The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary
The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary
Royal Albert Hall
I saw The Phantom of the Opera In Celebration of 25 Years last night at SM Cinema 1 The Block. I almost missed it because it was the last day of showing in theatres in Manila, good thing my niece Shalee, kept pestering me until I said yes. In any case, I owe her for that because the show was a not-to-be-missed experience.
The show opened with interviews from Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and other people who created the musical and brought them to millions of viewers across the globe. With no empty seats since it opened, the main show begun as spectacular as one can expect. From costumes, to performances, to the music itself, indeed The Phantom of the Opera will be a phantom who will haunt us forever, much to our delight. Not withstanding the many successful musicals brought to us by Webber, this alone can already be his ultimate legacy. It was a gift which I accepted with much gratitude. That is how much, I can say, I enjoyed the show.
The music of course was magnificent, as most of us already know this for a fact. So, moving on to the company, starting with The Phantom himself, Ramin Karimloo did a very good job with the role. Regardless of what they say about him from the many reviews, from trying to be a Michael Ball rockstar to being undependable with some high notes, he did not disappoint this time. There was no rakishness, as what many predicted, and no flat notes. There was no Ramin Karimloo, there was only The Phantom on stage that night. And this Phantom moved me to tears. I can almost feel his torment and I cried with him in the end. One thing though, do not compare him with the other Phantoms, such as Michael Crawford or Colm Wilkinson, because they just have better voice quality. This does not mean that Karimloo did not deliver. His performance was great and The Phantom came alive with his superb acting, if not for his voice (that is if you insist on comparing him with the other Phantoms). For me at least, what he lacked in voice quality he made up for an all consuming acting.
(Ramin Karimloo)
As for the role of Christine Daae, Sierra Bogges was equally wonderful. Let us not forget that the main character here is The Phantom, and any lesser actress playing the role of Christine would be totally overpowered if she did not possess the musical and acting skills. This was not the case with Boggess. Indeed, her performance almost brought the role of Christine on the same level as that of the Phantom’s. Again, do not compare her with the past Christines, especially Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Angel of Music, Sarah Brightman because, really, she owns the songs in this musical, in the same way that Michael Crawford will always be The Phantom.
(Sierra Bogges)
Now, for the role of Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, Hardley Fraser was good but he was no Michael Ball, in the same way that Karimloo was no Crawford and Bogges was no Brightman. He played the part well and is good enough but the problem with the role is that there was nothing much to deliver. For example, showing how much he loves Christine is very difficult because of the very limited opportunities to do so. So comforting Christine in All I Ask of You, and singing, “no more talk of darkness…” it would be hard to really show it unless he has the voice of Ball, which unfortunately he did not. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not comparing him with pervious Raoul at all. All I am saying is that he is good but he did not have the voice quality that is needed to bring the role of Raoul to life or in the same level as that of the roles of Christine and The Phantom. Which is really unfair because other lesser actors can play the role of The Phantom, since The Phantom is already grand and all that, but with the role of Raoul, the actor must really be spectacular to bring justice to it. Now, I did not write the musical, so blame Webber instead.
The rest of the company did great. And the show ended with the audience mesmerized once again by the genius of Webber. This was followed by Webber thanking and introducing the people behind the musical. The highlight of the night was Sarah Brightman singing the title track with Colm Wilkinson, John Owens Jones, Anthony Warlow and Peter Jobak. It was of course great, as expected, but one simply finds it incomplete without Michael Crawford. It was really quite lamentable that he did not sing. We are celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera and it would have been complete with him singing with Sarah Brightman.
All in all though, it was spectacular. It had everything that made The Phantom of the Opera grossed more than £3.2 billion, (more than Star Wars, Avatar, Titanic and ET), successfully shown in 145 cities in 27 countries, the longest running show in Broadway and seen by more than 130 million people.
So, thanks Shalee (for being such a nagging niece). And of course, thank you Webber, for The Phantom of the Opera!
Comments