The Phantom of the Opera - His Majesty's Theatre

Oh, another thing I’ve not seen mentioned here yet… the part of the proscenium that kinda fixed itself in mid-air during the overture, and rose up to join the rest. I did think that was cool.

They said that?! So they really were aware of the social media noise.

That doesn't clear up the mystery though of the old-style chandelier outside the building a few weeks ago. I wonder if it's just gone backstage as a memento. The Hamburg revival had the original Angel backstage as a good luck charm.

I think Björnson's estate is generally hands off. The person who runs her archive told me that if the show uses her name, then the estate would have had to approve it. However, that doesn't mean the estate always knows what was going on. The Connor tour claimed they were using her costumes but in many cases altered them substantially or introduced new ones entirely (e.g. the Red Death). When that got back to the estate, they were not amused and CML had to modify the wording of the credits as a result.

I don't know what the deal is since Hal died. His estate wouldn't receive the huge cut of the gross any more that Hal negotiated when he was alive as that was for run of show (though it'll still apply to the Bway production while it lasts).

The previous version (to me) felt dusty, dark, bleak at times, and some of the mechanics of the theatre - whilst charming- felt clunky and cumbersome. I knew tonight would feel more modern, fresher - the lighting was excellent in particular. I also wasn't a huge fan of the big drapes, do was glad to see them go. It's subjective - I feel great about aspects of the new version, but there's bits I'm less fond of and I can't put my finger on it, other than to say I fully understand why purists or fans of the original show are so upset. I'm happy with the new version but was never fully wedded to the old version to care enough about the inevitable changes. The most noticeable change for me was the music, and I did believe that they could bridge the gap. I was wrong. Perhaps it needs to bed in and they can use some of their clever surround wizardry to create a fuller spectrum of sound.

To be fair, the set was in terrible need of being re-created. A few years ago now, I had the misfortune of seeing David Shannon as The Phantom. I really disliked his performance (nothing against him personally or his voice - I just didn't like his Phantom.) This left me with some time to look around the theatre. Frankly, it was filthy. Shockingly dirty. The sets were dusty. Some peeling. It did look... old. But then, maybe that was part of the charm.

Speaking of charm - is the chandelier still pushed off stage at the start and caught when it comes back down? << actually one of my favourite things about the show!

No, it’s a horizontal piece of the top of the proscenium. I didn’t notice where it appeared from, presumably rose up amidst all the curtains etc during the overture. It looked snapped in 2, and broken at the end, but as it rose it straightened out, and the end rotated to fix itself. It then continued up and joined the rest of the set (I assume, as it was out of my view by that point).

Yes but as stated before the key issue was maintenance of the theatre as a whole. The production was never designed to last as long as 35 years, so there's little wonder that the underlying theatre itself needed a repair job that couldn't be done while the production was running. At that point, when you accept that you need to temporarily close the show, rip it out to fix the theatre itself, it becomes an interesting debate over what is best to go back in - as we've seen played out over the last year or so.

Personally, it would have been best had they sorted the technology they wanted to do out but then have it visually identical to the previous version. Obviously that hasn't happened, but it sounds from tonight on here that the show has been butchered less than some corners were worrying.

And the issue with lighting is just the nature of LED unfortunately, you can dim them and soften the edges but the quality of light is different. At home if you replace a filiment bulb with an LED one you'll notice the difference no matter how much the packaging originally said you wouldn't. Also much more energy efficient (and therefore environmentally friendly), FWIW.

Ha, no surprise the public don’t know Charles Hart, no disrespect to him, he is actually a very likeable person. But there is no getting away from it - I cannot think of anyone else in theatre that has done so well, by doing so little.

He has the best pension scheme in the industry, he kind of retired 35 years ago at the age of 25!!!

Good luck to him.

Thanks for the explanation re the LED.

Re the show being less butchered than some corners were worrying...I'm not sure. I think everything that was said a year ago has pretty much come to pass, the exception being the chandelier. 

Fair point - to be honest it's extremely difficult to work that out from a first preview and a reasonably small range of commentators who were actually there.

I don't have the time or inclination to go back and try to piece together every mooted change and if it seems to have come to pass. I'll gut judge it when I eventually get down to 'er Maj's.

Unfortunately when the production was last performed, in 2016, it was stated that that would be its final outing.