The Phantom of the Opera - His Majesty's Theatre

Finally going to see the new production tonight, snapped up a plum stalls seat for £52.30 via TKTS. Nervous but excited...

I had tickets to see it a couple of weeks ago but as it was the tube strike rebooked for next week.
Last time I saw the show was 1985!!

Interval. Soulless.

First (and probably last) visit to the new Phantom of the Opera. Not because it was poor - it wasn't. It was familiar to such an extent that I felt I was watching a below-average performance of the original production. With my favourite bit taken out.

The changes are for the worse. A few line changes, all the same technical shortcomings and dated visual effects. Nothing rubbish about the original has been fixed.

Close up, everything was sparkling and new. The sets, the costumes - it felt like everything was fresh. It looked great in that regard; "Masquerade" earned well deserved gasps from those around me. It was beautiful.

But nothing has changed which could and should have been improved upon. The cheap pyro, the naffness of the player piano, the Phantom's fireballs etc are identical. Perhaps not in timing, but certainly in visual effect. The flashbangs on the chandelier were rubbish. I literally can tell what they bought, from where and how much each bang costs. I don't want that from this show.

It sounds worse musically than before. Some numbers feel seriously underpowered by the reduced orchestra.

The highlight was Masquerade, mainly because it didn't depend on the leads (both first covers) who were underwhelming to put it politely. I had hoped to see Lucy St. Louis, but I knew in advance that I was seeing Holly-Anne Hull. And she was bang average.

Slightly below average was our Phantom, James Gant. I had seen and enjoyed Gant covering Javert previously, this is a step too far. A naturally deep voice, every high note was a battle of will for him and the nerves were palpable. Sadly, those nerves got the better of him tonight with several very duff notes in The Music of the Night and The Point of No Return. Given the role has so little live singing, this isn't what I hoped for. He blew the final note in MotN so badly that the MD went into double time to just end it. Sadly, a few of his band weren't paying attention and a blown note was accompanied by half the band playing one tempo and the rest another. It was uncomfortable.

There was some click-track weirdness at times too. Everything musically was a little off.

But none of that would've mattered if the performances were right, and they weren't. Holly-Anne Hull was shrill and pitchy, understudy Carlotta Lily-de-la-Haye did well with comic moments and has a good enough voice, but absolutely no sense of timing. Gant, with a booming bassy baritone was the voice of the evening, with zero stage presence and some nasty errors.

Key moments fell flat. The horse in the Act I finale is a massive downgrade. It was also very annoying hearing the squeaky casters from 6-7 rows back. It shouldn't happen. WD40 is in your workroom, I know for a fact.

So I am glad to have seen it, it's another Phantom on the list and a new production (technically). I've seen worse but this was not a great evening of theatre.

Like I said at the interval, it felt soulless.

you had James Gant who is 1st cover Phantom!

Lots of points echoed in that review, Masquerade did indeed look great - dare I say better than the original production. Are you sure you saw James Gant, he really vocally struggled at times when I saw him and it wasn't the sort of thing you'd neglect to mention. Maybe you saw Ashley Stillburn?

Killian does seem to be off a lot.

Definately wasn't Killian as I've seen him perform in Kinky Boots and The Commitments so would recognise him (even with the mask).

Does Stillburn have any confirmed dates? Not a fan of Gant or Killian

Guessing not, since it's taken him 7 months as u/s for him to have his first performance. 

I've seen James Gant as Phantom before, and he was vocally one of the strongest Phantoms I've seen, so maybe you just saw him on an off night.

It was James yesterday, he's been posting on Instagram about it all week.  Having seen Killian and James, I prefer James massively (based on the performances I saw).

Which is what we were saying back in 2020 when this was all announced in contradictory language, and I'm sad to be vindicated. This was nothing about making the show "bigger and better" or "for the 21st century", and everything about slashing costs at the expense of the show's integrity. The more I hear and see of this the less inclined I am to bother. Hadn't even realised that the Christine mannequin, which used to match the actress playing the role, is now just a silver dummy that looks like an inflatable sex toy.

Saw the show on Saturday afternoon with James Gant as Phantom. We also had understudies for Carlotta and Meg. Lily De-La-Haye as Carlotta had a beautiful voice and the end of Lucy's Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again quite deservedly got a huge round of applause and was the highlight of the show for me. There were a fair few empty seats along the sides of the dress circle where I was. Had an aspiring Christine sat near me singing along at some of the more well-known moments, quite a lot of people around me were on their phones at various times during the show and one who stayed on their phone (thankfully with dimmed light) for the entire time. They seat latecomers during the overture while the chandelier is rising which is a bit of a shame if you're sat behind people just coming in at that time but I imagine there isn't a more suitable time for latecomers to enter other than perhaps at the interval. Really friendly box office and front of house staff at the theatre.