InsaneJournal

Current mood:	nostalgic
Current music:	MC Lars - Space Game

holy crap, I got to use the 'nostalgic' mood setting
I usually keep the TV on while I work at night, for background noise after Pie's gone to bed. Tonight, Ovation was showing a special on the making of "The Phantom of the Opera" (the stage version) and I just had to witness that.

Man, I loved that show when I was about 14. Seriously, I lived and breathed it. Had I known what fandom was, POTO would have been my first fandom.

But looking at it 12 years later...damn, that's a lot of hilariously bad '80's cheese. And I'm very glad I didn't know what fandom was back then, because Phantom fans are crazypants.



- Man, I need to visit Paris someday. The Opera House is fantastic-looking. I find theaters fascinating anyway - I loved hanging out in my admittedly pedestrian high school theater - and I would pay good money to wander at will through the Paris Opera.

- I feel kinda bad for the guy who was originally supposed the play the Phantom. I mean, he was rather unceremoniously dumped in favor of Michael Crawford. And his voice wasn't bad, it was just the wrong type of voice. He was too much of a pop star to play the lead of a show set in an opera, y'know?

- I always feel bad for the character of Raoul. He gets dumped on so much, and he's just this nice guy, trying to reconnect with his childhood sweetheart, seeing her taken advantage of by some shady character who lives in a basement, and getting in way over his head. I like that Leroux's original novel is from Raoul's POV, it helps the story a lot.

- Speaking of Raoul and the novel and such, reading the novel spoiled the musical for me. I saw the musical first when I was 12, then I read the book, then I saw it again at 18. The entire time, I was thinking "NO! Not right! The Phantom is not a nice guy - and Christine is actually quite smart and not a helpless fainting thing, and Raoul isn't a preening camp hero! Read the book, people!" (Book! Christine is quite impressive, really. There's one great scene where she quite magnificently Does Not Take Any Shit from Raoul, and he's left confused and mopey. It's brilliant.)

- svalar_unnir has reminded me that there's a sequel in the works. WHY DID YOU DO THAT. I now want to steal the Les Miserables in Concert DVD I gave to my dad, and watch it on repeat until the WIN washes the FAIL from my mind.

- Speaking of Les Mis, Colm Wilkinson was a fantastic Valjean. He was not a fantastic Phantom. Hell, IIRC, Antonio Banderas did a better job when he sang at Andrew Lloyd Webber's birthday gala. (Banderas at least can sound suitably sinister.)

- Watching the show footage, I'm wondering if the Phantom ever wore anything but formalwear. During the daytime hours, does he schlub around the cellars in ratty shorts and a T-shirt? Is there a battered couch, a case of Nati Light, and a Playstation hidden behind the candles and organ and fog machine?

- I have finally figured out why I can't think of Sarah Brightman as pretty. She looks like my hippie printmaking prof, right down to the frizzy 80s hair.

- They ended the program by interviewing the crazy adult fangirls who obsess over the show (and the Phantom). WHO has the money to see POTO 200+ times? Who has the money to see any Broadway show that many times? My first ticket cost $65, and that was in 1996. (Dork check - I can verify the date, as I have the ticket stub, stashed with all my other Broadway stubs, in a music box that plays "Masquerade". Yes, you may laugh at me now.) I can't even imagine what tickets go for nowadays.

- Also, lol@ the lady who thought Christine made a "bad call" by going with Raoul. The Phantom was a SOCIOPATH. He thought it jolly good fun to torture people, brought half a ton of chandelier down on someone's head, and threatened to blow the entire Opera House sky-high. Not to mention the bit where he constantly plays on Christine's grief to manipulate his way into her life. Yes, he is sympathetic, and the audience is meant to see why Christine continues to be drawn to him. But he's also BUGNUT CRAZY, and we're also supposed to see why running off to marry nice, safe, non-brainwashy Raoul is a good idea.

The Phantom is a textbook Nice Guy. Huh.


Well, after all that tl;dr, I will end by saying that I'd still lop off my left arm to be able to sing like that. :D