Review: Phantom 25th Celebration!!

Musical: The Phantom of the Opera: The 25th Anniversary Celebration

Venue: Royal Albert Hall, London, UK

Date: 2nd October 2011 at 13:30

Cast: Ramin Karimloo (The Phantom), Sierra Boggess (Christine), Hadley Fraser (Raoul), Wendy Ferguson (u/s Carlotta), Barry James (Firmin), Gareth Snook (Andre), Liz Robertson (Madame Giry), Wynne Evans (Piangi) and Earl Carpenter (Auctioneer)

with Special Appearance by Sarah Brightman, Colm Wilkinson, Anthony Warlow, Peter Joback, John Owen-Jones, Original London company and Andrew Lloyd Webber

Rating: ****

Review:

This is definitely one of my most anticipating events of my life and the most expensive theatre ticket I paid for to date. But how can you say no to a 25th anniversary celebration of one of the most iconic musicals of all-time in such a special venue like the Royal Albert Hall? To me, it was worth every single penny!

I took a special day trip down to London for this event with my friend, Jibb. We got our little excitement when our train was delayed and we were so scared that we would miss the show. Fortunately, we got to London with an hour to spare so that was good news. At 85 pounds, we were seated way up in the 4th floor circle. I thought the view would be horrible but it was actually pretty good and we got a good centre view of the stage and a pretty close view of the chandelier too.

Me at the front of the Royal Albert Hall

The Ticket

The Programme

We were at the matinee performance of the show so what I'm reviewing here might be somewhat different from the cinecast which broadcasted the evening performance. Let's start with the cast, shall we? Ramin Karimloo was our Phantom and the fans seem to be splitting into 2 groups, for and against him. Honestly, I am one of those against him. I think he's all right in the role but there are far superior Phantoms than him. Here, I think he portrayed the role well. His "Music of the Night" and "Point of No Return" was beautiful. However, I feel that, while having no troubles belting out high notes, he seemed to be struggling with holding the lower notes in place, notably in "Stranger Than You Dreamt It" among other points in the show. He seemed to be doing the same thing back when I saw him in Love Never Dies (during "Till I Hear You Sing") and in Les Mis DVD (during the reprise of "Look Down").

Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess
as The Phantom and Christine
during "Music of the Night"

I have always wanted to see Sierra Boggess as Christine Daae and she didn't disappoint at all. She has a beautiful stage presence and her singing and acting was just simply impeccable. Her "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" was arguably one of the best I've heard in my life. However, I was disappointed to hear that her "The Phantom of the Opera" was lip-synced. I knew how they do that in the regular shows but I just thought that Ramin and Sierra could have sung it live.

Sierra Boggess in "Think of Me"

Hadley Fraser took on the role of Raoul and though many liked him, I disagreed. I didn't quite like how he portrayed Raoul here. I know that the producer was leading the character up to the sequel and wanting to make Raoul more of a harsh and aggressive character so that it's believable when he turned into a Love-Never-Dies Raoul. But I think Hadley took it a bit too far and it's not that his acting was bad but it's just not the Raoul that I (and possibly many other audience) want to see. His "All I Ask of You" could have been more warm and romantic but I did enjoy his performance in the final scene.

Hadley Fraser as Raoul

Hadley Fraser as old Raoul during "Prologue"

A wider shot just before "All I Ask of You"

The moment I opened the programme and saw that Wendy Ferguson, the current London Carlotta, will play the role of Carlotta at my performance instead of Kiera Duffy, I was overjoyed. She is my favourite Carlotta and what she gave us was sheer perfection of how Carlotta should be and I'm so glad that her brilliant performance will be captured on DVD. My friend even singled her out from the ensemble as one of the outstanding performers. On the other hand, Wynne "Go Compare" Evans was not as brilliant in the role of Piangi. I feel that he was trying to make his role funny but they all turned out unsuccessfully. His singing was below the standard of his fellow cast members around him and he even avoided that last note in Hannibal and made a joke out of it instead... 

