The Phantom of the Opera

Have a little A2K poster.

Tastes like a roaster.

I love the Phantom CD with Brightman, Crawford and Steve Barton. I loved the stage production I saw and went to see the movie prepared to be disappointed. To the contrary - I thought it was an excellent movie. As LW said, the Masquerade scene in the movie was superb.


And since it's been mentioned, I also love Sweeney Todd and Jekyll & Hyde.

LW: Don't forget:

"Songs from Jekyll & Hyde have been featured at the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the WNBA Championships, Miss America Pageants, the 1996 Democratic National Convention and the Inauguration of President Clinton (sung by Jennifer Holliday). Selections such as "Someone Like You," "A New Life," and "This Is The Moment" have been performed and recorded in a variety of musical styles and arrangements, by artists such as Liza Minelli, The Moody Blues, Dennis DeYoung, Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner, Donny Osmond, Lea Salonga, and many more. "

But getting back to the Phantom -

I'll not compare the movie soundtrack with the original stage production, but I was not disappointed in, and thoroughly enjoyed, the movie and am glad you did, too, Bella Dea. My daughter bought me the DVD.

Liza Minnelli? You mean she croaked that one out for her fans? Sorry, but can't even bear to listen to Liza over the past decade. She's just plain lost it. The other artists are equally expendable.

"This Is The Moment" has to be one of the most banal showtunes I've ever heard. Just do not like that score. The musical simply isn't in the same league as "Phantom" or "Sweeney Todd." Even mentioning it in the same breath as any Sondheim out winces fingernails on a blackboard.

But back to the Phantom, I think it excelled as a musical and a dramatic experience. The acting was a great deal better than one finds in musicals. The lack of acting performances is, among other things, what diminished "A Chorus Line" which was the film that effectively put the last nail in the coffin for musicals, lasting almost three decades.

The Phantom in the movie is, as Letty said, sort of in a different light. I think he is sexy as hell (with his mask on of course!) and every time he talks to Christine he is making love to her. I never felt that way with Crawford. I liked the character he played but I didn't fall in love with him.

The relationship between Rossum and Butlers characters versus Brightman and Crawford are noticablly different in my opinion. The relationship between Brightman and Crawford is far more innocent in my opinion, although not innocent like her relationship with Raoul. You can even hear it in the way they sing to each other.

The Point of No Return is a perfect example. Despite the fact that the song is part of the musical, it is actually talking about Christine and the Phantom, and in the movie you can see on Christine's face the moment she slips from reality and falls under the spell of the Phantom.

Christine is singing in response to the Phantom and after telling him, yes she has decided and he has won her she sings:

Past the point
of no return -
no going back now:
our passion-play
has now, at last,
begun . . .
Past all thought
of right or wrong -
one final question:
how long should we
two wait, before
we're one . . .?
When will the blood
begin to race
the sleeping bud
burst into bloom?
When will the flames,
at last, consume
us . . .?

The way she sings this part is pure lust. It's that moment that she goes from innocent girl to woman. I never felt that with Brightman. I can't remember if on stage they are as sexual as they are in the movie but when he flips her around and grabs her it is really hot.

You are right -- I did not get the intense romantic connection between Christine and the Phantom in any stage performance. It revealed a whole new aspect to the musical and some reviewers thought the score was an extraneous interruption to a very unique romance. It establishes almost the same romantic tension as in "Brokeback Mountain" and how could two films be so unlike one another?

Some critics were not flattering to Patrick Wilson's portrayal of Raoul but I thought it was right on target. This is "The Phantom of the Opera," not "The Financier of the Opera."

I think his performance was a bit weaker than the others but it didn't bother me because Raoul is not suppose to be the larger than life character the Phantom was. He was the innocent love of Christine's childhood.

I think the director wanted what he got. He is one one of the few openly gay directors and it certainly shows. Patrick Wilson, incidentally, was the love interest of two characters in "Angels in America," a woman and a man. In "Phantom" he communicated an empathy towards the Phantom but he wanted Christine as much as the Phantom.

This is one of the few films that got roundly panned by the critics (around 30% favorable reviews at RottenTomatoes.com) which I liked a lot -- I think these reviewers are missing the Broadway musical gene.