The Phantom of the Opera - His Majesty's Theatre

The lack of attention to detail has been surprising. I wasn't expecting them to randomly cobble together a hybrid of Leicester and the original without trying to achieve some coherence, but that's what they've done. 

One example has already been discussed - which is the chandelier. I've had it confirmed from parties involved that there *was* a last-minute reversal and that it was never the intention for this chandelier to rise from the stage. But they had problems in getting the drapes sucked in and apparently ALW was not too happy with the change, rightly sensing audiences didn't want a non-rising-from-the-stage lighting fixture. Hence hours before curtain up, they prised the lyres off the old one (which was seen pictured outside the theatre) and stuck them on. But the result means a chandelier with a hole at the bottom and one that isn't collapsible, and looks rather cheaply painted.

Another example, which I had mentioned before but was dismissed, is the quality of the costumes. Since posters wanted evidence here it is.



On the left is what Christine's Masquerade costume should look like, representing twilight. On the right the current costume worn by Lucy St Louis. I shouldn't need to point out the lack of details, the neon colours, the absence of the beading etc...it's plainly obvious that budgets have been slashed for costumes too.

As another example of lack of attention to detail, not only does the removal of Hal Prince's black box and some of the statues without anything to compensate for it make the false curvature of the top part painfully obvious (rather than it looking integrated within the architecture of the theatre)...



...but they couldn't be bothered even to blend together the bits from the UK tour and the bits they salvaged from the original set! See below:



It's difficult to justify any of this when they had ample time in which to do it.

And yes, I know many audience members will not notice or care. Doesn't make this artistically a good decision. And overall, cumulatively, these little details add up (on top of the loss of the orchestra, the Angel, little details like the catwalk and the sliding of the candelabra) to a detrimental effect. And people wonder why posters get annoyed by this, when Cameron Mackintosh literally says in interviews that this is "even more opulent" than its predecessor and both the producers, rather offensively, say how this is honouring Prince and Björnson.

Have any board members managed to get any last minute walk up box office tickets at a bargain price or am I looking at paying full price? Thanks in advance.

Got to agree. The thing that always astonished me was the WEIGHT of those costumes. As well as being garish and undetailed, the new costume seems to just have nothing to it.

Not that I'm any kind of costume expert of course!

It’s the same attitude CM and ALW have for the whole production. Cheapen it because no one will notice the difference (as demonstrated by a lot of the discerning people on here!) and sod the artistic integrity of the original creatives.

No I think the word for it all is ‘CHEAPER’.

Having only seen POTO on tour in Manchester a few years ago and absolutely loving it, I decided to give the new WE version a watch as I’ve never seen it so I rolled up to the box office and got a £37.50 front row Grand Circle seat (A2) this afternoon. Despite there being swathes of empty seats both in the Grand Circle and stalls, no offers or cheap last minute deals were to be had unfortunately. Anyway, the seat was RV and I had to lean forward to see the bottom right hand side corner during the 2.5hrs.

With only the touring version to compare it to, this 2021 WE production left me really underwhelmed by the end by not delivering that WOW factor I felt watching it in Manchester. With the full main cast performing, vocally they delivered those fantastic numbers, and both Killian Donnelly and Lucy St. Louis gave knockout performances as the leads, unfortunately this wasn’t backed up by the orchestra. The 15 piece orchestra really felt underpowered and I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for that fantastic ALW score. I would have loved to have heard this score with the original orchestra because the cuts made in the pit really don’t do this score justice in its current format.

Whilst the set pieces such as the chandelier rising and falling and all the pyrotechnics were impressive from where I was sat, there was something about the staging that just left me cold. During the interval I was reading some the posts on this thread and then I realised what the issue for me was. The whole staging just felt too much like a Disney production and less of that gothic feel that the piece needs to deliver the tension and emotion as events unfold on stage. I couldn’t care about any of the characters and their outcomes.

I wouldn’t say the costumes looked cheap from where I was sat, but I can’t really make much comment on that without having a look at the original ones.

Overall, It’s ticked HM theatre off the list of theatres yet to visit even if the product didn’t do much for me. A really lovely theatre auditorium.

Also, BurlyBeaR , having a look at the merch on sale, I did notice they are selling the Phantom bears at £35 each 😮. Maybe an email to ALW might be in order to get some of the sales money from image rights?

Just seen this review online and whilst it gives the production 4 stars, it is actually quite critical of all the updates,especially the orchestra reduction.
britishtheatre.com/review-the-phantom-of-the-opera-her-majestys-theatre-london/

Well supposedly you can see the original Broadway production which has not undergone any revisions/updates and have made a big deal about the orchestra not being reduced when it re-opens.  Never imagined that in the US we would have a superior ALW production to the West End.  I suppose it's true that COVID has literally turned the world upside down

The last time I saw the show in New York, it was looking absolutely pristine. It was a last minute choice as Kevin Klein's show was dark that night, and it was impossible to get ticket's to Patti Lupone's show. The Majestic stage and house are larger than Her Majesty's, so the evening didn't seem as intimate as in London. But as I said, it was in excellent shape physically. I honestly preferred the London company that year - even though you obviously had the long time cast members, everyone was in the moment, and even the teeny bits of stage business that might not be seen by many were absolutely spot on. The B'way company did some good singing, and I'll leave it at that. I mean, London was absolutely magical compared to New York or other cities where I've seen sitting and touring productions. Those actors absolutely demonstrated they deserved to be on a West End stage.

There also happens to be a officially recorded pro-shot done by RUG back in the 90s, I think it's on YouTube somewhere.

This was recorded prior to the movie release, and on the deluxe DVD edition of the movie there are some clips from this pro-shot shown. To my knowledge it still hasn't been leaked in trading circles, which is astonishing really.