The lovely Wendy Ferguson as Carlotta
seen here with Sierra Boggess in "Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh"

Gareth Snook and Barry James gave a good performance as M. Andre and Firmin respectively as we would expect a current London cast to give. Though I feel that the big venue did provide a challenge for both of them. Liz Robertson performed the role of Madame Giry very well and I particularly liked her little scene where she revealed the secret of The Phantom in the backstage with Raoul. I also would like to mention Earl Carpenter who played the role of the auctioneer in the prologue very well.

Liz Robertson as Madame Giry seen here with Hadley Fraser
during "Backstage"

What I liked about this production of Phantom is a very large ensemble cast comprised of the famous faces of the West End, which made things seem a lot grander for the audience especially in scenes like "Hannibal Dress Rehearsal" "Masquerade" and "Il Muto Ballet". The sound of the orchestra was just also amazing. I got real goosebumps as the orchestra played that iconic Overture.

This production relies a lot on projection which is understandable because of venue constraints and possibly budget constraints as well. I was a bit disappointed at first but it did grow on me after a while and after having thought about it, it was actually a pretty neat idea.  However, at my performance, the LED screen refused to work after about half way into act one and the screen started to flicker white light constantly during the lead-in to and during the first half of "Music of the Night". It really annoyed me and I was feeling really bad for Ramin having to concentrate in such a pivotal moment in the show while there is this light flickering behind him. I believe they decided to pull the plug and not using the LED screen for the rest of the first act and only relied on the big projector screen above it instead so I had no idea how the whole production should look like. Guess I'll have to wait for the DVD then. Luckily, everything worked perfectly in Act Two. 

At the end of "Think of Me"

The Phantom's Lair: The Royal Albert Hall Version

Though the projection took away the realistic aspects of falling curtains and rising angel on the rooftop, etc., there are some ideas that I really enjoyed visually such as showing the Phantom writing the notes during "Notes" or showing the live closeup of the Red Death during "Why So Silent". 

"Notes" with The Phantom's projection
(at my show, I couldn't see any of the bottom projection at all)

Many things were missing from the production. I definitely missed the rising and falling chandelier but I kinda understand that it would be impossible to do. (I was actually curious to know how they would pull it off). Instead, a countless firework was used in place of its rising and crashing.  There was no shadow of the Phantom during the "Il Muto" ballet that I always found funny, no bride mannequin in the Phantom's lair (which make Christine's faint in "Music of the Night" a bit weird). I also missed the elephant at the end of "Hannibal". It's funny to hear them sing about elephant but without any. At least they could have projected the elephant, I feel.. I also didn't understand why they didn't show the Phantom in the mirror as he sang "I am there inside" (or is it another technical mishap?). At my performance, it was just Christine looking at a black wall and it didn't really make sense. 

I must say though that I really like the blocking of "Magical Lasso" (which I usually hate) and how they incorporate the rising bridge into it. They could have really used that in the London show and I think it made the scene more interesting. I also liked Buquet's and Piangi's deaths.

There were also other stage mishaps at my performance beside the LED screen. The sound system was wrong during Notes where Madame Giry was supposed to read the Phantom's second act "Notes" as her voice changes to the Phantom's but the voices did not sync and I could tell that it was awkward for everyone. The piano during the "Don Juan" rehearsal didn't play in time causing Carlotta to hold that last note for even longer and had to burst out into a rant with M. Reyer while waiting for the piano to play.  In the final lair, Ramin's suit got caught in the wire of the lasso after he let Raoul go and he was trying to shake it off while singing the role and had to just take off his suit and moved on with the show. These simply showed how professional these actors are in keeping the show going. Kudos to them!

