a solo for Raoul, and DAROGA! The cast includes a bass-baritone Phantom (Braxton Peters), a light lyric soprano Christine (April Harr) and a light baritone as Raoul (Stephen K Schmidt). iTunes: https://tinyurl.com/4nsjuyuc Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/9me8cjzb Spotify: https://rb.gy/uukvxa

@rjdaae did the gorgeous cover art!

Vintage Phantom of the Opera movie poster featuring the cutest version of the Phantom ever.

I’m a bitch I’m a lover

we were all thinking it, so here it is XD

is it just me or