Unmasked Phantom

At the end, it was clear that they were setting up the mood for "Love Never Dies". Usually Christine and Raoul will sing the final reprise of "All I Ask of You" to each other as they leave the Phantom, this time Christine sang "say you share with me one love, one lifetime" to the Phantom, then Raoul sang "say the word and I will follow you" as he escorted Christine out of the lair. I'm not sure if I liked that but it was an interesting take on the book. 

Then, it's time for the "Grand Finale". First, we had Andrew Lloyd Webber came out to make a brief speech and then invited the original creative team, the Royal Albert Hall creative team, the original London company and then the original Christine, Sarah Brightman. Jibb and I were really excited to see her and to hear her perform. 

The Composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber

The original Christine, Sarah Brightman

She sang "The Phantom of the Opera" alongside another 4 Phantoms: Colm Wilkinson (original Canadian Phantom), Anthony Warlow (original Australian Phantom), John Owen-Jones (current London Phantom) and Peter Joback (future London Phantom starting in March 2012). The first three Phantoms were absolutely perfect. Peter Joback, on the other hand, was clearly the weakest link of the bunch. Could he really perform the Phantom, I wonder? I wish they could have brought in another Phantom from the States, either Hugh Panaro or Howard McGillin would have been a real treat! Then, the four Phantoms and the ensemble went into "Music of the Night" with Ramin Karimloo joining in at the end and that concluded the event for us all. 

Sarah Brightman performed "The Phantom of the Opera"
with the 4 Phantoms

At curtain call (evening performance), then and now...
Sarah Brightman & Michael Crawford
and Sierra Boggess & Ramin Karimloo

The 6 Phantoms: Anthony Warlow, Ramin Karimloo, Michael Crawford
Colm Wilkinson, John Owen-Jones and Peter Joback

The event overall was still memorable, though I'd still prefer the London's Her Majesty's Theatre production over this. Despite some weak links in the cast and several mishaps, I was still able to enjoy the show a lot and am now looking forward to the DVD. For those of you who weren't there (or even if you were), the DVD of such a special event like this is a must for all musical fans!

The curtain call view from our seats in the circle

MUSICAL NUMBERS

ACT ONE

Prologue... Auctioneer, Raoul and Company

Overture... Orchestra

The Dress Rehearsal of Hannibal... Carlotta, Piangi and Company

Think of Me... Carlotta, Christine and Raoul

Angel of Music... Meg and Christine

Little Lotte/The Mirror (Angel of Music)... Raoul, Christine and The Phantom

The Phantom of the Opera... Christine and The Phantom

The Music of the Night... The Phantom

I Remember.../Stranger Than You Dreamt It... Christine and The Phantom

Magical Lasso... Buquet, Meg, Madame Giry and Ballet Girls

Notes/Prima Donna... Firmin, Andre, Raoul, Carlotta, Piangi, Madame Giry, Meg and The Phantom

Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh... Carlotta and Company

Why Have You Brought Me Here.../Raoul, I've Been There... Raoul and Christine

All I Ask of You... Raoul and Christine

All I Ask of You (Reprise)... The Phantom

ACT TWO

Entr' Acte... Orchestra

Masquerade... Company

Why So Silent... The Phantom

Backstage... Madame Giry

Notes II/Twisted Every Way... Firmin, Andre, Carlotta, Piangi, Raoul, Christine, Madame Giry and The Phantom

A Rehearsal for Don Juan Triumphant... Christine, Piangi, Carlotta, Reyer, Madame Giry and Company

Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again... Christine

Wandering Child.../Bravo, Bravo... The Phantom, Christine and Raoul

Don Juan Triumphant... Carlotta, Piangi, Passarino and Company

The Point of No Return... The Phantom and Christine

Down Once More.../Track Down This Murderer... Company

GRAND FINALE

The Phantom of the Opera... Sarah Brightman, Colm Wilkinson, Anthony Warlow, Peter Joback and John Owen-Jones

The Music of the Night... Colm Wilkinson, Anthony Warlow, Peter Joback, John Owen-Jones and Ramin Karimloo